SAN JOSE
If Thursday night was a playoff preview for the Sharks–and there’s a 95 percent chance it was–then no one around here will like the ending when the real thing begins next week.
It wasn’t so much that Edmonton beat the Sharks, 4-2. It wasn’t even so much that the Sharks, by losing, all but squandered any chance for home ice in the first round.
It was the optics. It was way the Oilers gathered momentum and confidence as the game progressed, with forward Milan Lucic scoring three goals in the third period to overcome a 2-1 deficit.