Sharks Know They Must Be Better but Are Still Confident of Turnaround

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Looks of panic? No. Looks of concern? Yeah, a few.

There weren't many smiles and no discernible laughter inside the San Jose Sharks dressing room at their practice facility Friday. While the Sharks are happy to be back home and excited about playing a Stanley Cup Final game on home ice for the first time in team history Saturday, they are not happy campers at being down two games to none to a deep, fast and highly skilled Pittsburgh Penguins club.

The Sharks are in must-win territory already. If they don't win Game 3 at SAP Arena, the engraver of the Stanley Cup can start to practice chiseling first names such as "Sidney" and "Evgeni" and "Phil."

"Sure, there's pressure. But we can't go out and play uptight. We've just got to go out and play a good hockey game," said Sharks forward Joe Thornton, surrounded by reporters. "We're still a very confident team. We've played great at home, and we just have to come out and play and see what happens. When all 20 guys on our team play good, we win. When all 20 guys don't, we lose. But we know we have to be better."

The Sharks have to find a way to slow down the Penguins, and one way to do that is to get on their defense quicker on the forecheck. In the first two games in Pittsburgh, Penguins defenders were able to get the puck out of their end too easily, either skating it out themselves or with passes. Expect the Sharks to put a bigger premium on getting in quicker on the forecheck, even if that risks more odd-man breakouts should the Penguins effectively evade checks.

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

"We've got to spend more time in their end," Sharks veteran Joel Ward said. "We've got to pin them more in their end zone and just get on the puck better and have more support on the puck."

When they have had the puck, Thornton said, they haven't done enough smart things with it.

"Our breakouts have to be better, our passes have to be better. We can't turn the puck over in the neutral zone, because they can hurt you," Thornton said.

According to War On Ice, Pittsburgh's Corsi percentage in Game 2 was 52, while in Game 1 it was 57. Pittsburgh has attempted 128 shots to San Jose's 107. 

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"We just have to keep building our game," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. "We were better in Game 2 than we were in Game 1.  I think we'll be better tomorrow than we were in Game 2."

The Sharks may have to play Game 3 without Tomas Hertl. He did not practice Friday, though DeBoer termed his absence as just a "maintenance day." "He's got a little something that's kept him off. We'll see how everyone is tomorrow."

Hertl had trouble skating after a collision with Pittsburgh's Patric Hornqvist in Game 2. 

The Sharks were down early in the Western Conference Final against St. Louis, but only by one game. This is the first time in the postseason they have faced a two-game deficit. 

"We know we have some work to do, in a little bit of a hole right now," Sharks forward Logan Couture said. "But nobody's hanging their heads in here. We know we got this far by being a very good team and we're still a very good team. We just have to do the things we do best starting tomorrow, and I think we'll be OK."

If not, the engraver can start memorizing those spellings of Pittsburgh players.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report