I don’t have a lot to add to my initial reaction to the games, so this’ll be relatively short.
… The opening minutes weren’t all that bad for the Wings. They had a couple pretty solid chances, but couldn’t finish if they connected on the passes. The Sharks had a strong chance or two as well, but either the Detroit defense or Domink Hasek turned them aside. The Sharks overall had more sustained pressure, while the Wings’ offense came from isolated forays into the zone. Their stick defense was good, though, so the puck was bouncing all around the zone as they kept knocking it away from San Jose players. During a more sustained and dangerous Sharks’ cycle shift, Henrik Zetterberg lost his stick and Nick Lidstrom took a “hooking” penalty, though it looked a lot more like tripping to me.
… The penalty kill started off well, as the Wings had the Sharks skating the lenth of the ice a couple times. Then, San Jose set up. They caught the Wings all on the right side of the zone, looking at Thornton in the corner. Only Henrik Zetterberg got his sights on Carle creeping up and was trying to get there just as the pass came out front and it was one-timed into the net. Carle was Lilja’s responsibility, but he had his back turned.
… Wilson sent out the checking line right after that and a strong forecheck by Mike Grier caused Mathieu Schneider to throw the puck out front, where it was intercepted by Curtis Brown. It pinballed out front to Grier, who was tied up with Schneider, but not enough to prevent a hard, turning shot that beat Hasek. 2-0, with goals scored 24 seconds apart.
… Babcock called a timeout and got the team settled down. The Sharks controled things a little more and then settled back into a efficient defensive mode. The Wings had a few scoring chances and were starting to warm up pretty well by the end of the period.
… The second and third periods consisted of the Wings putting forth a somewhat leisurely attempt at a comeback. It was as though they had forgotten the situation they were in, as I didn’t see a sense of urgency from them down to the final minutes. Individual players played well and put forth good efforts, but there weren’t many dominating shifts by the lines and, in general, even their best scoring chances were pretty low grade. They rarely were able to follow up on a shot and basically did little but give Nabokov confidence with their low-percentage shots.
… It sounds like I’m disparaging the team, but I’m not, really. They were flat, but only relative to their first round performances, which have become the standard by which this postseason iteration of the Wing will be judged. I think they could have won last night had they not made the two mistakes that led to San Jose goals. That said, they were fortunate the Sharks did not take further advantage from the number of turnovers the Wings had (27 to San Jose’s 5). They have got to be better with the puck. Even accounting for the fact that giveaways are a subjective, that kind of discrepancy is unacceptable.
… Still, the Sharks simply did not play all that impressively. They have size, but they don’t use it for much beyond walling off opponents (they don’t hit). The Wings were less physical than they were in the first round, but they still were more physical than San Jose. The Sharks are nowhere near the chippy team Calgary was, which was nice because it didn’t become a whistle-fest or a blown-call bonanza.
… It was definitely interesting to see their meek response to the Wings’ crowding of the net. I remember one instance where Todd Bertuzzi was in Nabokov’s face after a whistle and the two large San Jose defensemen went up to him and just kind of lightly bumped him, perhaps saying, “Sir, we humbly request that you remove yourself from the periphery of the crease for your presence here causes our goaltender undue stress and consternation.” Okay, maybe it was a little more obscene than that, but the point is they didn’t try to take Todd’s head off. This lack of physical anger extended to other post-whistle interactions: the most heated things got was a post-whistle scrum that lasted about 3 seconds.
… As far as individual performances went, I thought Todd Bertuzzi had a good game. He shrugged off even the larger San Jose players like they were nothing and demonstrated the hands that make him so valuable. Still, it’d be great if he could just get the puck in the net. Also, Todd, seriously, you really, really need to be more selfish. Enough with this I-must-pass-at-all-costs mindset. Shoot the puck! We know you want to contribute to your teammates’ success, but you can do that by scoring goals too.
Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk were solid. Their speed and puckhandling abilities exposed the inexperience of the Sharks’ defense at times, and we can only hope they find a way to finish their plays in Game 2.
No one else really stood out as playing particularly well, except maybe Jiri Hudler. He was underutilized, as usual, however, so he did not have much of an impact.
… Overall, like I wrote last night, I’m not worried. Yet. This series is far from over and I think we’ll see a better game from both teams on Saturday. What that means for the Wings’ chances, we’ll have to wait and see.