So a nice recap from Andy in the comments of the previous post. I, too, was highly disappointed that the Flames turned out to be far more evil than I remember, especially as I have an annoying habit of being a Canadian team apologist. I do tend to walk away from series in which the Wings are beaten with a newfound respect for the opponents (the best example probably being my secret love affair with the NJ Devils ever since 1995). To behave as reprehensibly as Calgary did at the end of game 5 and then spend the next day trying to spin it rather than just saying, "Listen, we screwed up, sorry" was almost worse than the original behavior. You can at least claim being carried off in the moment. Even the evil TB didn't have the audacity to say, "Yeah, I was trying to get Steve Moore to fight, and its his fault his neck is broken for being such a pansy" which was essentially the line Playfair took. As it was happening I felt that Playfair must have been at least condoning if not encouraging the behavior on the ice at the end of Game 5. After listening to him talk, I'm sure of it, and that makes it just disgusting.
In any case, we're on to Round 2, and I feel very good about our chances. Sharks or Stars, determined tonight. I guess I don't have a strong preference.
Article From the Calgary Herald
Posted by ktismael at April 23, 2007 3:49 PMWith Round 2 opponent being decided behind me, I really can't say San Jose or Dallas look any less hard. That being the case, as a fan who likes to go to bed midnightish, I'll root for one more round where the opponent is not in the Pacific Time Zone... also Dallas is better for my bracket.
Posted by: andy at April 23, 2007 10:17 PMWell, looks like the Sharks, which I guess is good news, as my prediction about Nabakov being this years incredible goalie seems quite wrong, and I'd rather face a great team with a good goalie than a good team with a great goalie. Just from past experience.
Posted by: ish at April 24, 2007 11:00 AMIt's 1-1, but the Wings have not been the better team. Man, can San Jose move the puck once they set up in the offensive zone. The Wings seemed to get better by abandoning the puck posession game and trying to create offense by jumping on turnovers in the neutral zone. I wonder how long they'll put up with that?
Posted by: andy at April 30, 2007 10:09 AMIs it possible to win a game without spotting them 2 goals first? They seem to be able to score 2 at will and then drop back into trap, trap, trap.
Is it possible for me to stay up until the end of West-coast night games which appears to be the only part of the game in which positive things happen? Clearly not.
Posted by: andy at May 3, 2007 10:39 AMA couple of really strong 3rd periods is all we have going for us so far, which is disturbing, since we also have one astoundingly awful 3rd period going for us.
Of course, I wonder if we've got too high an expectation. From watching hockey around the league, it seems there are a lot of teams who win games and even playoff series with almost no puck possession time, taking advantage of giveaways and odd man breaks and occasionally converting one of those chances into a goal. The Wings have never been good at that type of game, but if they can learn to do it with some consistency and win games with it, then I guess I have to learn to accept it, even if it looks sloppy and random to me.
However, the horrible play and very dangerous passes in our own end and the neutral zone have got to stop. Yes, Pavel and Hank, I know you could do it whenever you wanted in the regular season and the forecheck couldn't stop it. (And for the record, I complained about it then, too.) But have you noticed yet that this is a very different team we're facing? If you pass all the way across the ice from inside your own zone to clear, you're only going to create scoring chances for the Sharks. I think I only saw 2 of those passes connect successfully and the rest turned into great shots (usually 3 on 1) for Hasek to turn away.
But if they can tighten up that, I still feel pretty good about it.
Posted by: ish at May 3, 2007 11:16 AMOne more day until Round 3.
After Game 1 in Round 2 I simply assumed they were toast; I've never seen such a lopsided effort. Somehow, the Wings found a way to come back and embarrass SJ. They really never looked all that good doing it. There were a lot of bad passes, a lot of poor anticipation and running around in the defensive zone, a lot of failed clearing attempts, and a lot of terrible first periods.
We're in the conference Finals, but I'm not really sure how. They really could play a lot better than they have already. TB has been essentially useless, as has Kyle Calder. Pavel and Henrik have not scored on the road. If at least some of these issues are not resolved, the Ducks look to advance in 5 games again. If most of these issues are resolved, I don't see how the Ducks have a chance.
I really don't know what to expect, but predicting doom and dismay has worked for me so far this season, I will stick with it:
DOOM! DISMAY!
Posted by: andy at May 10, 2007 3:46 PM