The San Jose Sharks had just been knocked out of these 2019 playoffs, bruised and beaten after a punishing series with the St. Louis Blues had injured some of their best players, when coach Pete DeBoer made an observation about the two teams still standing.
“I think the two hardest, heaviest teams are in the Final,” he said of the Blues and Boston Bruins. “Everyone talks about skill and all the small players, and there is room for that, but I don’t think it’s an accident.”
After DeBoer’s Sharks took a 2-1 series edge in the Western Conference finals, they faded against a bigger and badder Blues team, dropping three straight games and unable to overcome the injuries to forwards Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl and defenseman Erik Karlsson in the clinching Game 6.