Last year in our first trip to the playoffs I made the haul up to Detroit. As luck would have it Clay Hall and Anthony Rothman stopped me for an interview. They wanted to know the keys to the game… I said 1. Need to have a strong forecheck to put pressure on their d 2. Score early. These keys certainly did not happen in that serious… they did not happen tonight. If you didn’t see the game or see a box score… let’s just say we lost by more than 5 goals…
This game could have easily blended into last years playoff series. Well on second thought, it was much worse. The Wings weathered all of our scoring chances, went down the ice and practically scored at will. Nice puck luck, bad goaltending, d-zone turnovers. They scored on all of them tonight and made us look silly. I sat watching, hoping the game would end and hoping we wouldn’t give up any more goals. I’m sure the players felt the same way.
Not one, but two of our players were hit with slapshots in the head… that has to sum up the night.
I’ll get it out of the way early. Steve Mason was not good. I’m not sure if there is an explanation for his inconsistency this season, but it has to be unsettling. You can see the difference in team play when they are completely confident in the goaltending. When you give up 8 goals in a game… You didn’t do well, in fact you flat out sucked.
The Red Wings do things that it seems no other teams do. Little things. Little spins, little flip passes toward the goal, and they always seem to find one-timers on the rush. Regardless of their personnel they always seem to play like this. Not to much superior puck possession and board play.Their special-magic white jerseys also disguise what would look to the naked eye as penalties. The non-goalie interference call isn’t even worth arguing since we got destroyed.
The Big Plus Jan Hejda and the top line were not good tonight against Datysuk. I know with Huselius is out of the lineup, but our top line has been spotty in shutdown duty. To have success in the playoffs… this HAS to improve.
Mancrush of the Night: I’ll pick out Klesla tonight. Sure, the defense was terrible and he wasn’t good, but the dude keeps putting his face in front of slapshots. He has seriously large gonads. He’s been in a heap after blocking a shot for three games straight. Somehow Hejda was -3 and Klesla was 0 and they were paired together…
Whipping Boy tonight… Let’s just go with the team. The got shaken and rattled early and the Wings went for blood and got it.
I’m sure you have them… comments? Dare I say, Fire Away!