Experts: Sharks must ‘turn up the heat’ on Penguins

PITTSBURGH - Do the Sharks have a shot at extending the Stanley Cup Finals on Thursday evening?

Sure, say some of the experts who picked San Jose to win it all before the series began - but the Sharks might want to start roughing it up a bit in order to do so now that they find themselves in a 3-1 hole going into Game 5.

“San Jose is going to have to find a way to turn up the heat,” TSN analyst Darren Dreger said Thursday after the Sharks’ morning skate at Consol Energy Center.

Maybe go old-school, buzz the crease, get in Matt Murray’s face, get under Evgeni Malkin’s skin, the way Joe Thornton did in Game 1.

Is it physical play? A couple big hits, maybe rattle a couple of defensemen?

No one has really attacked the net the way they have the previous rounds.

Dreger felt that San Jose was the favorite entering the series based on the Sharks’ performance against the Blues in the conference finals, but this far, he’s not seeing some of that muscle San Jose used to get to the Finals.

What’s strange about it, frankly, is that in talking to Ken Hitchcock and the Blues after the Western Conference final, the identity of the San Jose Sharks was that of being a really heavy team, a hard-checking team, a grinding, physical, aggressive team in the offensive zone,’ Dreger said.

The series has been close, well-played, evenly matched much of the way, but San Jose - 12-3 this postseason when scoring first - hasn’t held a lead at any point during a game; they got a game-winning goal in OT in Game 3 last week.

Tomas Hertl, out with a lower body injury, has missed the past two games and was ruled out for Thursday night, which also impacts the first line.

[...] the Sharks are likely to be at their best Thursday, desperate to send the series back home.