Gorilla Crouch

I used this clip regarding the Detroit Tigers last season and it certainly fits for the Dallas Stars, who have taken the last two games to get themselves back into the Western Conference Finals.

Dallas should be gaining confidence. Game 6 is at their arena and they finally held the ZDH line off the scoreboard. Bruce MacLeod has mentioned that Detroit isn’t getting any goals from the second line since Johan Franzen has been out of the lineup and that is becoming a cause for concern. Valtteri Filppula did set up Dan Cleary for a great scoring chance early in the game yesterday but Marty Turco made a sharp stop. He earned his first victory in Detroit, which is another positive sign for the Stars.

If the Red Wings are a one line team then that makes it much easier for the Stars to focus on shutting that line down. Yesterday the guys Dallas had on the ice the most against the ZDH line were Mattias Norstrom, Brenden Morrow, Stephane Robidas, Steve Ott and Mike Ribeiro. It might make sense to split up the top line if Mule isn’t expected back in the series. The Red Wings need one more win and tinkering with the lineup while in Dallas could be a good way to try and get a mismatch and gain a lead. After playing from behind the entire series the Stars have spent much of the last two games playing with the lead. I have to think getting out to a quick lead will take Dallas out of their comfort zone of how they want to play, will force them to start pressing, and will potentially get them to start doubting themselves.

The Red Wings are playing sound hockey and they are still in good shape in the series. However with only one line being a scoring threat they are allowing Dallas to focus all their attention on that line. When Valtteri Filppula was playing on Pavel Datsyuk’s line he started scoring goals. The one downside with putting Hank on a line with Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson is they don’t have a really great setup man for Z. But at this point with Detroit only scoring one goal in each of the past two games I really don’t know what other options they have, unless Franzen is ready to return to the lineup. That doesn’t seem likely though as he’s just resumed light workouts.

Hank’s line could go head to head with the Morrow, Ribeiro, Ott line and Datsyuk’s line could go up against the Modano, Richards, Hagman line. Morrow and Ott are tough customers, but I think Datsyuk would have some success against the Richards line. Brett Lebda was on the ice for both Dallas goals yesterday but it looks like Mike Babcock was splitting him and Cheli up as one goal came with Kronner on the ice and the other came when Brian Rafalski was the other d-man. Overall they’ve done a good job containing the Stars, they just need to start producing some offense. Splitting the top line ain’t ideal but that might be what it takes to get the job done.

I wasn’t in panic mode when Dallas won Game 4 but I also pointed out that the Stars were doing everything they hadn’t done in the first three games, which obviously wasn’t a good sign from a Detroit perspective. They did the same thing yesterday. Having the series head back to a barn where the Dallas fans are going to be amped is a situation it would have been nice to see Detroit avoid. But I won’t start to panic unless Dallas wins Game 6.

dallas stars NHL Playoffs Red Wings

May 18th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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