The San Jose Sharks might have had too much time off between the first two rounds.
The club went off for five goals in the third period of Friday's 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators, proof to head coach Peter DeBoer that the team might have been affected by the week-long break through the first 40 minutes.
"Coming off the break, we had some questions of how we would be. I saw some of the effects of that (in) the first two periods," DeBoer said, according to NHL.com's Eric Gilmore. "We found a way. (Martin Jones) made some saves and let us hang around and survive that. We got going.
"To be able to come out of Game 1 with a win even though I think we didn't play our best 60 minutes is good because I think we'll be better in Game 2."
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Forward Joe Pavelski picked up an assist in the win, giving him seven points in the postseason while pushing his point streak to three games. The captain admitted the club had to shake off the cobwebs early, but felt the team did a great job of rallying.
"We tried to fight against any kind of rust or intensity issues," Pavelski said. "We came out, we didn't really take it to any level in the first. We were just kind of there. We just kind of played with them. As the game went on, we got better and we could feel them on their heels a little bit, I think.
"It was just good to see the guys keep feeding off the crowd, feeding off the goals and really pushing for the next one."
The Sharks will be hoping all lingering effects are behind them when they head into Game 2 on Sunday.
