On the Wings

The Wings advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2002 with their 2-0 win over San Jose in Game 6 last night. It was one of the team’s strongest performances of the playoffs, I thought, and it was a fitting end to the series.

The Sharks came out hitting hard from the start. Clowe had a big first shift, running Nicklas Lidstrom into the endboards and then going after Kirk Maltby. It was obvious what the San Jose gameplan was in the early minutes: knock some Wings out of the game the same way Mathieu Schneider was knocked out of Game 5. The Wings weathered the storm, however, particularly since the guys the Sharks were targeting are some of the smartest veterans in the business. Still, the Sharks mostly controlled play for the first 10 minutes or so, as the Wings started a little slow. They sold out on defense, though, and held San Jose off, eventually getting rolling.

Mikael Samuelsson opened the scoring at 15:26 when Johan Franzen made a beautiful long pass to him over the blueline. Sammy broke in on Nabokov behind the defense, deked, and sent the puck into the vacated net. A great goal. Not long after that, the Sharks took a penalty, but came closer to scoring on the kill than they had all game to that point. Dominik Hasek, trying to handle the puck down low, was rushed by Mike Grier and ended up passing it directly to him. Grier went around the back of the net for a wrap-around and Lidstrom rushed to the goalmouth, diving and getting his stick there in time to knock Grier’s early shot away. Not long after that, Datsyuk and Franzen both made great dekes in sequence and nearly scored. The Sharks earned a 2-on-1 in the final minute, but Hasek stoned the puck carrier. At 19:52, Samulesson struck again, as he and Robert Lang were sprung on a 2-on-1. Sammy kept the puck and shot it just inside the right post and over Nabokov’s glove to make it 2-0.

The Sharks were dangerous early in the second period, but Dominik Hasek was a rock and turned away their shots, regardless of the quality of the scoring chance. Around 6:30, the Sharks had a great scoring chance, but Dom made a save at point blank range to deny them. Not long after that, Jonathan Cheechoo nearly scored in a wide open net off a rush, but his linemate Thornton had knocked the net off and his shot went wide anyway. Soon after, the Wings iced the puck, and Ron Wilson saw fit to squander the advantage he had in being the home team of having the last change, and put out the Marleau line against the Draper line, which had been entirely effective in shutting the Sharks’ captain down. Not sure what Wilson was doing there.

The Wings began asserting themselves offensively again and while running the Sharks around in the offensive zone, Todd Bertuzzi laid a big hit on Brown along the boards. He gave Brown a little bit of a shove at the end of the hit, which resulted Brown’s head bouncing off the glass and the Shark was noticeably woozy for the remainder of the shift. Bit of a borderline play there, Todd. But it was good to see, as he played with an edge after that, so hopefully he’s regaining his taste for physical play. Not long after that, FSN showed a sign made by a San Jose fan that made me laugh: “Chelios, my grandmother is single.” Chelios saw it too and got a kick out of it. I guess people who can’t accept the fact that Chelios is still a great defenseman need to find solace in poking fun at his age. Pretty lame. Why not marvel at the guy’s physical ability? Later in the period, the Sharks started running the Wings again, with Grier going after Lidstrom in the end. Not long after that, Bertuzzi made a nice play driving to the net with Thornton covering. His linemate, following up, nearly scored. Pavel Datsyuk made a nice play at the blueline around the 13:30 mark to keep the puck in and a very hectic pressure shift by the Wings followed. They had the Sharks running around for a solid minute, but nothing game of it, even though Nabokov lost his stick and was playing with a skater’s. Late in the period, Datsyuk and Holmstrom went in on a 2-on-1, but Pavel shot the puck rather than sending it across to Homer. In the final minute, the Sharks pressured in the Wings’ zone and Chris Chelios took a hooking penalty.

The Wings killed off the penalty without much trouble in the third. Kyle Quincey was drilled by Scott Hannan on a carry-in and drew a penalty on the play. The Wings had a decent power play, but couldn’t score. Quincey took a penalty himself on his next shift, but it was the Wings who came closest to scoring. Kirk Maltby broke in on Nabokov shorthanded and tried deking but this time the goalie wasn’t fooled and his pokecheck stripped the puck. Craig Rivet got away with a textbook example of interference on Henrik Zetterberg, but the most interesting development of that power play was the fact that the Sharks’ fans started getting on them. Ranger fans at Madison Square Gardens, they were not. The pace of the game settled down after the Quincey penalty expired, but the Sharks soon began pressuring in the Wings’ zone. Nothing came of it, though, and play began to be more end-to-end. The Wings were turning San Jose’s game on them by blocking shots very well. The Sharks hit the post at 15:40, but that, and a chance by Ehrhoff which was stopped by Hasek, was the closest they came to scoring in the final minutes. Filpulla and Datsyuk had a 2-on-1 break, but Nabokov made the save on Fil. They pulled their goalie with 1:49 or so left, but they couldn’t get solid pressure going with the extra man. Filpulla and Datsyuk were very effective at pestering San Jose puck carriers and the game ended with the Wings on top, 2-0.

Like I said, it was a strong game by the Wings. They showed real determination and strength, which is encouraging to see as we head into the Conference Finals. This group has a commitment to team defense that came out in a big way last night and I think that as long as the forwards are as responsible defensively as they were in Game 6, the Wings will be very hard to stop. Some people may say the Sharks blew the series, but I give the Wings credit for their tenacity and I hope you do too. Sure, the Sharks could have played better, but I think the Wings showed pretty definitively they are the better overall team. I’d also like to see Dominik Hasek get some credit. I was unhappy about his signing last summer because I was afraid he’d get hurt early on (though I knew he’d be great when healthy), but now I don’t regret it at all. I think he may be playing a bigger role in this run than he did in 2002, when the team was so good it could have won with almost anyone in net. This team needs him to back them up, like they need every piece to do its job, and it’s paying off well.

I’m excited to see where this team will go. My confidence is growing.

My condolences to the Sharks fans. Your time will come. You follow a very skilled team. In the meantime, some of you need to hit the books and study up on penalties. All too often last night, the fans at the Shark Tank were booing and jeering perfectly good calls, as well as totally legal defensive plays that obviously were not called for anything. And it was enough different from normal fan chatter to be noticed.

The Wings lost Game 3 of their Western Conference Semifinal series with the Sharks, 2-1 in San Jose last night. It was a game that began with promise, as they came out of the gate charging hard and took a one-goal lead at 11:13 of the first. Gradually, however, the quality of their play slipped and by the third period, they were playing atrocious hockey. Having to deal with officials that either made bad calls or missed calls altogether did not help, of course, but make no mistake, the Wings blew this game. They had a goaltender who was going to the distance to keep them in it, but couldn’t give him the modicum of support he needed to eke out the win. Had they put forth in the third period half the effort they exerted in the first, they would have won, as the Sharks weren’t stellar themselves. They just sucked less.

Like I wrote above, the Wings looked promising at the beginning. They had jump and were creating chances on decent cycle shifts in the San Jose zone. Mathieu Schneider came close to putting the Wings up 1-0 early when he hit the post following a Robert Lang chance. Another shot of his went off the backboards and out front, resulting in another scoring opportunity. The Wings got a power play in the first five minutes but couldn’t do much beyond generate pressure. The Sharks fed off that kill and started asserting themselves. By the midpoint of the period, they were swarming in the Detroit end until Dominik Hasek froze the puck. Soon after that, the Sharks took a penalty and the Wings went on the power play. They scored at 11:13 on a deflected Nick Lidstrom shot and took the lead. After some “skate repairs” for Nabokov (effectively an uncharged timeout for the Sharks), play resumed. The Wings remained dangerous throughout the rest of the period, though their play was hampered by a BS hooking call on Lilja in the final two minutes. Fortunately, the Sharks took a penalty of their own and we finished the period 4-on-4.

Early in the second period, the Sharks began to make their presence known as they started generating some serious pressure in the Detroit end. Danny Markov, in particular, played strong defense during this stretch of play. Robert Lang was slapped with one of the worst penalties I’ve seen in a while at 5:32 when a Shark bounced off him in the slot. Fortunately, the Wings killed off the penalty. After that, the teams were pretty even for a stretch as they traded chances. Around the midpoint of the period, the Wings began to be sloppy in their end and the Sharks soon took advantage of it, scoring a goal at 12:43. Carle took the initial shot and Clowe was able to get to the rebound despite the fact that he was tied up by Lidstrom. The puck went in just under Hasek’s glove on the wrong side of the line between a goal and a brilliant save. Soon after that, Jiri Hudler broke into the San Jose end only to be knocked down without a call. The game sped up as the teams skated the length of the ice with the puck. Todd Bertuzzi took a stupid elbowing penalty at 17:44 and single-handedly killed any momentum the Wings had. Hasek was very good on the PK, making a couple great saves, including stopping what seemed to be a sure goal by Cheechoo. After that, the period wound down without much to report.

After an uneventful first couple minutes, both teams apparently decided to set up in the Detroit end and stop skating. The Wings continually turned over the puck on clearing attempts that wouldn’t have gotten past a bantam team, let alone the Sharks. San Jose forced Hasek to make a number of big stops as they kept getting great chances as the Wings’ defense conceded the zone. The Wings looked slow and lethargic and the Sharks hardly had to work themselves as they stood around cycling the puck. A couple times, they had Dom down and out after a save, but sent it wide. The officials didn’t help, as the ref got in the way of Draper as he was clearing the puck at one point and the disruption ended up causing an icing. Back in the Detroit end, the Wings were getting beaten to just about every puck and were only hanging on by the skin of their teeth as the Sharks put on the pressure. In the offensive zone, even the Wings’ top line couldn’t pass their way out of a wet paper bag in the third period, as one promising-looking shift fizzled out after repeated takeaways were marred by fumblings of the puck. Mike Grier nearly put his team ahead 2-1 at one point after he got behind the Wings’ defense and took a long pass from Marleau. He tipped it wide.

Kris Draper took a penalty at 11:38 in the madness following a glorious San Jose scoring chance. Usually, I would have said it was a good penalty to take, but under the circumstances, having to kill a penalty was the last thing the Wings needed. At 13:19, Cheechoo made it 2-1 after he pounced on the rebound from a McLaren shot. With Hasek down and out, he pulled the puck, maneuvered around the prone goalie, and got it into the open net just as three Red Wings converged on him.

The Wings got another power play not long after that, but did nothing with it. Following the power play, Robert Lang made a nice play to Jiri Hudler, but Huds was quite literally tackled by Hannan in front of the net. No call. With time winding down and the Wings’ hopes of a comeback dwindling, the officials essentially made the Sharks’ win official by slapping Todd Bertuzzi with a completely bogus tripping call. I must say Kyle McLaren went down rather easily on that one. Looking back over the penalties Todd has taken since donning the Winged Wheel, it seems to me that the officials in this league are willing to call anything and everything he does while they’ll let other players get away with murder. I know why that is, but that doesn’t make it right. Anyway, they killed off the penalty and made a final push. Pavel Datsyuk had a nice chance cut short by a blatant hooking by the San Jose defenseman, though Joe Thornton got credit for a nice defensive play when he knocked away the puck Pavel lost as a result of the hook. The period wound down after that with an anticlimactic final seconds faceoff.

A few random notes:

… I wonder how many times Joe Thornton got kicked out of the faceoff circle last night. I can think of two instances: one where he tapped Zetterberg on the skate for no apparent reason, the other at the end of the game. Just an interesting thing to note.

… Todd Bertuzzi needs to be better. He does some good things, but far too often, he’s floating. And, I’ll be glad when he’s not the one setting up the screen on the power play. His size is nice there, but the fact that he turns and jumps into the air on every shot shows he doesn’t have Homer’s fearlessness in facing the shot. Unless he can find a way to make the puck go in on the earthquake he causes when he lands, it’s not going to work.

… Someone apparently lit a fire under Lang’s rear end because he showed some real jump in the first period. But after his penalty, he fizzled out. Again.

… Henrik Zetterberg is playing well considering his back is a problem, but too often he still tries to do it all. I’ve grown tired of seeing him skate into three defenders and lose the puck because he has no one to pass it to. Hank, either wait until your linemates catch up or dump it in and go around the defenders to pick it up there.

… I suspect Jiri Hudler will be the player benched when Tomas Holmstrom returns for Game 4. His size makes line matchups a concern on the road and he didn’t have the world’s greatest game last night. He had a couple chances where the puck came to him on a glorious scoring chance that fizzled out when he fanned on the shot. You need to bury those, Jiri.

… I know the Wings scored a power play goal on a blueline shot, but that seems to be the exception rather than the rule these days. They need to find a way to get that shot set up, particularly from Mathieu Schneider. One shot in three games doesn’t cut it, especially after you had 34 in the first round, Mathieu. Soft wristers from 30 feet don’t really do the job either.

… So, the Wings showed it doesn’t matter whether you start fast or end fast, you can still lose. I would love to see them play a whole game like they’ve played in various single periods. (if they put the three good periods they’ve had together, they’d have a full game!) Hopefully they’ll find a way to put forth a more complete effort on Wednesday or Saturday could be the first and last stop in their farewell tour.

… Oh yeah: I don’t want to hear anything from Sharks fans about the Joe. The Tank seemed about as silent as a tomb for the majority of the game last night, unless you count the booing when icings and offsides were called. It wasn’t until the Sharks took the lead that the fans began to make noise. I’ve criticized the Joe for sounding more like a restaurant than a hockey arena, but even the rich casual fans who meander in during the second period and leave early in the third are louder than that.

… One last thing: the ice at the Tank sucked. It was evident by the way players on both teams went flying like a runningback tackled by what we football players call “the turf monkey.” I remember at least three instances where a San Jose rush was cut short by a Shark wiping out for no apparent reason. Dangerous.

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. I need to start working on stuff for finals.