Sharks' Stifling Team Defense Keeps Getting Better After 2nd Straight Shutout

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Right now, St. Louis is tangled up in blue. Teal, to be technical about it.

The San Jose Sharks engulfed the Blues offense again, shutting them out for the second straight game, 3-0 in Game 3 of the NHL's Western Conference Final to take a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is Saturday in what should be another roaring SAP Center.

Taking to the ice amid twinkling teal lights flashed from wristbands distributed to the patrons, the Sharks then played 60 minutes of lights-out defense. Martin Jones had to make some tough saves early, as the Blues came out with the better jump, but otherwise his stress was kept to a minimum by a fast and cohesive Sharks team defense that is starting to become the dominant aspect of the series. The Blues have only two goals in the nine periods played so far.

Blues star Vladimir Tarasenko, who had 13 points in his first 14 postseason games, has zero points in the series. Asked how his team is doing it against Tarasenko in particular, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer was quick to paint a bigger picture.

"We know he's a dangerous player, but really our team defense is about their whole team," DeBoer said.

"We try to defend as a five-man unit, and whether it's Tarasenko on the ice or it's (Robby) Fabbri or (Alexander) Steen or (Paul) Stastny, they've got so many weapons that this isn't about shutting Tarasenko down. It's about our team defense, every time we step on the ice, defending as a five-man unit and respecting the fact that they've got a lot of offensive players over there."

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In a postgame press conference that saw him occasionally chastise his team's play and his own coaching and also issue a defiant call to arms to anyone counting the Blues out, St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock spent a good portion of it analyzing how the Sharks are, in fact, shutting down his team's best offensive player in Tarasenko and what he must do to stop it.

"The thing that can help him, we can't give him, which is more experience," Hitchcock said. "He's learning hard lessons, like any young player. The playoffs are for veteran players, and the veteran players on both teams have this thing dialed up. They know they're not giving much room to us.

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"As you experience this as a young player, you learn that you're going to have to fight through a lot if you expect to score. We would like him to learn that lesson a day from now, but we're not sure on the time frame. Some guys never learn it, some guys can't do it, and some guys learn that lesson and they really become accomplished players. He's going to have to fight through everything if he expects to score a goal. These are lessons you can talk to him about, but unfortunately for all of us, you've got to go through it."

There were some sensational individual plays by the Sharks in this one. Let's start with the howitzer of a slap shot by Tomas Hertl that got them on the board at 15:53 of the first. Hertl came down the left side on a two-on-one with Joe Pavelski, who slid a pass across that was redirected off the skate of Blues defender Colton Parayko. It came right into the shooting stride of Hertl, who blasted a shot to the top right corner past Brian Elliott.

Another great play by the Sharks, by winger Joonas Donskoi, was actually two plays at each end. First, he broke up a crossing pass in his own end with a little stick check, then busted it down ice to receive Logan Couture's drop pass, turning a two-on-one into a three-on-one. With Blues center Stastny trailing the play, Donskoi put a shot to the top left corner to make it 2-0 at 11:44 of the second.

"The second goal was the killer," Hitchcock said.

Joe Thornton, who played a brilliant two-way game, helped make it 3-0 at 6:09 of the third with a saucer pass from the deep left corner across the back side of the net right onto the tape of Hertl, who stuffed it home and chased Elliott from the game.

Hitchcock said he may replace Elliott with Jake Allen in Game 4, saying, "I'll sleep on it."

There is zero thought of DeBoer making any change in goal, with Jones stopping everything he's seeing right now.

"We love playing for this guy," Thornton said. "We honestly think we've got the best goalie in the world."

The series is still only 2-1, which Hitchcock was quick to remind everyone of when asked if his team was facing its toughest adversity of the year.

"You got to win four games. This is nothing," he said. "When we get down three and three-quarters and we only got a quarter left, you can kind of ask me that question. Right now it's 2-1. The interesting response from us, it's the response that's going to have to be good for us. We're the first team of these two teams that's taken the bump now. Somebody had to be down 2-1. Neither one of us have experienced that. So we're going to have to deal with it."

With how Jones and the Sharks defense are playing, it figures to be a tough deal.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report.