The Vancouver Canucks eliminated the San Jose Sharks in double overtime of game five tonight, securing their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 17 years. The Sharks are once again left with the thought of what could have been, the ghost of missed opportunities, the mirage of an oasis that is always just a stone's throw away. And when they get there, only the dry sands of the Sahara will quench their thirst.

It tastes like poison. But once that poison that has begun to coarse through your veins subsides, the promise of what could be will reign supreme. For some it takes days. For others, weeks. And for a select few, tonight will be the night that broke the camel's back. The pain and longing too much to take, horshoes and shuffleboard their new sport of choice.

Wherever you stand, we bid you adieu.

These are the most difficult stories to write throughout the course of a season for the sole fact that they are the most difficult games to watch. This year, it's different. In a subtle way, but in a meaningful one nonetheless.

Tonight the San Jose Sharks played their best game of this entire series, putting 56 shots on net without an answer for the ever-maligned and completely under-appreciated Roberto Luongo. Joe Thornton led the team in ice time, playing 32:15 with a separated shoulder sustained in game four, and all four lines poured it on the Canucks defensive zone. It was their best performance since game seven against Detroit, and definitely was one of their best front to back games in the entire postseason.

Where this series was lost was in game four. That was the game that got away, the one where the Sharks blew an opportunity to put themselves in a position to win. Instead, they put themselves in a position to be subject to a fluke bounce off the stanchion in the second overtime in Vancouver. The circle was complete. Or perhaps it was game five against Detroit, where an opportunity to end the series was ripped apart with a third period meltdown. But wherever that great unraveling began, whatever the origin of another failed season that came up just short, those trite and fatigued cliches that populate the sporting world were on full display in game five.

There was nothing left on the table tonight. They emptied the tank, yanked out their hearts, and played with a conviction that you didn't believe was possible.

San Jose didn't deserve the fate they got tonight. But life doesn't pay attention to such conventions, and sport, well sport most certainly does not.

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@ 6:00 PST

Watching the San Jose Sharks over the last eight games has reminded me a lot of their six game losing streak back in the middle of January. This is not to suggest they've taken a step backwards in their game--although, to be fair, it's hard not to suggest that they have-- but merely to illustrate just what they face tonight in Vancouver.

During that six game losing streak the San Jose Sharks struggled and dominated, beat themselves and just got beat. It mirrors what we've seen from the team lately, and honestly, exemplifies exactly what this sport is all about. Game four against Detroit was a back and forth affair that could have gone either way, game five was a dominant effort erased by fifteen minutes of breakdowns, game six could have been a blowout if not for the brilliance of Antti Niemi, and game seven was a well-matched game that saw the Sharks control more portions of the tilt than not.

Game one against Vancouver was well-matched until the end of the second, game two was back and forth until the fateful third period reared its ugly head, game three shouldn't have been as close as it was, and game four was a heartbreaker.

In San Jose's last eight games where they have gone 2-6 they have played three great games and have only gotten severely outplayed once. The other four they found ways to beat themselves, either by having a mental lapse in a single period or failing to capitalize on their opportunities. Credit both Detroit and Vancouver for being excellent opponents that are able to take advantage of course (which is something that is always hard to do when you're writing for a specific audience), but those breakdowns are just as much a product of the opposing team as they are San Jose's own failures.

The Sharks best chance to win this series was Sunday afternoon. What I mean by this is that the difference between a 3-1 series hole and a series deadlocked at two couldn't be more profound, couldn't be more glaring for a team. You win game four and you're heading into Vancouver with the tables turned, the Canucks facing a must-win in their own barn with the immense pressure of that rabid fanbase and media seeping under the wooden doors and strangling the life out of every animate and inanimate object in that locker room. And in your back pocket you have that game six in San Jose, a place where you know the fans are going to be so loud they will be blowing the roof into orbit from the drop of the puck.

But as this organization has a tendency to do, they're taking the most painful route possible in order to get there. As Han Solo once said, "Never tell me the odds! I'm a Sharks fan, they would have killed me by now."

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Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan loves to talk about opportunity.

Whether it be a shift to start a period, the rush of adrenaline leading up to a tilt, or a specific moment in a game where one play can swing the momentum in a positive direction, opportunity is all around us. Both in life as well as this great sport we love.

Opportunity didn't evade San Jose today. San Jose evaded opportunity.

"When you look at our execution, our passing, our face-offs, opportunities to win pucks, you start breaking out all the time," McLellan said. "And when you're against the number one penalty kill in the League, you have to be sharp. And we weren't. It was as simple as that."

San Jose's power play, which came into today's game functioning at an unworldly 46% rate, had numerous opportunities to bury the Canucks early-- Vancouver was dinged for five penalties in the first twenty four minutes of the game. In other words, San Jose played nearly half of the first period and beginning of the second with the man advantage. But San Jose couldn't convert-- entries into the zone were a sloppy affair as the Sharks drove middle and couldn't complete the kick out to the half wall, passing after gaining the zone was tentative and in small spaces, traffic in front of Roberto Luongo was lighter than an apple walnut salad, and a tenaciousness that will define a team's ability to go for the jugular was nonexistent.

The Sharks had the Canucks on the ropes, the crowd roaring as the finishing moves were promised but never applied. The three count that could have been.

"We just didn't execute. I think it was us. They had a strong stance at the blueline, they had four accross," Logan Couture said between gritted teeth. "We tried different things, we tried to force pucks. We just didn't execute."

Although the lack of conversion is likely to be laid at the feet of San Jose, credit Vancouver's penalty kill for regaining the swagger that made them the best shorthanded unit in the League during the regular season. Roberto Luongo was a big part of the Canucks win tonight, shutting the door on the chances San Jose had while giving up a very limited amount of rebounds throughout the tilt. When he did kick out a rebound Vancouver's strong defensive unit was up to the task, clearing pucks from the dangerous areas of the ice.

"I think we just did our job. It's what the PK has to do, we have to outwork the power play. I think from the first period in game three on we did what we wanted to do and continued it," Canucks center Ryan Kesler said. "It's tough [to start off the game with 5 penalties] but we have to do it."

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@ 12:00 PST

As Ray Ratto mentioned yesterday, Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan is keeping a little bit of doom in the air despite a largely dominating performance by his club in game three. As much as that mentality is due to the self-inflicted adversity San Jose always seems to put themselves into, the seven game series against Detroit being the most pertinent example of this phenomena, it is also a product of their current situation. The difference between a series that has the hometown heroes in a 3-1 hole versus one that sees them even at two is as big as they come in postseason hockey, making game four the most crucial game in any given series in terms of historical data.

It's likely that the whistles won't be as rampant as they were on Friday-- a whopping 26:09 of the game was played with one team shorthanded in game three, with the two teams combining for 17 power play opportunities between them. This puts even more of a premium on even strength scoring and pushing the play in the right direction, an area that San Jose's top line of Marleau-Thornton-Setoguchi has had success with this series while the rest of the roster has not. The second line has been largely ineffective in large portions of the play, the third line struggling as well.

Which could all change in game four.

Vancouver's blueline depth will be tested quite heavily this afternon as Christian Ehrhoff and Aaron Rome, who were both knocked out of action in game three by Jamie McGinn, are not expected to play. In their stead will be Keith Ballard and Andrew Alberts, two defenseman who have undergone their fair share of trials and tribulations while wearing the Canucks uniform.

Ballard, who was acquired from the Florida Panthers for Calder nominee Michael Grabner, former Shark Steve Bernier, and Vancouver's first round pick in 2011, has had a tenuous season filled with injuries (surgery in the offseason, concussion in October, sprained MCL in February) which brought with it a severe reduction in playing time. Throughout his career Ballard has been a constant face in Florida's and Phoenix's top four, regularly averaging 20+ minutes a night-- in Vancouver however, Ballard has been regulated to a third pairing role, averaging 13:19 in the seven postseason games in which he has made an appearance (five of which came against Chicago).

The Province has more:

"Fair or unfair, that's the reality I'm faced with on mistakes," [Ballard] says. "Some guys like Hank and Danny can turn the puck over but because they're putting up 100 points they're obviously going to get more room and mistakes may not affect them as much. There's not a lot of room for error for me, that's the bottom line."

Everyone can see it's been a stacked deck against Ballard for most of the season and it has seemed that every time he's been taken out of the lineup, he's come back and played even worse. Whereas the Canucks had hoped to bring him along from his surgery on his hip this past summer to a point where he'd be constantly improving by this point, instead it's been a season of further erosion in his game.

>> The Province

All that being said, Ballard is still a more than serviceable NHL defenseman, and could likely play on San Jose's top four right now if given the opportunity. Ehrhoff's offensive instincts will no doubt be sorely missed, especially considering he's been outplaying San Jose's third paring by leaps and bounds, but Ballard gives the Canucks enough scoring pop to temper the severity of Ehrhoff's loss.

The real issue for Vancouver is the insertion of Andrew Alberts into the lineup.

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According to Dave Lozo of NHL.com Sharks forward Jamie McGinn will not be suspended for his hit on Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome. The hit took place in the third period of game three in the Western Conference Finals.

Aaron Rome did not return to the game following the hit, having to be helped off the ice by team doctor Bill Regan and an assorted group of Canucks' trainers.

McGinn was assessed a five minute boarding major and a game misconduct on the play.

Here is what the NHL rulebook states in regards to boarding penalties.

41.1 Boarding – A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player or goalkeeper who checks an opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards. The severity of the penalty, based upon the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee.

There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the Referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a vulnerable position and if so, he must avoid the contact. However, there is also a responsibility on the player with the puck to avoid placing himself in a dangerous and vulnerable position. This balance must be considered by the Referees when applying this rule.

41.2 Minor Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a minor penalty, based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, to a player guilty of boarding an opponent.

41.3 Major Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a major penalty, based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, to a player guilty of boarding an opponent (see 41.5).

41.4 Match Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent by boarding.

41.5 Game Misconduct Penalty - When a major penalty is imposed under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent, a game misconduct shall be imposed.

Video and thoughts after the jump.

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They say that a team is never in trouble in a series until they lose a game at home. Trailing the Vancouver Canucks two games to none in the Western Conference Finals, the Sharks surely didn't want to put themselves in an even more difficult position.

Indeed, the Sharks did start the game the same way they started game seven against Detroit; they had their legs, they skated hard and they took hold of the game.

"Obviously the crowd gives you a bit of a lift but the way we played was just a lot of energy. We skated very well, got some 2 on 1's, some breakaways, which was very different from the last two games," Clowe said. "It was us putting pucks in places where we could get them back, executing, the power play was sharp early. I thought it was more of us just playing our game, the jump and energy we had was different than the last few games."

As a result of their dominance in possession, the Sharks were able to draw Vancouver into ten minor penalties in the game. The power play had really been one of the only things working for San Jose through the first two games of the series, converting at a 46% rate after tonight. Three out of the four total goals San Jose scored tonight came from the man advantage, proving to be the difference in the game.

Two of those goals came in the first period, but the most important score came in the third. 6:46 in Joe Thornton, who had three assists on the night, found Dan Boyle on the point. Boyle put a low shot through traffic that beat Roberto Luongo five-hole.

"That power play was the difference at the end of the night," stated Sharks coach Todd McLellan.

Thornton and Boyle weren't the only Sharks stars to have big nights offensively. Patrick Marleau chipped in three points of his own including a power play goal four minutes in to start the scoring and a beautiful breakaway goal in the second. 

Marleau, who has been the focus of much of the hockey world after some less than complimentary words dolled out by now analyst Jeremey Roenick, has been on a scoring spree since Game Seven of the Western Conference Semifinals. Marleau now has five goals in the last four games, four of which have come in this series against Vancover. He was, however, quick to point out that his increased statistical production after Roenick's criticism was nothing more than a cooincidence.

"Things are just starting to go in. I'm playing with some pretty good players, obviously the best passer in the League," Marleau said while nodding to Thornton on his left. "I'm getting to some good areas, he's finding me, and pucks are starting to go in."

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@ 6:00 PST

This is an easy post to write.

Game three, 2-0 series deficit, embarrassed on Wednesday, penalties galore, lack of details, historical numbers telling us the high seed has won 92.3% of series when leading 3-1 in a series.

Ladies and gentleman, the Sharks are staring right down the barrel of a must-win. And regardless of what the scoreboard reads tonight at roughly 9:00 PM Pacific, they'll be facing another one of these fickle games again on Sunday afternoon.

Ah yes, the perils of playoff hockey. Ever present in our cerebral cortex, itching and clawing their way forwards as they drive the average Joe to insanity.

There's been a fair amount of discussion on the penalty differential this series, and while the majority of you know my stance on officiating (you play the hand you're dealt, calls even out over the course of a series, keep your head down and play through it's what the best teams do), the subject deserves to be broached again.

There's no doubt Henrik Sedin's high stick on Joe Thornton deserved a four minute minor. No doubt it could have changed the pace and flow of the game. However, to use that as a crutch to explain away the large issues plaguing this team right now seems quite shortsighted to me. For starters, the San Jose Sharks aren't the first team in the history of the NHL to be at the whim of the officials-- every single team throughout the League deals with it during their respective postseasons. It is part of the human element in sports, and until that goes away when our eventual robot overlords begin their reign over mankind and hold daily Colosseum esque sporting events (Ben Eager-- top ten pick), that's here to stay.

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In retrospect, probably should have held off writing an article about the Sharks penalty kill until after game two.

Vancouver's power play went 3 for 7 on the night, including a pair of beauties from the Sedin line, putting the game out of reach in the third period. The Canucks would go on to score four times in that fateful third, cementing San Jose's 2-0 series deficit after Daniel Sedin put home a pass from brother Henrik at the 11:41 mark of the third period.

Logan Couture had a brilliant move to open up the scoring, taking a nice chip pass from Dany Heatley as he drove middle to the net. Going forehand, backhand, and back to the forehand again, Couture slammed home the puck past Roberto Luongo to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead two and half minutes into the tilt.

The lead wouldn't last for long however, as Vancouver would come roaring back at the mid-period mark. Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin played tic tac toe in the high slot with the Sharks defense scrambling, leading to a smart shot that just managed to squeeze under the blocker arm of Niemi. A mere thirty nine seconds later the Canucks would strike again as Christian Ehrhoff jumped into the play and executed a nice centering pass to find the increasingly dangerous Raffi Torres in front of the net for the goal.

San Jose would even the score before the end of the first, with Patrick Marleau banging home a loose puck in front of Roberto Luongo that held up due to video review.

The first period was an up and down affair for both clubs as scoring chances were traded with abandon throughout. The Sharks were counterpunching well and, outside of the ever dangerous Canucks blueline's ability to lead the rush and activate in the offensive zone (Christian Ehrhoff in particular, whose assist tonight was matched only by his assist on the Henrik Sedin's GWG in game one), looked to be able to hang with Vancouver.

The first half of the second period started off at a slow and manageable pace, something that San Jose will undoubtedly try to re-enact in HP Pavilion on Friday night. But midway through the third period the tides began to shift-- following a TV timeout the Canucks began to push the play, ringing a pair of shots off the post. The third time would be the charm for Vancouver however, with this play ultimately signaling the end of San Jose's game two opportunity to get back into the game.

On an innocent looking breakout that had the Sharks and Canucks both completed with their line changes moments before, Dan Hamhuis waited behind the net with the puck. Sending the puck up to Chris Higgins at the blueline, the entire Sharks unit overpursued that first outlet pass in the neutral zone, leaving a wide open hole on the far side that Bieksa jumped into as Marleau and Setoguchi allowed him to hit the center line with speed. Bieksa took the tape to tape pass on his stick and cruised into the Sharks zone unmolested, rifling a shot past Niemi to give Vancouver a 3-2 lead.

The Canucks wouldn't look back.

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