Now that the emotions have subsided from last Friday’s 3-2 overtime win by Los Tiburones over the Stars, a review is in order. A huge part of the third-period comeback was how the forwards and defense finally got on the same page. Earlier in the game, whenever the puck was in San Jose’s end the forwards seemed to be more interested in watching the action than actually participating in same, while for their part the defense was staying so far behind Dallas’ blue line whenever the puck had crossed same they might as well have been on the bench for all the help they weren’t providing. Certainly you don’t want to be caught pinching in with this leading to an odd man rush the other way. But three on five isn’t going to generate a whole lot of offense, to put it mildly.
Brian Campbell, who has struggled mightily throughout the playoffs, picked his play up big time; his dash to score was a thing of beauty. When he is on his game — making accurate passes to start plays and posing a constant threat to join in the play himself — a defense can’t concentrate solely on Joe Thornton or Jonathan Cheechoo or Patrick Marleau or Milan Michalek, etc. Obviously you have to be smart, but when the Sharks defense is actively participating in the offense along with the forwards fully supporting the defense… well, you get third periods and overtimes like last Friday.
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