NHL Playoffs: San Jose Sharks Need to Find Killer Instinct in Game 6

The San Jose Sharks are in a predicament: They played a good game—at least in the first 41 minutes—but were beat by a team that was down 1-3 with 19 minutes left in the third period.

“We didn’t play a poor game,” said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan.

He paused for a long minute before finishing his thought.

“That’s hard to swallow. We didn’t give up many opportunities. I thought, actually, that we had some poise and composure in the third period, but they took advantage of some of our mistakes and they put it in the net.”

To start the third, Logan Couture dished the rubber off of goaltender Jimmy Howard’s right leg, through the five hole and into the net.

It appeared to be the nail in the coffin.

The Sharks had gone out and did what they wanted to do: score an early goal in the third, get a two-point lead and ignite the crowd around them.

Then it collapsed.

Detroit scored three goals on six shots in the 19 minutes following Couture’s goal, and suddenly the Sharks were headed back to Detroit for Game 6.

"It’s the old saying: the fourth win is always the hardest one,” said Couture after the game. “That’s the truth. It is.”

In the first 40 minutes, they peppered Howard with shots, Devin Setoguchi scored a late goal in the first and Joe Pavelski put the team up 2-0 late in the second.

However, Detroit responded immediately to Pavelski’s goal. Within a minute of the goal, the red light lit up behind Antti Niemi, and defenseman Niklas Kronwall stood with his hands raised to the sky.

“We responded each time and that made a real big difference for us,” said Detroit head coach Mike Babcock.

“If you look at the whole series: we were up 3-0 in our building and they wouldn’t go away.

“It’s like frantic hockey. You’re pros and you’re supposed to be composed and under control—that’s not what I see both ways. I see frantic hockey…no one seems to lose the other team.”

The Red Wings were just a little more frantic.

There appeared to be no answer for the Sharks. McLellan left his players alone in the locker room after the game.

“We’ll get a long day together tomorrow,” said McLellan. “We’ll be flying for five hours.”

Many pundits will point a finger toward Patrick Marleau, who has yet to score in the series and was burned on the final two Detroit goals.

“I don’t think so,” said Marleau when asked if he felt the team had let up.

“They just started coming at us and our execution was off.

“Our execution, as far as getting pucks out, getting pucks behind them—things we were doing in the first two periods—the one time you don’t they get a chance and it ends up in the back of your net.”

The fact is that Marleau needs to step his game up—that much is obvious.

However, there is no formula to win a game in the playoffs, regardless of how Marleau plays. The Sharks executed well, got a two-goal lead, had the momentum at the start of the third period and still lost the game.

“There’s never a stranglehold in the playoffs,” said Couture. “As you see throughout this year: leads are never safe whether it’s [two goals], three goals, four goals. It’s never safe in this league.”

Tomorrow will be a character game for the Sharks. They must dig deep within themselves in order to win this one.

Couture needs to play like he is still a minor-league call-up traveling between Worcester and San Jose, trying to secure a position on the team.

Pavelski needs to play like he did as an 18-year-old in Waterloo, who was looked over until the 17th round because he was considered too small.

Dany Heatley needs to play like he did when the Sharks visited Ottawa.

Jason Demers needs to play like he did when he was a 20-year-old undrafted free agent waiting to hear his named called two years after most players get drafted.

Everyone on this team has been in a situation like this before: where pressure threatened to suffocate them, when they were told they were not as good as they thought they were.

As individuals, they need to find that spark that ignites the fire within them.

As a team, they need to find the motivation they had to come back from a 0-4 deficit against the Kings.

And, most importantly, Patrick Marleau needs to remember when he was considered a first-round bust early in his career, or whatever it is he needs to push to the next level.

He needs to find that frantic in him.

He needs to score a goal and flatten anyone who tries to score against him.

Tom Schreier is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official interview materials from the San Jose Sharks.