Well. I don’t really know what to say about that game except that it was decided in a span of just under two minutes in the first period: the time between Nick Lidstrom’s ill-advised and strange hooking penalty at 8:17 and the Sharks’ second goal at 10:09. That penalty should have set off alarm bells in our minds, in spite of the fact that the Wings started off the kill well. One set up by the Sharks, though, and it was a slam dunk as Andreas Lilja forgot to be aware of his surroundings. A bad pass seconds later by a hurried Mathieu Schneider resulted in another goal.
Other than that, both teams were pretty much dead even the whole game and not in a good way. After an exciting first round series, this one has opened with a bit of a snorer. Neither team was all that impressive and had the Wings not collapsed for about two minutes, it could have gone on forever. Nabokov will get a lot of credit, but I think it’s mostly undeserved because the Wings didn’t mount a very concerted offensive attack. Hasek will get criticism, but, again, I don’t think it’ll be deserved because the Sharks were given exactly two gift-wrapped-goal scoring chances.
It was a bit of tentative game for both teams, I thought, so I hope things open up a bit more in Game 2. The Wings have to start stronger than they did, or else the Sharks will pounce on their mistakes and make them pay, that much is obvious. Oddly enough, I’m not at all concerned, despite the fact that they were shut out. I really think this game could have gone either way, if not for that brief period of sloppy play in the first.
Anyway, I’ll have a more complete game reaction posted tomorrow.
i thought the third period looked a lot more like i was expecting this series to look: tough at both ends, no real clear scoring chances, a lot of effort by both teams. it really looked like a different wings team in the third to me.
i’m gonna be really annoyed if this ends up being another series where the opponent is still in the series merely based on the quality of their goalie. nothing against kipper at all - he looked amazing - but if we lose, i want it to be to a TEAM, not to a goalie. that being said, this is the matchup i was dreading all season.
ps: where are the playoff beards?! can we be superstitious yet? something tells me datsyuk can’t get anything going on in that department, though.
Seems like Drapes, Maltby, Lilja, Cleary, and a ton of the guys have the beards going. They’re there!
I didn’t think Filpulla got enough ice time tonight, and thought Draper, Maltby, Franzen, and Hudler did the most with their ice time. Hudler had the second fewest minutes on the ice for the Wings, and it seemed to me like he was out there a lot more… so he must have been doing something right while he was out there.
Wings looked flat a lot of the game… not much physical play, and not driving hard towards the net. Holmstrom being gone might have something to do with that, but I just didn’t see much offensive pressure overall.
Oh well… like Matt said, it doesn’t have me too worried. But I do fear that San Jose didn’t have too great of a game either… and they still won. Next game I think we will get a better feel of each team’s “A” game and get a better idea of how this series is going to go… which is the Wings winning in 5 of course!
GO WINGS!!!!!!!!!!!
Red Wings…I love you guys to death. I’ve been watching and playing since I was in diapers. However, this was the most boring game I’ve seen in a long time. Both teams were flat offensively, but I really liked the Draper/Cleary/Maltby line’s play throughout the game. Bert showed some of his old self too. San Jose played strong on the PK while Detroit had countless turnovers and problems penetrating the slot. Still not scared of Nabokov though. Not a very strong showing by Markov and definitely another poor performance by Lang. He usually produces in the playoffs but something is amiss this year. He can’t keep the puck on his stick, makes ill-advised passes, and can barely move his feet at times. I still have confidence in him as long as he wears that beautiful jersey. Quincey is really impressing me with his hockey sense. Does anyone else feel like the commentators on Versus are really bland and don’t concentrate on the game? I wish FSN carried that one. I know we will be a much tougher team to play against in the rest of the series and so will San Jose. Oh yeah, and boo to the so-called Wings fans who were booing at the end of the game. You should be ashamed of yourselves. If you want to make noise, try cheering on our team instead of sitting through the entire game like its a screening of a Holocaust documentary. We need some real Wings fans to fill those empty seats. LET’S GO RED WINGS! btw, Dats & Zata are the bomb. Get well soon Homer, Lebda, and Kronwall. Wings in five.