Briefly:
… The Wings did not come out with the necessary fire in this one. Pittsburgh controlled the play for much of the first ten minutes, a stretch in which they scored a goal, and had numerous chances. Zetterberg’s goal at 6:19 was a great one, but it took until midway through the period before the Wings looked to get their feet under them.
… They started to assert themselves better at 11:33 after going on the power play and cycling the puck following some initial trouble getting set up. Some great passing led to Franzen’s goal, and made it 2-1.
… A couple minutes later, the officials blew it when they forgot how to count. After the Pens player got back on the bench, the pressure in the Wings’ end continued and Dan Cleary took a penalty. The Pens scored a little over a minute later. Now, the Wings didn’t have to take that penalty, and they didn’t have to allow that goal, but if the officials make the right call on the too many men situation, that whole sequence never happens, and maybe we have a different game.
… That said, the Wings didn’t rise to the occassion. They played a great second period in terms of statistical dominance, but there were far too many blown chances when it came down to it. Too many missed passes, too many blocked shots, and at least one hit post. They got a little taste of what the Pens experienced in Games 1 and 2. Had they kept up the pressure, they might have finally cracked the Pens.
… But they didn’t. In the third period, they had just three shots to Pittsburghj’s ten. That’s simply pathetic.
… They were fatally weak at clearing the puck from their own zone, and it really killed them on the power play following the Ericsson penalty. Pittsburgh basically dominated the zone for the full 1:30 or so of power play time leading up to the Gonchar goal. It felt inevitable.
… To their credit, the Wings stepped it up after that in an effort to tie it up again, but they couldn’t compete with both Pittsburgh and the officials, who let everything go, no matter how ridiculous. The biggest one for me was the trip at the blueline that caused the turnover leading to Talbot’s empty-netter. We’ll never know if the Wings would have been able to keep it in had the Pens kept it legal there, because the officials were too terrified of making a call that would influence the game, that they let the Pens get away with one that took away any miniscule chance the Wings had of tying it up.
… Just one last comment on the officiating: in Games 1 and 2, I was of the opinion that the officiating was awful both ways. Letting them play is a nice idea in concept, but in practice it just means the players gradually become too loose with the rules. Both teams were guilty of it in the first two games, with rampant interference being the most obvious of the play-to-play stuff. In Game 3, however, the officiating largely turned against the Wings.
Let me be clear: Detroit is not a team of perfect little angels, and I’m sure there were some things they didn’t get called for last night (I freely admit I was paying more attention to what the Pens were doing as far as penalizable offenses), but Pittsburgh truly got away with some really blatant crap last night. From tripping Ericsson in his own zone, to the high hit of interference on Helm in the final minutes, to the kicking of Osgood by Cooke, to the final uncalled trip to any dump-in involving Gill, not to mention the willful collusion on the the too many men situation.* If you’re going to call stuff like the Ericsson interference in the third, call it when the Pens do it too. It’s only fair.
Call it both ways, or don’t call it at all. That’s all I’d like.
… As for the Wings, the disappointing thing is they didn’t fight through the adversity offered by the officiating as well as the difficulty presented by an assertive Pittsbugh team. Individuals like Zetterberg, Franzen, Filppula and Helm had great games and put out enormous efforts, but much of the rest of the team fell short. The officiating is a talking point and a gripe, but not an excuse.
… That includes Chris Osgood, who was strong in places, but had a weakish game overall.
… Marian Hossa needs to start getting points, whether it be from goals or assists. He had a bad night last night, and hasn’t been the dominant player he ought to be all playoffs. The Wings need him to get over whatever is holding him back, and to show up to play tomorow night.
… Two examples of awful turnovers: Lidstrom’s to Crosby, and Helm’s to Crosby. Both times, Osgood bailed the culprits out.
… Detroit has to play its best game of the playoffs tomorrow night. It’s as much a must-win game as any they’ve faced this year.
*On the wide angle replay, you can see the center ice ref and linesmen watch the Pens player get off the ice, and then the ref makes an “eh” hand signal to the deep ref.