Archive for the 'Playoffs' CategoryPage 4 of 21

Game 3: @ Dallas, 8:00 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 12, 2008
in 2007-2008, GameDay, Playoffs and Stars
. 4 Comments

Tonight is Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. Detroit leads the series 2-0 (4-1, 2-1).

For Dallas, this is essentially a must-win game. They cannot afford to go down 3-0 to Detroit. Some keys to the game for the Stars:

Score first. Dallas has not had a lead this series and they have not played very good catch-up hockey. If they score first tonight, they’ll give themselves a chance.

Marty Turco. Turco needs to be perfect tonight, something he has not been yet this series.

Elevated game. The Stars have been underwhelming thus far. They will need to bring their “A” game tonight to stand a chance.

The Wings will be looking to exact the best revenge for Mike Ribeiro’s idiocy at the end of Game 2: a win. My hope is that they focus on that rather than physical retribution. There’s no need to go after Ribeiro when a Detroit win will hurt him much more. Some keys for the Wings:

Overcome the crappy ice. This will mean a slight adjustment in game plan (i.e. shorter passes), but it’s something the Wings must do early on.

Big first period. If the Wings can put up a few goals in the first, they can take the crowd out of it and go a long way in cutting the Stars off at the knees.

Chris Osgood. Osgood’s calm and confidence need to continue tonight. The Stars will be buzzing him as much as they can, trying to take him off his game.

The lineup should remain the same as it was in Game 2. Johan Franzen (concussion-like symptoms) is out at least another game. Dan Cleary bears the responsibility of filling in for the big Swede on the second line. I expect him to break out soon.

This should be a tightly-contested game. Of course, we thought this series would be tightly-contested, but the Stars haven’t shown up yet. Maybe they will tonight.

Admin note: I’m sorry for the minimal coverage over the past couple days. My access to a computer has been a bit more limited and will probably remain so for at least a couple more days.

Game 2: Wings 2, Stars 1

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 11, 2008
in 2007-2008, Game Reports, Playoffs and Stars
. 8 Comments

The Wings took a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals last night with a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars.

Some quick thoughts on the game:

… Despite the fact that they statistically dominated the Stars, i don’t think the Wings have fully hit their stride in this round. They looked a bit sloppy offensively and never really got going. Even Pavel Datsyuk, who is usually very smooth with the puck, looked a little off his game.

… Defensively, though, I thought they were real solid. Chris Osgood had another strong game.

… Darren Helm looked great on his goal. A nice shot, but one Turco probably should have had. He took Helm too lightly.

… On the Wings’ second goal, the Stars took Holmstrom too seriously. They were so concerned with him that Henrik Zetterberg had an easy time of it putting it back in the net.

… The Stars seem to be on the edge of a meltdown. Their frustration is obvious, from Marty Turco’s sneaky cheapshots on Holmstrom and Filppula, to Steve Ott’s antics.

The ultimate example was Mike Ribeiro’s absolutely uncalled for two-hander to Chris Osgood’s chest at the end of the game. Just prior to that, Osgood have moved his stick slightly as Ribeiro went by, catching the Stars forward with the butt end. That was unecessary on Osgood’s part, but certainly did not warrant a chop like Ribeiro gave him. If Ribeiro was that upset, he should have confronted Osgood face-to-face.

Personally, I do think Ribeiro should be suspended. You simply cannot use your stick like that. Osgood looks pretty foolish to have rolled around like that, but that doesn’t change the fact that Ribeiro two-handed him in the chest after the buzzer. The League has to take action, even if it’s only a game or two.

… Game 2 seemed to be another indication that perhaps the Stars have run out of steam. They’ll no doubt look better in Game 3 as they play in front of their home crowd, but it will have to be a major improvement if they want to make this a competitive series.

Links

Gorilla Crouchfurniture Videnovmebeli

mebelimebeliJames Mirtle

Franzen Out 1 More Game

Published
by
Sarah Baker
on May 10, 2008
in 2007-2008, Injuries, Johan Franzen and Playoffs
. 0 Comments

Well that was a nasty surprise at the beginning of the game there, wasn’t it? Just sitting there with my Wings gear, all excited for some Playoff hockey, and the announcer goes and rips my heart out. “By the way, your top scorer/Conn Smythe candidate with hands 10,000 degrees hotter than the sun is not playing tonight. Have fun!” Yeah those weren’t his exact words but they may as well have been. Anyway, looks like the Mule is going to be out at least another game. This gem of a quote from Holland (via Bruce McLeod) explains everything :

He got hit in the Colorado series and he’s been having headaches. Nothing significant, but he’s been having headaches. And finally after Game 1 (Friday) morning, he mentioned to the trainers that he’s having headaches.

In case you didn’t catch that, it appears that Franzen is experiencing headaches. Apparently he’ll undergo tests on Monday to ensure that he’s not concussed from a hit early in the Colorado series. Anyway, here’s hoping he’s back for game 4.

Game 2: vs. Dallas, 7:00 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 10, 2008
in 2007-2008, GameDay, Playoffs and Stars
. 0 Comments

Update (2:26 PM): I’m finishing up with post-graduation and moving out stuff so I’ll just refer you to Bruce MacLeod, who has an update on the Wings here and the Stars here. Also, IwoCPO has some keys to the game here. - Matt

Tonight is the second game of the Western Conference Finals. Detroit took a 1-0 lead with a 4-1 win Thursday night.

The Stars could really use a win here. Going back to Dallas down 2-0 isn’t the end of the world, but that’s not a position they want to be in with the Wings on a roll. Some keys to the game for Dallas:

Stay out of the box. That means playing a clean game and figuring out the officiating standard early. The Wings’ power play will make them pay if they don’t.

Score first. Scoring first doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s certainly better than playing catch-up all night.

Marty Turco. For Turco, he has to view this game as the night to overcome his issues with winning at the Joe. He may have to steal this one for the Stars.

The Stars could see the return of Stu Barnes (concussion-like symptoms) tonight. That would help their PK.

For the Wings, they’d obviously like to keep the Stars from splitting the first two games. Some keys to the game for Detroit:

Weather/end the storm. The Stars are bound to come out hard and the Wings will have to be ready for that. Either they’ll need to weather the storm or they’ll need to end it by an opportunistic goal.

Marty Turco. Get in his head and in his space. Get him off his game and keep him there.

Minimal penalties. If I had to guess, I’d say the officiating will go against the Wings tonight, so they’ll have to keep their feet moving as much as possible to avoid chintzy calls, at least.

Kirk Maltby is likely to remain in because of the speed he provides over Darren McCarty.

I think we can count on the Stars playing a much better game tonight. That just means the Wings will have to step it up that much more. I’d like to see them keep on the attack for the majority of the game this time around.

Tonight’s the night we really find out how this series is going to go.

Game 1: Wings 4, Stars 1

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 9, 2008
in 2007-2008, Game Reports, Playoffs and Stars
. 12 Comments

The Detroit Red Wings took a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals by defeating the Dallas Stars 4-1 at home last night.

I didn’t take notes and I’m a little short on time so this will be brief:

… I missed the first couple minutes of the game, but it looked like the Stars were in control early on. Things started to unravel for them as they got into penalty trouble before the game was four minutes old. After that, the Wings took over and held the high ground for most of the rest of the game.

… The roughing on Mark Fistric was pretty stupid. If anyone deserved a call there, it was Steve Ott. Fistric did very little, but I thought Ott went a little overboard in his encounter with Holmstrom.

… I thought Brian Rafalski had a strong night for the most part. He made absolutely the right decision on his goal, chosing to take advantage of the chaos following Lidstrom’s shot going off the post. Turco had no idea what was going on.

… Franzen continues to play like an MVP. His goal will get the press, but his play in the defensive end was exemplary. If he’d played like that all season, the Wings could have had three Selke finalists.

… Valtteri Filppula looked strong all night. He was particularly impressive in his strength on the puck, which led to a Stars penalty in one instance. He made no mistake about it when he found himself open in the middle just before his goal. Turco doesn’t deserve much criticism on that one. It was just a great shot.

… Turco, by the way, was not the stellar goalie we were led to believe he’d be. I have no doubt that we’ll see the better side of him this series, but he’d better bring it quick or the Stars will be in trouble.

… I thought Chris Osgood looked stellar. He made a few huge saves at various points in the game and definitely was the goalie his teammates need him to be.

… Of course, Osgood was helped by a tight team defense. The Wings were very good about regaining possession in their zone and closing off the Stars’ attack.

… I was surprised to see Kirk Maltby in the lineup. I didn’t notice him much, to be honest.

… Darren Helm was great last night. He took an elbow shot to the face from Turco, though. Not sure how the officials missed that one.

… Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk looked like themselves with seven shots each.

… If the Wings’ power play clicks like that all series, Dallas will be very hardpressed to win a game, let alone four. The Stars are going to have to cut down on the penalties, for sure.

… The Wings held the Stars down for a good half of the game and then let off the gas. That’s not going to work if Dallas gets its act together. They’re better off staying on the attack all night.

… You could see the Stars’ frustration late in the game. My guess is Game 2 will be a different animal as they come out looking to make up for their poor performance last night.

Links

Abel to Yzerman

Gorilla Crouch

Behind the Jersey: liveblog and pictures

Clark Rasmussen

Y! Puck Daddy

Mark Stepneski

Dallas Stars Hockey Thoughts

Round 3 Series Preview: 1 Detroit vs. 5 Dallas

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 8, 2008
in 2007-2008, Playoffs and Stars
. 16 Comments

Update (6:24 PM): I’ve been waiting for a while to announce it until everything was finalized, but I have to say something now: Eric McErlain asked me a couple weeks ago to join AOL FanHouse and I of course accepted. It won’t change anything about OtW, but it will mean I’ll be writing stuff over there.

I mention this today both because I’m thrilled to be a part of the team and because my first official comments over there were published today in the Conference Finals Roundtable. I’ll be doing a post of my own after the craziness of graduation and leaving school is over (read: soon). - Matt

Update (4:05 PM): Bruce MacLeod confirms that Kirk Maltby will be a healthy scratch tonight. - Matt

Update (3:57 PM): Joe Hass will be liveblogging the game at Behind the Jersey. Sort of. He can explain. - Matt

Update (3:11 PM): Mike Heika reports that Stu Barnes (concussion-like symptoms) is close to returning, possibly as soon as Game 2.

Philippe Boucher (hip strain), on the other hand, doesn’t sound that close.

Heika also says that Brad Winchester is “probably” in tonight.

Also, Steph has a preview of the series posted at No Pun Intended. - Matt

Update (2:11 PM): Brandon at Stars blog Knee Jerk City has a good preview of the series posted. - Matt

Update (12:51 PM): Helene St. James reports that Valtteri Filppula (twisted leg) will play tonight after participating in the skate this morning. So the lineup should be the same that was iced in Game 4, with the only exception being Chris Chelios coming in for Andreas Lilja. Chelios missed Game 4 with what the team called a “lower body injury.”

It looks like Mike Babcock is relatively serious about mixing up the top four. The purpose behind the switch is to have a physical defenseman with an offensively-oriented partner, hence Lidstrom/Stuart and Rafalski/Kronwall. Sounds good on paper, but will it work? We’ll see. If Babcock is set on mixing things up, I’d probably rather have Kronwall with Lidstrom and Stuart with Rafalski, but that’s just me.

On the Stars’ side, Sergei Zubov is “99 percent” and will play, but Philippe Boucher (hip strain and Stu Barnes (concussion-like symptoms) both remain questionable.

Lastly, a correction on a link below: the Battle of California previews of this series were written by James O’Brien, not Earl Sleek. - Matt

Tonight is Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals series between the Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars.

Playoff History

Detroit has won all three historical playoff series between these two franchises, posting a 12-6 record. Their last meeting was in the 1998 Conference Finals, a series the Wings won in six.

Regular Season Series

Detroit won the 2007-2008 season series 3-1, with wins January 2nd (4-1), January 5th (3-0), and March 13th (5-3). During the Wings’ 1-8-2 February skid the Stars won 1-0 on the 17th.

The Stars

Dallas finished the regular season 45-30-7 with 97 points. They began the playoffs against #4 Anaheim and eliminated the defending Stanley Cup Champions in six games after going into the Ducks’ building and winning the first two games. They then faced the Sharks and took a 3-0 series lead before dropping the next two games. They pulled out a Game 6 win in the fourth overtime on Sunday night.

Forwards

The Stars’ regular season point leader, Mike Ribeiro, is also leading the team in playoff scoring. He’s got 11 assists and 14 points in 12 games. His first line winger and captain, Brenden Morrow leads the team in goals with 7 and has 11 points. Morrow also leads the team in playoff hits with 66. Second line pivot Brad Richards has notched nine assists thus far and third line center Mike Madano is fourth in Stars scoring with four goals and 10 points.

Dallas is deep up the middle, but their wingers haven’t been big producers in the postseason. Morrow has been the exception rather than the rule  thus far as far as scoring from the wing is concerned, though Jere Lehtinen had a good second round. I think the Wings’ centermen match up pretty well with Dallas’, especially if Babcock breaks up the Eurotwins. The winger matchup seems to be squarely in the Wings’ favor.

Defense

Stephane Robidas leads the Stars in defenseman scoring with seven assists and eight points. The production tails off a bit after that, with Mattias Norstrom next at three assists and five points.  Sergei Zubov is looking good with four points in five games, though his -2 is a mark against him. Matt Niskanen (11 games), Nicklas Grossman (12) games), Mark Fistric (8 games), and Trevor Daley (12 games) combine for four points.

Robidas leads Dallas defenders with 59 hits, which is twice as many as any Red Wing blueliner. Grossman (28) and Norstrom (26) each have more than Nik Kronwall’s Detroit-leading 22 hits, which Mark Fistric ties.

The Stars have a solid, if young, defense. Just ask Mike Brophy, who sees the possibility for just the right mix of age and youth in the Dallas defensive corps for the staging of an upset. It’s that youth that the Wings will have to focus on as they search for weaknesses. If they can swarm and overwhelm young guys like Grossman, Fistric, and Niskanen, they should be well off. Robidas and Zubov are formidable, but they aren’t Nick Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski. Still, this should be a major defensive showdown.

Goaltending

Marty Turco has been great in the post-season thus far. His 1.73 GAA is second only to Chris Osgood’s (1.52) and his save percentage is a respectable fourth place .929, behind Osgood’s third-place .937. He’s been in net for all eight Dallas wins and has posted one shutout. As good as he is at the traditional goaltending job, it’s his puck handling ability that gives the Stars the edge in this category. The Wings will have to be exceptional on the forecheck to negative his acting like a third defenseman.

I’m not buying into idea that Turco can’t win at the Joe until it happens.

Injuries

Dallas is dealing with a couple of key injuries. Most important is defenseman Philippe Boucher, who is out with a hip strain. He practiced yesterday, but is doubtful for Game 1. He made the trip to Detroit with the Stars, however, and could be back for Game 2. His return would be a major help to the Stars’ defense.

Forward Stu Barnes is out with concussion-like symptoms. He practiced today and also made the trip to Detroit, but he is quetionable for Game 1. His return would bolster the Stars’ penalty kill and overall team defensive capabilities.

Dave Tippett tried something new with the lineup yesterday, bumping BJ Crombeer out and inserting former Edmonton Oiler Brad Winchester on the fourth line in the absence of Barnes. As George Malik pointed out, Winchester probably peaked in that 2006 series so Tippett could be looking for a rekindling of that fire this time around.

Thoughts

Some of what I think about this series can be read in that Q&A with James Mirtle that went up yesterday. As you can tell from that, I have a fair amount of confidence in the Wings’ depth. I expect this series to really drive the point home on that for a lot of people.

The Stars are a smart group and they know that they’ll have a lot on their hands with the Wings. I do not underestimate their ability to pull off the upset. Detroit will have to bring their “A” game to the rink every night in this series because Dallas is going to pounce on every mistake and make them pay for them. The same goes for the Stars, however. Anything less than a flawless series will result in elimination and an end to upsets.

Yesterday, Brandon B, evidently a Stars fan, was kind enough to point out to reader Greg that a the Wings’ having scored nearly a full goal per game more than the Stars in the postseason means nothing. His reasoning:

GAA regular season ranks:
#2 Anaheim
#3 SJ
#12 Colorado
#15 Calgary Nashville

Kind of makes that full goal per game … a little meaningless, doesn’t it?

Okay. Point taken. But I’ve noticed a slight flaw in your argument. The Wings were #1 in regular season GAA, so that near-goal differential becomes just a little more meaningful. Of course, the Stars are second in post-season GAA at 2.00 (compare to the Wings’ third-place 2.10), so regular season stats aren’t really applicable. This is the third round, after all. Let’s forget the stats and watch them play it out on the ice instead.

Links

Gorilla Crouch: Five questions for the Conference Finals

James Mirtle: Q&A with Stars blogger Mark Stepneski.

Earl Sleek: The Battle of California blogger has thoughts on the series.

Octopus twirling ban lifted, with a catch

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 7, 2008
in NHL, Playoffs and The Team
. 1 Comment

Update (9:09 PM): George Malik has more. He’s not satisfied. To be clear, neither am I, but we can only hope that the League relaxes more in the future. I’m not holding my breath. - Matt

Citizens of Hockeytown, rejoice! Helene St. James now reports that the League has lifted the ban on octopus twirling at the Joe.

The only catch is that Al Sobotka can’t do it out on the ice. He has to save it for the Zamboni pit instead because the League is still holding to the myth that “matter” flies off a twirled octopus and creates hazards on the ice.

No new word on how the octopus will make it to Sobotka’s hand. I assume he’s still not allowed to go out to get it himself, so he’ll have to wait for the officials to make the handoff.

Even though sight of the twirl will be more limited in the confined space of the Zamboni pit, Al should be able to fire the crowd up again. I’d like to see the League give up the rule on the twirl altogether, but this is a more satisfactory arrangement.

FanHouse previews Wings/Stars

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 7, 2008
in Links, Playoffs and Stars
. 0 Comments

Bruce Ciskie has a preview of the Western Conference Finals up at AOL FanHouse.

Q&A with Mirtle

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 7, 2008
in Hockey Bloggers, Playoffs and Stars
. 0 Comments

James Mirtle asked me to do a Q&A on the Wings/Stars series yesterday. The result is here. Thanks again, James!

MacLeod on Turco

Published
by
Matt Saler
on May 7, 2008
in Links, Marty Turco, Playoffs and Stars
. 0 Comments

Bruce MacLeod has a look at Marty Turco’s puck handling ability here.

It’s certainly going to be a challenge for the Wings and one players like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are no doubt looking forward to facing. Marty will have to be careful where he puts the puck when those two are on the ice.