Round 2, Game 4: Sharks at Red Wings
This was reminiscent of Game 7–in an elimination game, the Wings really have brought it. The question is now, can they keep it up for 3 more? Each game from here on out is a Game 7.
The Wings proved that they’re not done yet, but realistically, it’s one game. And a blowout, no less. It’s not abnormal to get that in an elimination situation. It’s keeping it up and not losing in San Jose for Game 5.
Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Todd Bertuzzi (pp; Franzen, Zetterberg); Johan Franzen (Zetterberg, Lidstrom); Johan Franzen (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom); Johan Franzen (unassisted); Valtteri Filppula (Holmstrom, Datsyuk); Brian Rafalski (pp; Bertuzzi, Franzen); Johan Franzen (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom)
San Jose: Dany Heatley (pp; Thornton, Marleau)
+ Holy. Johan. Franzen. He was saying he hasn’t felt 100% yet. We’ve all been saying “where’s the post-season Mule?” Mule got hit with a too many men on the ice penalty a minute into the game, and Babcock was clearly unhappy with him, since it took about 4 minutes after that gaffe for him to see ice. But boy oh boy did he make an effort to get out of the doghouse, with a hat trick. Franzen recorded the 2nd fastest hat trick in playoff history in 3:26, only 2 seconds off the current record by Tim Kerr from 1985 (source: ESPN).
Welcome back, playoff Mule. It reminded me of the 2008 Colorado series. TSN showed a shot of Mule on the bench and he just looked so focused, and in the zone, it was incredible. Utter domination.
+ Clearly, making the line changes up top helped. Bertuzzi, Zetterberg and Franzen all combined for 13 points. All three of them had a fantastic game.
+ 5 goals in the first period. That’s what I’m talking about. Hilariously, SJS actually outshot Detroit in the first, where all the scoring happened, 11-9. For his services, Nabokov sits on the bench with a .444 SV% after 20 minutes.
+ Also, aLOL (™ Tyler) at Dan Boyle. He tried to pass to Douglas Murray, who was camped out right in front of Nabokov, and the puck bounced off Murray’s skate, and slid past Nabokov, who wasn’t very aware. That’s pretty much the second time this post-seaon that Boyle has, for all points and purposes, scored in his own net.
– I hate how GameCenter Live never shows the full feed from TSN–they cut to reruns of commercials and filler from NHLN during TV time outs and intermissions, and then I miss information. Like Brad Stuart getting hit hard in the 1st and not coming back. Good news is, he’ll likely be back for Game 5.
– Pot, meet kettle. Joe Thornton was making diving motions with his hands when he got sent to the box for knocking over Holmstrom, and has been quoted as saying “I thought they were diving around there pretty good.” Just… shut up. Seriously. Now, I don’t condone the Wings stooping to their level, but the Sharks do deserve a taste of their own medicine, so to speak.
+ I love seeing Abdelkader being gritty and mixing it up. He owned Nichols in their “fight,” just dropping him to the ice. I’ve said it before, but he’s becoming the next Kirk Maltby in terms of agitating, and playing a simple, solid defensive 4th liner role.
What needs to be kept in mind is that this is one game–a game that several are calling an outlier because it was such a blowout. And many are also quick to point out that the Wings haven’t strung together two strong games back to back in this post-season yet. But Saturday’s another Game 7. And from what we’ve seen, the Wings have done pretty well in elimination scenarios.
