On the Wings

Briefly, because I have to go to work in a few minutes, keys for the Ducks:

• Team defense. With Chris Pronger out and no single player able to fill in his minutes, the Ducks will have to be extremely responsible defensively as a team. The pressure is on the rest of their defensive corps as well as their forwards. Scott Niedermeyer, in particular, needs to have much stronger game than he had Tuesday or else the Ducks will effectively be down their top two.
• Giguere. I think he got the shaft a bit when he was pulled after three goals he didn’t have much chance on, but he looked a bit on edge anyway, so maybe it was for the best. He needs to rebound with a stellar game tonight.
• Maintain composure. If the Wings are ahead or one player is controlling the game, the Ducks need to keep their cool and now pull a Pronger, or else they’re screwed. The Wings love it when teams go ballistic because they make them pay.

For the Wings:

• Repeat. If they can recreate the energy and drive that they had in Game 2, they should be in a good position to win tonight.
• Special teams. If the Ducks are going to take penalties, they need to capitalize. If the Wings are going to take penalties, they need to kill them off. It seems like there’s a good chance the calls will be going the Ducks’ way tonight, so I think the PK will be important. In that case, it’ll be a battle for them to maintain the cohesion of the new lines, if Babcock keeps them together.
• Hasek. Dom played out of his mind on Tuesday and that needs to continue. The Ducks will be running and gunning for him, so he needs to be on top of his game.

I didn’t think the Ducks had that bad a game Tuesday, so I don’t think there’ll be some kind of huge difference between tonight’s performance and there’s in Game 3. They will be better, though, and the Wings will need to be ready for whatever gets thrown at them. The loss of Pronger is huge and may offset much of the Ducks’ efforts, but they’re more than capable of taking the game, if the Wings let them. This is a great opportunity for Detroit and not a time for letting off the gas at all.