Sharks and Red Wings: This One Goes to 7
Want to get this out quickly before the game starts, so it probably won’t be as long as what I meant to do when I woke up this morning.
Once again the Sharks find themselves facing elimination in a series they controlled completely. A lot has been written and said about why the Sharks have so much trouble performing up to expectations in the postseason. It’s easy to say that Marleau is gutless, or Thornton is a born choke artist, that the effort hasn’t been there, or that the Sharks are just mentally weak. And maybe all those things are true but the reality is each series has been lost for its own reasons, and the collection has created the narrative that most NHL fans are well versed in.
For this series, going from a 3-0 lead to a game 7, the problems are more tactical than mental/emotional (but there is that component, and I’ll get to that in a minute). While each of the last 3 games has unfolded differently they have 1 thing in common: at times in the 3rd period the Sharks have given up soul crushing (for fans) goals.
In game 4 the Sharks were down 3-0 but fought back to tie the game before Darren Helm scored the winner at 18:33. The Sharks have been 5-0 in OT this playoff year and there’s nothing wrong with shifting to a defensive focus and playing for OT when you’re up 3-0 in the series, you’re on the road, and there’s 2 mins left in the 3rd. So let’s move on.
Game 5. This is the one that will haunt Sharks fans if the series is lost until the Sharks actually win the Stanley Cup (much like the 2002 World Series, and Dusty Baker giving the game ball to Russ Ortiz in game 6, haunted Giants fans until this happened). with a 3-1 lead in the 3rd the Sharks went into a defensive shell, collapsing forwards below the dots to the front of the net and giving the Red Wings defensemen the time and space to put quality shots on net. The result? Ericsson on a wrist shot at 3:43, Cleary on a slap shot at 5:29, and Holmstrom on a tip-in of a Lidstrom point shot at 13:52. For those keeping track that’s a shot from a defenseman, a distance shot from a forward, and a tip of a long range blast from a defenseman. At least 2 of the 3 goals, and possibly all 3, a direct result of leaving Detroit’s shooters all alone above the circles. With a 2 goal lead, playing at home, and with 17 mins left in the game, the Sharks decided to drop back rather than continue pressing and looking for that 3 goal or 4 goal lead. Given that Clowe was hurt later in the game and was unavailable for game 6 it was a decision that proved costly. You’ll also note that Detroit tied the game up with almost 15 mins left and took the lead with over 6 mins left, yet Head Coach Todd McLellan didn’t take his timeout until after an icing call with 2 seconds left. Rather than use his timeout to settle things down or regroup and get back into attack mode, McLellan tried to save the timeout for a late game situation that didn’t present itself.
Game 6 was a bit of a different animal in that the Sharks were outplayed almost the entire game, however Logan Couture opened the scoring at 3:54 of the 3rd period. With the way Niemi was playing it seemed entirely possible at the time that Couture’s goal would stand up as the game winner, so rather than continuing to try and push back against the Wings onslaught the Sharks tried to protect and nurture that lead for 16 mins of game time. It did not work. At 10:38 Zetterberg tipped in a Kronwall shot from the point (noticing a theme yet?) to tie it, and 2 mins later Filpulla tipped a Datsyuk shot in for the eventual game winner. An empty net goal by Helm at 18:55 made the final score 3-1. For the second game in a row the Sharks 3rd period strategy was playing not to lose rather than going all out to put the nail in the Red Wing coffin, and for the second game in a row it cost them.
Going into the defensive shell the Sharks have employed during the 3rd periods of games 5 and 6 plays right into Detroit’s hands. When the Sharks have been controlling play in this series they’ve kept forwards out high to challenge the Red Wing defensemen and to help spring the transition game. The Red Wings are such a skilled team that when they control the puck for stretches it feels like it’s just a matter of time until they score, and the best way to defuse their attack is to keep the play in their zone and limit their time in the attacking zone. Quick, efficient breakouts are essential to beating the Wings and dropping the forwards down below the dots has made those breakouts much more difficult. Rather than being able to spring 2-3 quick passes to get across the blue line and through the neutral zone the Sharks are forced to either skate the puck out individually or wait for teammates to start heading up the ice. The inability to clear the zone and make changes has left tired players on the ice for far too long and resulted in goals against and blown 3rd period leads.
There’s also the issues of putting additional bodies in front of Niemi. If the Sharks want to block shots they have to block them at the source by challenging shots from the points, and if they can’t get to the shots there their best bet is to get out of Niemi’s way. Dropping the forwards down creates more of a screen on Niemi and puts more bodies and equipment between the shooter and the net for shots to deflect off of.
The biggest advantages the Sharks have in this series are their size, speed, and depth, all of which come in to play along the boards and in the transition game. When the Sharks are tired it lessens their advantage down low and along the boards and Detroit is able to get the puck back to the blueline for the blasts that have been killing the Sharks in this series. To maintain the advantage, and to continue to push back against the Wings the Sharks HAVE to stay aggressive even with a lead, and they have to trust their defensemen to be able to handle the Wings down low. If they can do that, they can continue pressuring the Detroit defensemen and make it difficult to get quality shots directed towards the net.
So if it’s obvious that collapsing the forwards has given Detroit new life in the series, why do the Sharks keep doing it? This is where the past history and the mental/emotional scars show themselves. Either the players or the coaches (or both) are so afraid of getting caught being too aggressive and giving up a goal that they are overcompensating and have become entirely too conservative too early. If the Sharks are to win tonight, and advance to the Western Conference Finals to take on the Vancouver Canucks, they have to find a way to be responsibly aggressive throughout the 3rd period. To keep pushing back against Detroit, looking for that dagger of a goal without being reckless. To win the game rather than finding a way not to lose it. The safe play is to drop down, protect the net, and try to hold on but we’re here for game 7 because the safe play doesn’t work.
