CBC-Sports

Will the Sharks shake it up for Game 3?

April 21, 2009 06:17 PM | Posted by   CBC Sports Staff  

The Sharks are down 2-0 in their series with the Anaheim Ducks, but Sharks coach Todd McLellan stuck with his recent practice of making the game-day morning skate optional.

And Tuesday, more players than usual chose to stay off the ice. Patrick Marleau and Jeremy Roenick, who opted against the skate before Game 2, were joined by three other regulars: Joe Pavelski, Milan Michalek and Dan Boyle.

Boyle said it was mostly a case of just trying to do something a little different, vary his routine after a couple of tough losses.

All of which made it pretty hard to try and figure out if McLellan would switch his lines around a second time in the series. He wouldn’t offer any clues, but he did explain his thinking before Game 2 when he broke up his top line and had Joe Thornton skating with Jonathan Cheechoo and Jeremy Roenick, while Patrick Marleau centred Travis Moen and Devin Setoguchi.

“We feel we have two big centremen — Joe Thornton and Patty Marleau,” the coach said. “They’ve got one big one in Ryan Getzlaf, so we put Patty against Ryan and that left a bigger centreman open against either Todd Marchant or Andrew Ebbett. We felt we could take advantage of that size difference.”

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle made it sound as if the calibre of his team’s play in taking a 2-0 lead might not be good enough tonight.

“We have to prepare ourselves to play the best game so far this series. That’s no secret,” he said. “We have to play to a higher level than we did the last two games because we know they are. They have the capability to play the game at probably the highest pace that we’re going to see all year and I would expect that to happen in tonight’s game.

“Yeah, we’re happy with our position,” Carlyle added. “But we know it’s a long series and we know we’re playing against a hockey club that’s played to a very high standard through the course of the season. We are expecting them to play better.”

Anaheim centre Todd Marchant and defenceman Francois Beauchemin both were back with the team today after taking Monday off to be with their wives for the arrival of a baby in each family. For the Marchants, it was a son, Bradley David; for the Beauchemins, it was daughter Emily.

Beauchemin joked with reporters that he was looking for an exercise bike at the hospital just to stay on Carlyle’s good side since both players missed practice.

“He’d have to do more than that to make me happy,” responded the coach, sounding like someone who's team was trailing in the series, not ahead.

Sharks lineup (Game 2)

Joe Thornton-Jeremy Roenick-Jonathan Cheechoo
Milan Michalek-Joe Pavelski-Ryane Clowe
Travis Moen-Patrick Marleau-Devin Setoguchi
Mike Grier-Marcel Goc-Claude Lemieux

Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Rob Blake
Brad Lukowich-Dan Boyle
Douglas Murray-Christian Ehrhoff

Ducks lineup (Game 2)

Bobby Ryan-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Erik Christensen-Andrew Ebbett-Teemu Selanne
Drew Miller-Todd Marchant-Rob Niedermayer
Mike Brown-Petteri Nokelainen-George Parros

Chris Pronger-Ryan Whitney
Scott Niedermayer-James Wisniewski
Francois Beauchemin-Sheldon Brookbank

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