Bring on The Sharkies!!! Round One Review

(I started this blog before Round Two, so I will follow up with a take on The Sharks series next, which we are currently losing 2-0)

So not unlike a candidate on election day I had a concession of defeat blog and a victory blog mentally prepared for my next entry. Thank goodness I am typing with a grin on my face. We survived The Coyotes and showed the league in Game 7 that the team that made it to the last two Stanley Cup Finals is still around until proven otherwise. This series featured drama from the opening face off. Great goal tending from Bryzgalov & Howard. Wild bursts of scoring, such as the 4 goals in 5 minutes of Game 2. A tight defensive effort from both teams, and a great series through Game 7. The only thing missing was Overtime, and thankfully to many Wings defenders, Shane Doan for the last 4 games of the series. We took over the checking game from Game 3 onward and that was huge. Games 6 and 7 were the only games that were not decided but one goal or important play. Phoenix took it to us in our own building for Game 6. Credit to their goalie for stealing that game. He kept The Coyotes in the game under a flurry of shots until The Wings fell apart a bit with the turnovers. Much has been made of Brad Stuart fumbling the puck into a Short Handed Coyotes goal. I say the man has been playing exceptional defense for 25 minutes a night all season, and he has been all around solid. Thankfully, he popped in the back breaking goal of Game 7 so everybody can go back to loving Stuart. The Wings likely endangered their long term Cup chances by allowing this series to return to Phoenix. This extra game and travel is really going to wear the team down for San Jose.

Game 7 was the break out game for a Wings offense that had shown signs of previous glory, but not yet busted out. So much credit to Dave Tippet's defense for that. They really bottled up the neutral zone and made establishing play in Bryzgalov land next to impossible. The First Period was a scary for Wings fans in that our quality scoring chances were 9-2 in our favor and Bryzgalov looked unbeatable. Not only did the constant pressure from The Wings were down the Coyote defense, it finally got to their Goalie. Four goals in the 2nd period, end of series. The Wings showed they still have a lot of playoff fight by solving the stingy Coyote trap and wearing out the likely Vezina Trophy winner.

Before we address our West Coast opponent, let's pause for a review of what was the most exciting Round One Playoff yet. I still have approximately 12 hours of DVR games to review admittedly because it's a little difficult to keep up with 8 separate match ups. I base my impressions of the teams on watching portions of games from each match but more importantly, from viewing "Coaches Corner", "After 40 Minutes", "Coast To Coast", "The Hot Stove", and "After Hours" on CBC's "Hockey Night In Canada." Every Spring I am again elated with the in depth coverage CBC has to offer between periods. P.J. Stock gives great up to the minute updates between periods, Mike Milbury, Ron McLean and Kelly Hrudey break down specific plays within the game that will likely reveal the outcome of the series, or at least explain hockey in ways that unravel the mysteries of the game to somebody like myself that never played the sport. They even started up the I Desk last year, where HNIC anchors keep up with every NHL commentary and transaction popping up online by the minute. It is the most in depth sports coverage imaginable and I highly recommend at least watching the between period analysis to understand playoff hockey!

So far, HNIC has not chimed in on The Red Wings, which is interesting. Part of that is due to the coverage war going on with Versus. Versus has established exclusivity (at least where it is carried in The U.S.) over certain matches, such as Montreal vs. Washington, and HNIC likely would not get coverage of a Wings game until Round 3, which completely blows. At least Verses has DMac on their staff but they don't roll through game tape in the middle of a broadcast like the HNIC people do. And there play by play is atrocious, but enough about that.

Habs over Caps in 7: The shocker of the first round... nobody in our playoff pool or on HNIC gave Monteal a chance and here it was, a Game 7 upset for The Habs, in Washington. Now Wings fans can hope they do the same thing to Sidney Crosby and The Pens if not just because we are still bitter. The story of this series was Jaroslav Halek. The Habs Goalie has been in and out of a back up role for 3 seasons now, but earned the starting job over Carey Price. His 53 save performance of Game 6 really got into the heads of Ovechkin and the highest scoring team of the regular season. Gomez and Gionta worked their magic and showed both Montreal and New Jersey fans just how valuable they are. (The now eliminated Devils let them both go last summer.) The turning point was Game 5. The Caps up 3 games to 1, were down a goal, and when Varlamov headed for the bench for the extra attacker, a Canadian shot was heading for The Washington net, Varly turned around, but the extra attacker was already in play, leading to a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty. Coach Boudreau completely lost it on his goalie and team, and in my opinion they looked shell shocked after that game. This was the first time in NHL History that an 8th seed came back from a 3-1 deficit. Ouch!

Flyers over Devils in 5: The other major upset in The East. How can you not pick Brodeur to go at least 2 rounds in the playoffs? After another great season for him and the addition of Kovalchuk to the team The Devils seemed primed for a Cup run. Eastern Conference, meet Chris Pronger. And you can keep him. Pronger is once again the end of the road for so many teams. His shot from the point, hard checks, and incredible leadership once again has a seemingly mediocre team playing out of their minds. Phili also is powered by Mike Richards, Danny Briere, the surprising goal tending of Brian Boucher and the meanest team ever assembled. The portions of games I witnessed were not even close in this one.

Bruins over Sabres in 6: Yep, another upset. Another elite Goalie, Ryan Miller, booted in Round One. I thought The Sabres were just outworked and completely lacked defensive cohesion. They lost Vanek in Game 2, and that hurts, but this series turned on Sabres turnovers deep in their own zone. Boston would start cycling and The Sabres did not have an answer. Tukka Rask has been amazing. It is nice to see Boston make a run a year after they were supposed to. This year they had no real chance, and now they look great. The scary part is they get Marc Savard back for Round 2 vs. Phili.

Pens over Senators in 6: The series of The Overtime... this one featured the first Triple OT of the playoffs, and over 8 games worth of hockey. Ottawa did a great job of keeping up with the much faster Pens, and Leclair stole a couple of games, but once again The Sens get a horrible first round draw. Crosby continues to grow his legend, as he was the unstoppable force of Round One with 14 points. The Pens are still a legit Cup contender, as much as Wings fans would love to see them go away for a while. And the early exit of The Caps may have helped them. We shall see what Montreal can do.

Sharks over Avs in 6: The pressure on San Jose to deliver a cup is immense given the past several years of early exits. The Avs have no pressure whatsoever so they came out and really out skated and out hit The Sharkies for portions of the first 4 games. Craig Anderson stole a couple of these games for The Avs but eventually the over whelming amount of talent in San Jose took over. It was telling that both The San Jose GM and their fans were going nuts and visibly distraught when The Sharkies lost Game 1. It would be nice if The Wings could take advantage of the obvious pressure on the coast.

Black Hawks over Predators in 6: Once again The Preds are a very well coached team by Jack Adams candidate Barry Trotz. Their suffocating D zone coverage was very similar to The Coyotes. Chicago did a good job of being patient and waiting out a tough 6 game series for the offensive talent to take over. Both new playoff goalies Antti Niemi and Pekka Rinne were fabulous. The turning point was in Game 5 when The Preds has a 1 goal lead with over a minute left. Hossa took a nasty boarding penalty, negating the extra attacker. The Preds blew this upset chance by attacking the Hawks goal rather than eating a minute of time by cycling the boards. A picked off errant pass, a nice goal by Patrick Kane and it went to OT. Hossa came out of the box from a 5 minute major to finish off the Preds with a game winner, and ultimately the series.

Canucks over Kings in 6: The Sedin Twins look unstoppable right now. They are just scoring at will and I find The Canucks to be one of the more entertaining teams in hockey. The Kings did a great job of turning this into a series. Jon Quick was solid in his first playoff series and this also brought Norris Trophy candidate Drew Doughty into the spotlight. His zone coverage and offensive set ups kept The Kings around for 6 games and they can really build around Doughty for the future.

Thankfully, the only top 4 seed in The West to get knocked off was Phoenix. On to Round Two...

Into The Shark Tank. The NHL schedule hits The Wings hard again as they get one day rest before Game One at The Shark Tank. I expect that may really hinder our chances out of the gate but I also think The Wings can get to Nabokov and can skate with the high flying Sharks. San Jose is definitely a strong home team so this will be a really tough test for The Wings. If Game 7 truly got our offense into gear this will be a highly entertaining series. The other series are full of intrigue as well...

Pens vs. Canadians, Flyers vs. Bruins, Canucks vs. Black Hawks. More great hockey to follow...