Disappointing is right.  The Wings looked so strong before that first goal was scored.  It seemed to deflate them slightly for the rest of the game.

Posted by Tuba Guy from Royal Oak, MI on 05/17/07 at 10:55 PM ET

Um the first goal was 30 seconds into the game.

But anyway, yeah the Wings looked great all game and the Ducks stole one.  Hasek was terrible in the first 10 minutes, and Bertuzzi’s giveaway was a bad omen.  As soon as he shot it I literally said, out loud, “it’s going in the net.”

Giveaways at the blue line are killers.  Especially in the first minute of a period.

If only Filpulla could finish a play.  Man.  He’s going to be good and score a lot of goals in his career, but we need him to figure it out sooner rather than later.

It’s ok, though.  Split at home, split on the road, welcome to the playoffs.  It’s a best of three with two of them in Detroit, and the Wings are playing great hockey.

Posted by Paul from Miami Beach on 05/17/07 at 11:12 PM ET

Yep, Babcock said they “shot themselves in the foot” during the first period.  A bad turnover results in the first goal and a completely unnecessary too many men on the ice pentalty results in the second goal.

Posted by Dave on 05/17/07 at 11:14 PM ET

Agree with you, Paul.  That kid Filpulla is gonna be great when he starts finishing!  As it is I enjoyed watching the Ducks chase him around, and thought there should have been a tripping call on his breakaway.  But the other chances were all there, a parade of them where I begin to think that the Ducks had no chance at that game.  Sigh.  But onwards and upwards.  Now can someone please explain why the next game is Sunday?  I want the Wings rested, but I agree with whoever said the Ducks defense looked zonked.  Then again, maybe this will give Bert and Bobby (they should get embroidered towels for the bench) time to practice those blind, cross ice passes they are so fond of.  Hard to believe Bert’s hit a career high in playoffs scoring. Yikes.

Posted by Andrew on 05/18/07 at 07:34 AM ET

Almost forgot.  Cleary gets two stars of the game in my book.  He was in the box on one goal, but his play was nothing short of clutch.  How old’s this guy?  He’s Draper with hands. I love how the Wings can take a guy in and rejuvinate his talent.

Posted by Andrew on 05/18/07 at 07:37 AM ET

My two-cents on last nights game, for what its worth.  A disclaimer, I have not looked at the stats.  I thought the Wings carried the play for the majority of the game.  I’m sure they outshot the Duck by a wide margin.  Wings probably out-chanced the Duck too.  But, alot of the Duck shots were good chances.  The Wing offense looked pretty freaking good.  The Wing D was not that bad in limiting shots, but like I said the few Duck shots were generally good chances.  Dominator was not nearly as sharp last night as he generally has been throughout the playoffs.  The Wing PP was effective, the PK not so good.

After Cleary’s first goal, knotting the game at 1 - 1, I thought the Wings took the life right out of the Duck.  And for the better part of last nights game, I never got the impression that the Duck were playing with any great emotion or passion.  It looked to me, most all night, like they expected to lose. 

I agree with Chief, this was an opportunity wasted.  Maybe the Wings were just a little overconfident, and just a little too complacent.  I thought the Wings in general played pretty good.  Bert atoned for his monumental giveaway.  Cleary was awesome, so was Fill and Zetterberg and Datsyuk.  Hasek not soo good.  Which means he should have a serious bounceback game Sunday, he generally does after a poor outing.

I really thought the Duck were to be had last night, and Detroit failed to take advantage of that.  It was nice to see them display a lot of competitiveness rallying from two goals down.  How ironic is it that the Wing can hang Five on the Duck, and get a shutout with Pronger in their lineup; and then turn around and lose giving up four (E/N meaningless) when he is sitiing out.  Weird man just weird.

Posted by Jeff --OklahomaWingNut from Wind-Swept Sunshine soaked Plains on 05/18/07 at 08:50 AM ET

Hasek not soo good.  Which means he should have a serious bounceback game Sunday, he generally does after a poor outing.

Yep.  This is why he’s a playoff “money goalie.”

How ironic is it that the Wing can hang Five on the Duck, and get a shutout with Pronger in their lineup; and then turn around and lose giving up four (E/N meaningless) when he is sitiing out.

It gave the Ducks something to rally around.  It’ll be interesting to see if they come out in game 5 with a “we’ve got Pronger back now we can relax” attitude and get smoked.

I haven’t had near the nervousness this series that I had in the first and second rounds.  Maybe it’s because the Wings beat the early-defeat demons and now it’s just playoff hockey.  I keep telling myself, “Game 7 is in Detroit.  Game 7 is in Detroit.”

The Ducks haven’t been in this position in the playoffs yet.  The Wings have.  Split at home, split on the road...come home even and win, then put the series away on the road.  The Wings must be thinking “been there, done that...and we’ll do it again.”

Posted by Paul from Miami Beach on 05/18/07 at 08:56 AM ET

Barry Melrose actually summed it up nicely after the game - the Wings should have won the game just based on all the stupid penalties Anaheim kept taking, but JSG saved their bacon.

I’m especially glad they called that cross-check on Niedermayer at the start of the 3rd.  They let that stuff go all too often, I know Joe Thornton seemed to do that all the time against Nashville and Detroit in the first two rounds…

Posted by The Forechecker from Tennessee on 05/18/07 at 09:04 AM ET

I think the Niedermeyer penalty is a perfect example.  I think we’d all be happy if the calls were more consistent, but I think the refs go stretches at a time where they forget (or whatever you want to call it) to call anything by the new interpretation of the rules and then they remember what the league said and spend the next stretch calling everything they see.

Posted by Hap from Grand Rapids on 05/18/07 at 10:42 AM ET

I thought it was a little ironic that the Ducks got their first two PP goals of the series from the point guys who replaced Pronger.

Posted by ds from Wisconsin on 05/18/07 at 10:50 AM ET

Seems like I am not alone in thinking the Wings carried the play last night (see earlier thread).  George Malik at MLIVE has done some hunting and found that TSN, SI, and THN all concur that the Wings deserved a better reward for last nights effort.  Heres the link if you care to peruse the article:  http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2007/05/wings_win_fridays_shouldve_awa.html

BTW:  Wings fan is awfully quiet today—stress???  Nah- must be that you eastern time zone folks are a little sleepy.

Posted by Jeff - - OklahomaWingNut from Wind-Swept Plains on 05/18/07 at 12:59 PM ET

They played the type of game they needed in order to win.  The difference was Bertuzzi’s bonehead pass.  I just can’t get over it.  It’s such a simple play, you go up the boards.  What did he do?  Centered the puck.  How could an NHL player of his supposed caliber make such an idiotic play?  It’s not like he was pressured or anything.  Hell, he could have skated it out of the zone.

He had better have the game of his life on Sunday to make up for it.  Dom shouldn’t have to steal a game at home, let’s save that for game 6 in Anaheim.

Posted by Paul from Miami Beach on 05/18/07 at 01:03 PM ET

I don’t mean to whine about the refs, but...did anyone else notice that just prior to the first goal, Perry appeared to hook Lilja—by today’s standards anyway—behind the Wings net and then reached out and grabbed the collar of his jersey just before he intercepted Stillwuzzi’s pass?

Overall, I agree that they wasted an excellent opportunity. At least they still have home ice advantage.

Posted by YzermanZetterberg from Saginaw, MI on 05/18/07 at 01:07 PM ET

Can only speak for myself Jeff, but I’d say the stress level is relatively low. No posts from me because I’m “team building. “ I’ll have a bit more to say this evening

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 05/18/07 at 01:08 PM ET

Perry appeared to hook Lilja

Appeared to?  How overly...diplomatic of you.  Lilja was clearly interfered with, the refs blew it.

Posted by Paul from Miami Beach on 05/18/07 at 01:20 PM ET

From the Freep, in an article about Kopecky:

Although the Wings-Ducks games are on Slovakian TV

Great.  So the games are on in Slovakia, but not in half the NHL fans’ homes in the US.  Good job, Gary.

Posted by Paul from Miami Beach on 05/18/07 at 01:44 PM ET

I wonder if watching hockey games on Slovakian TV is as funny as watching soccer games on Spanish-language channels.  I keep waiting for the announcers to have on-air strokes from the excitement.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/18/07 at 01:46 PM ET

Oddly, I don’t feel stressed today either.  Could be because, despite the final, Wings played their asses off and looked to have the Ducks beat after they’d managed to tie things up.  I’m anxious for the next game, though.  I know their next effort will be even better, and I was pretty damned impressed by their last one to boot. Bert looked pretty contrite during his vs. interview.  Guessing he saw (what’s her name?) and thought, “Of all nights.” I’m all for his atoning the next game as long as he doesn’t go overboard and start taking stupid penalites.  All he has to do is stand in front of the Ducks’ net and clear up the boards in his own zone.  Keep it simple.

Posted by Andrew on 05/18/07 at 01:54 PM ET

Well I’m stressed.  I knew that the Ducks PP wouldn’t be dormant forever and that they wouldn’t be able to keep Selanne off the scoresheet forever.  Arrghh.  Playoff stress, I have loads of it!

Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 05/18/07 at 02:36 PM ET

Hate to disappoint you Paul,

A lot of “interesting” countries in Europe have access to NHL broadcasts.  Canal+ which is distributed to great hockey nations such as France, Holland, Poland and Spain all get live access to the games.

In Austria, the national government funded network ORF broadcasts the eastern conference play-off live.  The reason for leaving out the western conference is possibly the time difference (I’d say 9+ hours).

I’m sure there are more, these are the ones I know of off the top of my head.

Posted by Peter J. from Columbus on 05/18/07 at 02:44 PM ET

Sorry, that Canal+ link didn’t work (problem escaping the + sign).  Just search for Canal+ on Wikipedia, if you’re interested.

Posted by Peter J. from Columbus on 05/18/07 at 02:48 PM ET

“Veteran Anaheim Ducks defenceman Sean O’Donnell remembers a time when if one team got a big lead in an NHL game, they eased off the hitting and just tried to get through the night without anyone getting hurt.”

From yahoo.  I don’t even know what to say. Wow.

Posted by Andrew on 05/18/07 at 03:30 PM ET

The Red Wings definitely did back off from trying to run up the score in game 3.  The high stick by Maltby on Getzlaf was unfortunate, but certainly not intentional.  It was the Ducks who were the goons late in that game.  O’Donnell is just spinning the truth.

Posted by w2j2 on 05/19/07 at 05:47 AM ET