from Mark Purdy of the Mercury News,

If you are still a Sharks believer, here is the most encouraging sight I witnessed in Pittsburgh: The Sharks players, too, truly do believe they can come back and win the Stanley Cup Final against the Penguins.

That doesn't mean it will happen. Trailing 3-2 in the series, the Sharks still have a mountain to climb, beginning with Game 6 at SAP Center on Sunday. But the mountain trail grew a little less steep after Thursday's victory.

After decades of covering playoffs in every sport, I have learned to respect the words that players say after games but also to realize that players are going to say what they think they should say. More telling is their body language, or the way they say the words, or the subtle messages they sometimes send.

Sharks defenseman Paul Martin spent the 2010-15 seasons with the Penguins before signing as a free agent with San Jose last summer. Martin is a respected pro with the standard solid-and-mannerly personality of a Minnesota native. He's certainly no trash talker. So one of Martin's remarks, buried amid the usual happy-to-win postgame quotes, was interesting.

"It's good to let them know we're still here," Martin said of the Penguins. "We played them pretty well at SAP. I've been over there when they've lost 3-1 leads and lost series."

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