Sharks Can No Longer Be in Awe of Cup Final

PITTSBURGH — This was supposed to be their shining moment, the one that had occupied their days and nights and all of their time for almost all of their lives. They had thought about this, about taking the ice, about being announced, about playing in the biggest game of their lives, for years. They had thought about it while sweating and pushing and hurting, giving everything they had to hockey. It had been their goal for more years than they can remember.

The San Jose Sharks had been waiting so long. The players — Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic — had been members of a franchise known for futility when it counted. But now they were here in the Stanley Cup Final. There were others, too, who had waited: Paul Martin, Brent Burns.

Only Dainius Zubrus, 37, had been here before and played, though Martin Jones had a prime seat on the bench for the Los Angeles Kings when they won the Stanley Cup in 2014.

So maybe that was it. Maybe the lights and the sounds and the pressure were overwhelming at the start. Maybe that was what slowed them in the start of Game 1 on Monday, a game they went down early to the Pittsburgh Penguins before falling on a goal late in the third period to go down 1-0 in the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final. Maybe that was why San Jose coach Peter DeBoer could only describe his team in the context of describing one of his lines, as “off a little.”

“I think the first period was tough,” Burns said. “It’s the first time being in this experience. I don’t know about other guys, but for me I spent three, four days thinking …

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