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.
San Jose Game Breakers
Patrick Marleau
– The leading
playoff scorer from last year’s squad has picked up where he left off
a year ago. Marleau, a San Jose lifer, is leading the Sharks in
scoring again with three goals and six points in the first round. When
it comes to the San Jose attack, there’s an element of pick your
poison, but even operating on a line with Jumbo Joe Thornton, Marleau
seems to attract a great deal of the defense’s attention.
Joe Thornton
– You know he’s going to look to pass, you know ahead of time Thornton
is more of a playmaker than he is a sniper, yet all the guy manages to
do – regular season or in the playoffs – is rack up assists. He dished
out six in the opening round against Nashville in a physical,
close-quarter, punishing series. Always a tough matchup because of his
size and talent, Thornton played 22:04 per night in the first round
and is on a mission to take the Sharks all the way this year after
last season’s disappointing ouster.
Milan Michalek
– If you’re trying to defend the Sharks’ top line, you obviously
concentrate on Thornton. Then there’s former 50-goal scorer Jonathan
Cheechoo to contend with. On the other side, it’s easy to forget about
Michalek. Nashville lost track of the big, speedy forward in the first
round and Michalek made them pay, scoring a team-high four goals (all
even strength) in the opening round. He’s young, but Michalek gets
plenty of ice (19:30 per) and with a plus-2 rating, he’s defensively
responsible.
