So close…
First, a short comment on my hiatus. The running has gone very well this winter and spring. I’ve run my best times ever at distances from 5-k to 25-k and am getting ready to run a marathon this fall. My goal time is 2:45 and I feel pretty good about my prospects of hitting that time.
Now on to the Red Wings
I’m of the opinion that the Stanley Cup is the most difficult championship to win in team sports. The Red Wings in particular are given all sorts of crap for having not won more championships than they should have given their level of play over the past 15 years. James Mirtle has a great post about Detroit’s utter dominance over this time period.
I think Detroit’s playoff history just perfectly illustrates how incredibly difficult it is to win that damn silver goblet. This year’s Stanley Cup Finals series reminded me quite a bit of the Western Conference Finals series against Anaheim following the 2006-07 season. For instance:
2006-07
Over the course of the series Detroit actually outscored Anaheim 17-16.
2008-09
Over the course of the series Detroit outscored Pittsburgh 17-14.
2006-07:
Detroit lost Niklas Kronwall late in the season for the entire playoffs.
2008-09:
Detroit lost Andreas Lilja late in the season for the entire playoffs.
2006-07:
Detroit lost Mathieu Schneider prior to the Western Conference Finals.
2008-09:
Detroit lost Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski for part of the playoffs.
2006-07:
Scott Neidermayer gave Detroit fits en route to the Conn Smythe trophy.
2008-09:
Evgeni Malkin gave Detroit fits en route to the Conn Smythe trophy.
2006-07:
Pavel Datsyuk got called for a very ticky-tack hooking penalty in a pivotal Game 5 that put Anaheim back in a game they’d go on to win.
2008-09:
Jonathan Ericsson got called late in Game 3 for doing what Hal Gill had been doing all series long and the resulting power play gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead that would end up being the game-winning goal. If Detroit was up 3-0 after that game the series is all but over.
With that being said, I was happy to see the officials swallow the whistle for large stretches of this series. The game had much better flow to it and it made for much better hockey. Outside of late in Game 2 when Malkin went postal or Game 5 when the Penguins melted down, there were never more than 3 penalties called in any of the final two periods of any game. And most of those final two periods had two or fewer penalties called in each period.
No, I think that ultimately injuries are what cost Detroit in each of those two playoff series. If they were healthy in both of them we could realistically be talking about Detroit wining back to back to back championships. Instead it’s one championship.
I haven’t heard anyone criticize him but I am still a very big fan of Mike Babcock. He’s taken three teams to the Stanley Cup Finals over the past six seasons, won once and has come up short in Game 7 twice. He’s won 50 or more games in his first four seasons as Detroit’s coach, which is an NHL-record for starting a head-coaching gig. He’s also helped the team set a new NHL record for consecutive seasons with 100 or more points as the team has a 9-season streak intact.
So I guess that’s my way of saying I don’t blame the loss on coaching. The Cup is just so damn tough to win. You have to be skilled but you also have to be lucky. If Patrick Sharp doesn’t try to make an omelette with Nick Lidstrom’s nether-regions or if Brian Rafalski doesn’t suffer a herniated disc AND a separated shoulder then in a 7 game series you have to like Detroit’s chances. It just didn’t work out that way.
I feel bad for Marian Hossa. Not that he didn’t win the Cup, because I never felt like it was a given, particularly with how the team played during the regular season. I just feel bad because I don’t see how on earth he can sign in Detroit and if that happens after his performance during the Finals then he’s going to be hated not only in Pittsburgh but in Detroit as well. Sergei Fedorov won three Cups in Detroit and when he left he was booed every single time he touched the puck when playing for Anaheim or Columbus. Hossa is probably going to receive the same treatment if he doesn’t sign with Detroit. For the record I still think he is “one and done” to use a college basketball term.
Losing Andreas Lilja during the season probably doesn’t sound like much of a loss. But with Chris Chelios no longer being able to play the game at the highest level and with Lilja out of the lineup, Nick Lidstrom didn’t have either of his previous PK’ing defensive partners [Danny Markov was in there for a season] on the ice during the playoffs.
Add in Lidstrom’s injury and it’s no surprise Detroit’s PK was the third-worst during the playoffs. During the playoffs the Wings heavily rotated Jonathan Ericsson, Nicklas Lidstrom and Brad Stuart and the results weren’t pretty.
While it’s true the PK was generally awful during the regular season I still think Lilja would have made a positive contribution during the playoffs. He had the lowest goals against/60 mins short-handed during the regular season for D-men who play 1.5 or more minutes short-handed per game. So it couldn’t have possibly gotten any worse with Lilja out there and they would have likely fared better.
Hopefully Lilja will recover from his concussion and will be able to play out the final year of his contract. If he cannot return due to the concussion he suffered late in the season the team is going to have figure out how to improve their dreadful penalty-kill.
Marathon training starts full-tilt so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to post but I’d like to throw in my thoughts on how the team will approach filling out it’s roster. Sometime after next weekend’s draft when we find out the salary cap for the 2009-2010 season sounds like as good a time as any.
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