Game 5 Reaction and Commentary
Ansar Khan from MLIVE comments on the resiliency the Red Wings have shown in the series against San Jose thus far:
The Detroit Red Wings have demonstrated their resiliency throughout the playoffs, overcoming injuries and slow starts against teams that were supposedly bigger and tougher, and in San Jose’s case, deeper and quicker, too.
The Wings’ 4-1 victory against the Sharks Saturday afternoon in Game 5 of the series at Joe Louis Arena was another example. The Wings fell behind early and played virtually the entire game with only five defensemen, after losing Mathieu Schneider early on with a broken left wrist. And still they found a way to overcome adversity.
The two 2-0 comebacks in particular remind me of an improbable comeback Detroit had in a game against the New York Islanders on January 30. The Islanders played similar to the way San Jose has early in many of the games in this series and built up a 3-0 lead in that game before the Red Wings clawed back to win that game 4-3 in overtime.
Khan also has an article that covers how the Red Wings will try to cover for the loss of Mathieu Schneider and why the PK has been so effective in shutting down a very potent Sharks power play.
When the team learned early in the first period that Schneider, injured in a collision with Sharks forward Patrick Marleau, would be lost, captain Nicklas Lidstrom delivered a message to the forwards.
“We’re telling the forwards that they got to get the puck in (deep) so we can go for a change,'’ Lidstrom said. “When you’re only three (defensemen) sitting on the bench, you have to rotate the D and try to stay fresh and take short shifts.'’
…
“Our whole team responded to Schneider’s injury,'’ Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “With five (defenseman) it was evident you can’t spend a lot of time in your zone. We knew we had to get after it. Everyone on the back line played hard.'’Chelios ended up playing 25:40 and even replaced Schneider on the point on the power play, something he said last week he’d been lobbying to do.
“Cheli took his spot and did a great job,'’ Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom said. “Sure we missed Schneids on the point and his great shot, but other guys stepped in good there.'’
Dominik Hasek remarked that Cheli was also a key to the penalty kill:
“Penalty-killing was great today,'’ Wings goaltender Dominik Hasek said. “We were communicating well, you could hear Cheli was talking, I was talking. They were blocking the shots.'’
Getting Brett Lebda back - assuming he’s close to full-speed - will also help to get another solid shot-blocker on the ice. Bill over at Abel to Yzerman also commented on the effectiveness of Detroit’s penalty kill in this article.
Mitch Albom from the Free Press had a chance to ask Mike Babcock a question about Dominik Hasek’s play yesterday and he was able to work the coach’s response into this column:
“I made a bad mistake in the first period,” Hasek said, “and their goalie made a bad mistake in the second period.”
The difference was, Hasek’s was his only bad play all game. A lot of goalies give up an easy shot early on, it spells disaster for the rest of the game. Not this guy.
“Pat Verbeek told me as soon as Dom got mad at himself, the game was over,” coach Mike Babcock said later, chuckling. “He just is mentally tough. He knows how to play and that’s why we’re always in the game. He’s gonna shut the door and give us a chance. And that’s what he did.”
The only thing you need to do to really gauge the importance of Dominik Hasek is look at the long stretches San Jose goes without scoring in the later stages of the game:
Game 1 - Last 49:51 of play
Game 2 - Last 55:43 of play
Game 3 - Last 6:41 of play
Game 4 - Last 49:57 of play
Game 5 - Last 55:07 of play
Hasek simply shuts the door. The only time the Sharks scored anywhere approaching late in the game is the last game they won, and that was a 2-1 decision. Through Game 5 Hasek is allowing 1.8 goals per game.
Christy from Behind the Jersey has her game recap up and comments on the likelihood that Brett Lebda will play tomorrow night:
Lebda did finally skate on his ankle and said it felt better than he expected. Personally, I don’t think Lebda would’ve played on Monday, but I think there is a chance now that Schneider is out.
I think it will really depend on how Lebda does during the morning skate tomorrow. If he looks like he has full mobility he will play, albeit with less minutes than usual. If he isn’t ready to go either Derek Meech or Jonathan Ericsson will be put in the lineup and will also play limited minutes, probably less than 10 minutes.
The big surprise is that Kyle Quincey really hasn’t looked out of place and Mike Babcock was comfortable enough with his play to give him just over 15 minutes of ice time. Brett Lebda was in the same situation last year in the playoffs, so don’t be shocked when Quincey makes the team coming out of training camp next season.
Ted Kulfan commented on the potent top line for Detroit. Tomas Holmstrom’s return to the lineup has kickstarted the line and they kicked their production into overdrive yesterday afternoon.
The Wings [overcame the loss of Mathieu] Schneider on Saturday, thanks mainly to the offense from the line of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom. Each had a goal, with both Zetterberg and Datsyuk also supplying two assists. Holmstrom had one assist.
…Holmstrom also had a power-play goal. “They were great,” Babcock said. “They have the ability to be difference-makers.”
They are likely to figure prominently if Detroit is to win the series on Monday night.
Bob Wojnowski offers up a different perspective from the view that San Jose is simply giving the game away.
Detroit is playing as if…[they’re]…afraid of nothing - not San Jose’s size, not San Jose’s youth, not the occasional one- or two-goal deficit…and while the Sharks will lament that they’re giving it away, I’m convinced the Wings are taking it away.
Goalie Dominik Hasek looks stronger and stronger as the games go on and the series goes on. He doesn’t win every game by himself but he never loses one by himself. Right now, he’s the difference.
The Wings’ top line of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holstrom looks stronger and stronger as the games go on and the series goes on. Saturday, those three were just shy of phenomenal. They contributed to all of Detroit’s goals…
He also commented on how the Sharks lost their composure late in the game and how it might have signaled the true turning point in this series:
By the end of this one, the Sharks were looking vaguely like the frustrated Calgary Flames, who tried to beat on the Wings when they knew they couldn’t beat ‘em. Joe Thornton, Mark Smith and Scott Hannan all took roughing penalties in the third period.
A clearly upset Ron Wilson said that his team was “playing with emotion” when they were taking all those roughing penalties. Wilson said he appreciated their efforts. If they continue to “play with emotion” in Game 6 they will likely give Detroit plenty of power play opportunities. Since Tomas Holmstrom returned to the lineup the power play has gone 4-12 for Detroit (33%).
George Malik’s Snapshots blog has lots of great multimedia links in this post.
Finally, Jerry Green from the Detroit News has a good article where he reminisces about the days of the Original Six and classic playoff matchups against the Maple Leafs, Candadiens and Black Hawks. It’s great to read about those great teams and matchups, and I agree with his criticism on how the league expanded far too quickly. But I part ways on the belief that NHL playoff games don’t mean as much since 2/3 of those teams didn’t make the playoffs. It’s different to be sure but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Colorado had no history at all when the Wings were playing against them in the playoffs in the 90s but those were classic matchups.
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[…] Second Star - Dominik Hasek Dom found it tough to do the chicken dance while holding his stick Jed Jacobsohn - Getty Images There was a lot of talk following the first round series about how Dominik Hasek didn’t have to face many shots. The shot differential grew closer in the series against San Jose but Hasek still made several big saves to keep Detroit in games and to preserve leads. I commented in this post on how Dom has shut the door during long stretches of the latter parts of games. In four of the first 5 games he did not allow a goal over the last 50 minutes of play. He followed that up with a Game 6 performance where he didn’t allow a single goal. In 10 of the 12 games Detroit has played in the playoffs the Red Wings have given up 2 or fewer goals. […]