Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

‘Don’t stink': Sharks’ Gomez gives advice for Game 7

San Jose Sharks v Los Angeles Kings - Game Five

in Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Staples Center on May 23, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

Harry How

The formula for winning a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs doesn’t seem too difficult. Right?

“Don’t [stink],” San Jose Sharks’ veteran forward Scott Gomez told NHL.com, reportedly in a joking manner.

“What I was told was don’t change your game. Do what got you here. Obviously every emotion is going to be running high. When the game comes we’ll be ready. It’s exciting for us.”

The Sharks face the L.A. Kings, the defending Stanley Cup champions, in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinal series on Tuesday.

The winner advances to the conference final, where they will face either the Detroit Red Wings or Chicago Blackhawks, who will also be engaging in that most-exciting seventh and deciding game on Wednesday.

“You’re playing for your lives. You have to be desperate,” Sharks’ forward Logan Couture told reporters, as per a video post on the team’s website and seen below.

For the Kings, their reign as Cup champions is in question.

Last year, they never faced elimination, rolling over the competition throughout the post-season, beginning with the Vancouver Canucks in the opening round and finishing with a Stanley Cup win over the New Jersey Devils.

“After what we did last year, I always say you don’t really know what you’re playing for until you’ve won it,” Kings’ captain Dustin Brown told the L.A. Times.

“So my perspective on playoffs this year has been completely different from my perspective on playoffs in previous years because I don’t think I fully understood what I was playing for until we put ourselves over the top.

“And that’s kind of the same way with losing. It’s hard to understand what it takes to win until you lose.”