Before the puck drops in Game 1, the Wings and Sharks can compare
the wounds they suffered in the first round against two of the more
physical teams in the conference. Detroit took everything the Calgary
Flames dished out and the Sharks made it look easier than it was in
erasing the gnarly Predators in the opening round.
Detroit would rather not play the pounding, checking game they were
required to play against the Flames, while San Jose is a team built
for skating and punishment with their combination of speed and size.
Nicklas Lidstrom and the Wings defense are going to have a hard time
tracking the San Jose attack, which averages over six-feet tall up
front.
The Red Wings might not have goalmouth force Tomas Holmstrom for
the beginning of the series as he’s day-to-day nursing an eye injury,
so the offense is going to have to come from other outlets until he’s
ready to go. If scorers like Pavel Datsyuk and Robert Lang can’t get
hot, it could be a short series for Detroit, a team that has made it
out of the first round only twice since winning the Stanley Cup in
2002.
This is as far as the Sharks got a year ago and they seem to be on
a mission to improve on last spring’s second-round elimination. Could
there be a changing of the guard under way in the Western Conference
power structure? Stay tuned.
Detroit Game Breakers
Pavel
Datsyuk
– Who says he doesn’t score in the playoffs?
Datsyuk went three playoff seasons without scoring a goal, bringing
into question his big-game ability. But the shifty Russian playmaker
put that baggage behind him in scoring a team-high three goals in the
first round against the Flames. Datsyuk plays over 20 minutes per
game, and now that he’s silenced critics that were chirping since he
last scored a playoff goal in 2002, Datsyuk has the confidence to lead
the Detroit attack. He’ll likely draw the opponents’ top checking
assignment.
Nicklas Lidstrom
– It may be getting repetitive, but
there are few defensemen in the world with Lidstrom’s knack for
escaping from danger, keeping the opposition’s top scoring lines at
bay and maintaining a sense of calmness in the defensive end. Lidstrom
was Detroit’s best player in the first round, led the team in scoring
with eight points in six games against the Flames. He also had a major
role in shutting down Calgary’s top scorers, helping to hold Jarome
Iginla to two goals and a minus-2 rating in the first round.
Johan Franzen
– The truth is that if he didn’t win the first-round series with
Calgary in double-overtime in Game 6, then he doesn’t make this short
list. But the fact remains that in addition to scoring the biggest
goal of the series -- the Yzerman-like slap from a stride inside the
blue line -- Franzen has emerged as one of Detroit’s most dependable
forwards. He was third on the team in scoring in the opening round on
a line with Todd Bertuzzi and Robert Lang, and most important, Franzen
was plus-7 so far in the playoffs, tied with Michael Nylander for tops
in the league.
