No thanks to Dallas, which took a whopping 10 penalties last night en route to a 4-1 loss in Vancouver, the Wings will be playing the San Jose Sharks in the second round of the playoffs. Oh joy. Now that the Wings already have a series under their belt, I don’t dread this matchup like I did earlier in the season, but I was still hoping they’d get at least one round of minimal travel and Dallas was their only hope for that. Now, they’ll be flying out to the West Coast for this round and the next, if they make it through the Sharks, since Vancouver and Anaheim are the only other teams left in the Conference.
I think the Wings showed in the first round that they can compete with a big, physical, and fast team. However, the Sharks are deeper than the Flames and will be a greater challenge to the Wings’ team defense. Special teams will be huge in this round. I believe the Wings can do it, but it’s going to be a stressful and tiring series for them and for us fans.
I’ll have a series/Game 1 preview posted Thursday.