overated?

[goose191919]

you dont think hes played badly???? a minus 3 the last game and no points??? i dont know how he could have been worse other than scoring an OT goal against his team (oh wait, he has done that before). the goal datsyuk scored was his responsibility. watch the replay and you will agree, he left him alone in front of the net and was VERY late in recovering, leaving nabby out on his own.


im not knocking our captain, just saying he hasnt played very well at all in games 1 or 2, and i am expecting him to answer back with hard hits, better/stronger skating, and getting on the scoresheet. our boys will come out strong and will beat up on the wings tonight. maybe 6 PP goals again will do it.

[Egon]

The Wings are not overrated.

They play a complete game and are rarely caught flat. They allow so few shots on net for a team that everyone thinks is too old to win. To do something like that takes heart and thats what it takes to win in the playoffs.

Wings will be toasting a series win after game 6. They can eat some shark along with the octopi.

[Mallinos]

lol somebody get this guy his crack pipe, San Jose in 6, no doubt in my mind.

[Thieving Giraffe]

Detroit has enough game-breakers that I\'d be hesitant to guarantee anything. I see the Sharks winning in seven, but hockeytown\'s got a much better team than I anticipated thus far. If they make it out of this round and get Kronvall back, well, who knows. This is why I love the playoffs!

[lockedge]

I\'ll stick by my thoughts that Marleau hasn\'t played badly. He\'s just not scoring, and he\'s getting some bad luck. Tonight he didn\'t play too bad.

That said, on tonight\'s game. I watched the first period. I watched until the end of the Shark\'s Robert Lang Power Play, and then turned it off in disgust. They weren\'t even playing hockey. They\'d attempt to get the puck up-ice, see the detroit players ahead, move to the boards, get trapped, lose the puck/pass the puck only to lose it, then run back to their end.
No offensive pressure at all, and I was about to consider this a series defeat if SJ played like this. They were playing like they had no idea what Detroit\'s forwards and D were doing, and how to not get trapped on the boards.

Then Clowe, a player I really disliked last season, stepped up and did something good(in line with how he\'s been playing lately) by scoring. Apparently they played well after that.
Well that\'s awesome. They won after coming out early like iced corpses tonight.
They need to keep playing like that, and work the middle more. They\'re a big team, so rushing those forwards and defensemen every so often, instead of heading to the boards or dumping it in, might just rattle that Detroit D. No one even considers challenging them.
Sure, there\'s a good chance that they\'ll strip the puck away, but if you\'re barreling towards them, and they\'re going backwards, what are they going to do when they take the puck? You\'re gonna hit them hard and take it back, or at least hit them hard, legally.
Then again, I\'m no coach, and people will probably tell me that doesn\'t work. Well, I\'ve seen it work in the playoffs before, and if it has a chance of working and confusing Detroit\'s stingy D, then why not?

Looking forward to Wednesday. I hope I\'m not so pessimistic by then.

[lanky522]

Well it\'s a difficult thing (as you say) to figure out strategies to consistantly beat detroit\'s defense. They are all very skilled, very good at playing defense, and have been well coached for years.

I think I do agree with you when you say that they should try switching things/tactics up every now and then, but only if that\'s how they played during the season... The last thing you need is to get your players out of their comfort zones, by switching strategies to something they aren\'t used to. They did very well during the regular season, playing the way they are playing now, so unless they end up down 3 games to 1 or something, I don\'t see a need for them to panic and change things.

Since they now have a 2-1 lead, I don\'t think we\'ll be seeing too much of a change...

It may not be exciting hockey to watch, but detroit\'s defense has a way of making that sort of thing happen to opposing teams... As long as they keep winning, SJ fans should be happy. Once they get to the next round (which I think they will), you\'ll see them get back on track (since nobody left after detroit has that great of a defensive core).

[lockedge]

Well, I\'m happy the Sharks won but, no offense to Detroit, they\'ve only played good hockey for about 50 minutes this series. I know they\'ve been coached to slide back when they have a lead, and that they\'re really good at keeping a lead, but for a lot of the time they\'ve been shambling around mindlessly falling into the trap on the boards, thinking \"maybe this time I can get through\", and it never happens.
Finally, they tried something different, used a different strategy, and they got 2 goals last night. A Power-play goal to boot!
I mean, the Sharks\' PP was killer in the regular season, but it\'s almost always Blueline -> Joe on the right boards -> someone in front of/behind the net. Nashville stopped Joe at the boards on the PP, and Detroit took a page from Nashville and has done it all series. Last night, the play was different on the PP, and they scored.

It\'s just that the Sharks are easy to read, and tend to stick to the same gameplan no matter what. But when Ron mixes tactics up, they start playing better, with an edge and with confidence, and even using the old strategies sometimes works, whereas it wasn\'t before. The Sharks can impose their will on other teams, they just......don\'t until some invisible breaking point. And that frustrates me.

[doulos]

Yeah I am actually quite shocked to see how defensive San Jose plays. I expected a lot more of a bigger forecheck and in your face style of hockey. They do play that at times but far less then I expected.

[lockedge]

Anyone see that game?

I found Ron\'s comments before the game amusing. Something like his team and Detroit being the two best defensive teams in the West.

One of the best 2 defensive teams in the west doesn\'t let up 49 shots.

Sharks played like lost dogs once they got that 2 goal lead. If the Sharks get another 2 goal lead, and lose another game 3-2, then Ron should be fired. I know the players are out there, but if you tell your team to sit back on a 2 goal lead, and your team lets 35+ shots his your goalie and only gets 18 shots on after their second goal.....you\'re doing something horribly wrong.

1. The Sharks\' offense is pathetic. Columbus could have a team of Selke and Vezina winners in front of them and still get more than 4 shots on net in a period. The Sharks are playing with little intensity, little agression, no speed, no heart, no clutch abilities, and no idea of how to do anything.
It\'s like last season with nabby in net all over again, with the team playing like chickens with their heads cut off, where Nabby has to stand on his head to keep the team in the game. He did that tonight, and he was nearly flawless. The team in front of his just gave him no support after they got the 2-0 lead.

I figure this is happening. Once they get a 2-0 lead, they look back on stats and say \"This is a good way to go. We have a good track record with prevent tactics.\"
They fail to realize that this is the playoffs, and that the other team can\'t look at their watches and say \"We\'ll get them next game, let\'s not kill ourselves, as we\'re in the middle of a 6 game road stretch and we need to stay healthy.\"
This is the playoffs, and Detroit is playing like it\'s Game 7 every night, and the Sharks are stuck in February. Prevent works when you allow 25 or so shots. It\'s not working when you let more on the net.

San Jose needs to rush the defenders, they need to play aggressive, play strong, play fast, and put pressure on Detroit. And they do...for the first 10-40 minutes of the game where they build a \"comfortable lead\".

Sharks can\'t win in Detroit in game 5. It\'s impossible, and if I had cash money to bet on the game, I would. They can\'t win there. Not anymore.

Sharks played pathetic tonight, and haven\'t played well for most of the post-season. If they played a full 60 minutes of their regular, non stupidly-nondefensive game, they\'d have at least a 3-1 lead on Detroit.
But they\'re playing like crap.

[Egon]

Well the impressive coaching and spirited play has show through (like it always does in the playoffs) and brings it one step closer to taking the series in 6.

Even if they cant close it out here the Sharks cant win 2 in a row against this team and especially not at the Lou in Game 7 of the playoffs.

[goose191919]

Egon wrote:

Even if they cant close it out here the Sharks cant win 2 in a row against this team and especially not at the Lou in Game 7 of the playoffs.

wanna bet????

[Egon]

Egon wrote:

The Wings are not overrated.

They play a complete game and are rarely caught flat. They allow so few shots on net for a team that everyone thinks is too old to win. To do something like that takes heart and thats what it takes to win in the playoffs.

Wings will be toasting a series win after game 6. They can eat some shark along with the octopi.

Yum!

[hockeylifer]

Well Goose. I am sorry but you are cooked! I am interested to hear the injuries that San Jose was experiencing as a result of this series.

Was Marleau injured or did he just disappear? I am thinking his price in fantasy pools has gone down.

Did Detroit play a great defensive game?
Answer: Yes, most of the time they do. Me thinks that their experience in the playoffs was huge.

Why was Joe Thornton the only guy that showed up? (Maybe Detroit figured out that if they stopped Joe that they stopped San Jose).

Why does Bernier not have a presence like Penner of Anaheim?

San Jose has some good young defencemen, some great young forwards, but I do consider their goaltending to be average. Nabakov certainly did not raise his level of play, albeit he did not get much help from the defence or back checking on the part of the forwards.

At the end of the day, the experience and talent of Detroit was better than what San Jose could bring to the table. As soon as Detroit went up 3-2, in the series, it was over.

I really thought that San Jose would win this series but as soon as Hasek started to do \'snow angels\' (and get away with it) I considered San Jose to be in trouble.

Sorry Goose.

Go Hawks! (I know that is sad but that is my team, always will be). We are getting better.(Just in time for that revamped schedule that you were hoping for).

[Orrfan]

hockeylifer...you don\'t have to make apologies for your team. I sure won\'t for mine and theres been times...:dry:
Them Hawks will rise again..prolly sooner than most expect.

[Orrfan]

So..is this finally the end o Wilson! If he can\'t get it done with this team its time to pack it in.