Give full marks to the Detroit Red Wings: they fought back from a 3-0 series hole and had all the momentum, and seemingly all the answers, heading in to game 7.  Rudy Tomjanovich once warned against underestimating the heart of a champion and in this series the Wings showed why that is such good advice.  I’m not sure the Wings had back to back bad periods at any point in the series which is a testament to their resiliency, talent, and heart.  Henrik Zetterberg once again showed why he is one of the premiere playoff performers of the last decade while the old warhorse Nick Lidstrom showed he still has plenty left in the tank.  And then there was Pavel Datsyuk.  What can you really say about the way he played in this series?  Always known as a talented offensive player and a skilled defensive player, he took his game to new heights in this series and in the eyes of most who watched it put in a very legitimate claim to the title of “best player in the world.”  In this series it wasn’t just his “dangle dangle,” it was a complete game in every zone on the ice and every phase of the game, and he did it all with an injured wrist that prevented him from taking faceoffs.  It was a ridiculous performance that will be remembered by anyone who witnessed it.

On the Sharks side of things, Joe Thornton was almost as good, particularly in the 1st period of game 7 where he dominated the faceoff circle and unleashed one of those “Joe Thornton is the only player in the world that makes that pass” plays to set up Devin Setoguchi for a power play goal at 12:20 of the 1st.  It was an important goal on a lot of fronts: it got the crowd fully engaged and believing again after 3 straight losses made many apprehensive, it broke Detroit’s streak of 11 penalty kills, and it allowed the Sharks to settle into their game a little bit.

The Wings made a point of putting bodies on Ryane Clowe to test his “upper body injury” and he withstood the attack, even crashing into Jimmy Howard for a roughing penalty at 12:30 of the 1st.  Taking a penalty so far from your own net is a great way to put yourself in the coach’s doghouse but the play sent a clear message to the Wings and to Jimmy Howard that after 3 straight losses and a lot of talk about snow showers, the Sharks were going to be going to the net and they were going to be going to the net all night.  I doubt head coach Todd McLellan would admit it publicly, but I bet in private he would tell you he doesn’t mind seeing a big boy like Clowe take that penalty from time to time in the right situation.  Other than the penalty Clowe didn’t make an appearance on the scoresheet but his presence was noticed far beyond his individual contributions because he allowed the Sharks to reform the lines that had been so successful the second half of the year and into the playoffs.  McLellan opted to completely shake up his lines for game 6 without Clowe and the Sharks really struggled to find their game all night, whether that was a result of the lines changing or the way Detroit played is up for debate but taking guys out of their comfort zone certainly didn’t help the cause.

Looking back at this series the difference between these two teams, really the only difference, was the Sharks ability to ice 3 lines that could present scoring threats while the Wings were only consistently able to ice 2 (a problem that was exacerbated by the in game losses of Bertuzzi and Cleary due to injury).  After the Sharks jumped out to a 3-0 lead I really thought that this Wings dynasty was on its last legs but the play of Datsyuk and Zetterberg over the final 4 games changed my thinking.  As much as Thornton played well in this series and did not look overmatched at all going toe-to-toe with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, the real difference was the continued emergence of Logan Couture.  Couture’s chemistry with Heatley and Clowe allowed McLellan to slide Joe Pavelski down to a line with Wellwood and Mitchell and that depth proved to be the difference in the 7 game series.  There are a lot of similarities between Pavelski and Couture that will be interesting to track in the future: neither one is big, both have outstanding wrist shots, and both have tremendously high hockey IQ’s.  It feels like the puck follows them around because they know exactly where to be and when to be there, and that was never more obvious than on Couture’s steal and quick strike at 19:01 of the 1st.  Zetterberg does not give the puck away, like, ever, yet Couture was right there and had the wherewithal and shot to get the puck past Jimmy Howard unassisted.  This kid is a real player now, and the scary thing is that he should only improve in the future.

A lot has been written about Patrick Marleau and Jeremy Roenick and players being gutless and scoreless and, to some people, useless, so I won’t spend much time on that topic except to say this: Marleau wasn’t a black hole of suck in this series even without scoring in the first 6 games.  He was, for the most part, solid defensively and was part of a line that was putting the puck in the net.  The fact that he wasn’t scoring wasn’t necessarily an indication he was hurting the team.  Had Setoguchi not been scoring the case against Marleau’s play would have been stronger, but that top line was producing.  Still, it was good to see the career Shark wind up with the game winning goal.  He’s a streaky player that can put a lot of pucks in the net when he’s right and the Sharks will need him to get past the Canucks.  Here’s hoping his 6 game pointless stretch was just the calm before the storm.

To wrap this up, here’s a look at some of the players who stood out during the series:

Joe Thornton- He’s been saddled with a reputation of a playoff no-show, the Peyton Manning of the NHL (guy who puts up awesome regular season numbers and wilts under playoff pressure).  While many have posited that Thornton doesn’t care that much, and that’s why he hasn’t been as good in the playoffs, I actually think the opposite is true.  He cares too much and has let that impact his game by forcing passes, going for big plays, or dropping the gloves and trying to assume a role that’s never really been his.  If Datsyuk was the 1st star of the series, then Thornton was 1A.

Logan Couture- It’s starting to feel like all he does is score big goals when the Sharks really need a boost.  After his steal and score in game 7 he’s now scored in 5 consecutive games and is technically still a rookie (though this is his second playoff run).  His offense is impressive but he doesn’t sacrifice defense to score and is already a very well rounded player. The way Heatley has meshed and played so hard alongside Logan Couture, even though he probably assumed he would only be playing with Joe Thornton when he as traded to San Jose, is another testament to the type of player Couture is.

Ryane Clowe- Thornton is the captain and the nominal leader, but Clowe is the guts, and dare I say it, balls of this team.  He’s Couture’s personal body guard, he’s the guy willing to send a physical message, and he’s got better hands than you think he does.  His presence was sorely missed in game 6.

Dany Heatley- Like Thornton, Heatley has not exactly earned the reputation of a big game playoff performer in his career but he was better than his numbers would suggest in this series.  He was engaged physically, he was going to the rough areas of the ice, and he was responsible defensively.  Having watched him for the last couple of years, that’s generally not how you would describe his play.  Heatley has elevated his effort level and his competitiveness this playoff season to match his incredible physical talents.

Devin Setoguchi- Anytime you put up a hat trick that includes an OT game winner in a playoff series that ended up going 7 games, you can take a bow.  Confident bordering on arrogant, Setoguchi is a shooter and a goal scorer who hasn’t had the breakout regular season he is capable of but he seems to have found his game in these playoffs.  Earlier in his career if he didn’t get any shots or goals early in a game he’d tend to coast through the 2nd and 3rd period, often coasting his way to the bench, yet in these playoffs he has been engaged even when he hasn’t scored.  He’ll never be a Selke finalist but Setoguchi has found a way to avoid being a defensive liability thus far.  A RFA after this season his negotiations should be very interesting to follow; will he get paid like a playoff hero or the guy who has been largely inconsistent in the regular season?  And what impact will his final number have on the rest of the roster?

Douglas Murray- Ol Crankshaft is never going to be a guy who makes a big contribution to the stat sheet, but he’s a monster of a man who has a big impact with his physical play.  He’s gone from being a player that just wanted to line guys up and go for a big hit to being an all around defensive stopper, and that was never more evident than when he had 1-on-1 responsibilities against Datsyuk and was able to stay with Pavel as he went from the sideboards, behind the net, and out to the dots before Murray blocked Datsyuk’s shot.  It was a tremendous display of just how far Murray’s game has come without having to sacrifice his physical play, as evidenced by the fact that he is leading the playoffs in hits.  Douglas Murray is much more important to the Sharks success than his stats will ever show.

Pavel Datsyuk- Mentioned above, but he was so good I have talk about him again.  A magician with the puck, a pest in the defensive zone, and a guy who plays much bigger than his small frame would suggest.  He is terrifying with the puck on his stick and he is probably the best player on the planet right now.

Henrik Zetterberg- He was injured coming into the series and took a couple of games to get back into his groove, but once he did he was damned effective.  Whenever Detroit needed a big goal it seemed like he was there to provide it and it’s not hard to see why he is a former Conn Smythe winner.  Like Datsyuk he’s a classy player who brings his best, against the best, in the biggest games.

Nick Lidstrom- He still has it, just maybe not as much of it as he once did.  No longer the 30 min a game force that he was even a couple of years ago, he’s still incredibly effective in the 20ish mins that he does play.  Lidstrom can clearly still play in this league, but does he still have the desire?  Is he comfortable having his minutes and impact limited, and is there anything left for the 6 time Norris Trophy winner to prove?  He’s going to talk to his family and make a decision about next year and here’s hoping he comes back if for no other reason than to get the appreciation that one of the 5 best defensemen who ever played the game deserves.

Niklas Kronwall- A guy who can really play in all aspects of the game.  Always known as a hitter, he’s become a much more complete player who can log minutes on the PK as well as the PP, and he’s become the ice time leader for a very good Red Wings team.  He won’t be able to replace Lidstrom but he’s a great place to start.

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.

So while I agree with the notion that content costs money, and I have no problem paying for that content, I shouldn’t have to pay in addition to what I’m already spending.  The solution is for ISP’s to share some of their revenue with the people and companies that make the internet so appealing and so necessary in the 21st century because without that content no one would be paying Comcast or Time Warner (or Verizon or AT&T or whoever) for the right to access the internet in the first place.  Yes, people were willing to pay for cable tv even though they had always gotten tv for free, but they got more content for that fee whereas internet content providers want us to pay more for exactly what we’ve gotten for free for more than a decade.

Now there are a lot of ways to determine who gets a cut and who doesn’t.  Should it only go to the big sites, like ESPN or the NY Times or Gawker the way the cable pie is divvied up?  Should it be based on individual traffic, so that the money I give to Comcast is distributed to content providers based on which sites I frequent most?  Is there a middle ground between the two or another option I haven’t considered?  I don’t have a great answer for that because both ideas have inherent problems, but the fight for paid content should be between content providers and service providers not between content providers and readers/viewers/listeners.

Back to the Sharks though.  What’s been worse than the record has been the overall lackluster performance by some of the team’s stars lately.  Marleau, Thornton, and Setoguchi have a combined 4 goals and 3 assists in the 5 games since that embarrassing 4-1 loss in Detroit.  If you’re a Stanley Cup Contender you need to be getting more than that from your top line when it’s healthy and intact, as it has been all year.  Their lack of production has head coach Todd McLellan shuffling his lines for tonight, according to David Pollack on his Working the Corners blog.  Sure, injuries are playing a part in the reshuffling but so is the lack of consistent production.  Don’t believe us?  Well, why is McLellan leaving the second line alone?  Because those guys have been producing, and you don’t mess something that works.

What’s been causing the problems of late?  We’re not really sure.  Injuries certainly haven’t helped.  Here’s a quick list of missing players: Roenick, Mitchell, Goc, Grier, Blake, Nabakov, Lemuiex.  That’s probably a pretty good explanation for why the 3rd and 4th lines have been awful for most of the year, but it doesn’t do much to tell is why the big guys have been so cold recently.  Maybe this team, first in the west (tied with Detroit but 2 games in hand), and second overall (1 pt behind Boston with 3 games in hand) is just bored.  Ummm, yeah, that’s it.  Whatever helps us sleep better at night.

So what’s in store for tonight?  Who knows.  Weird things tend to happen when the Sharks and Wild get together, whether it’s Patrick Marleau saving the game in regulation before winning it in the shootout, the tragic Torrey Mitchell-Kurtis Foster hit, or Boucher allowing a goal from center ice and helping the Sharks blowing a 3 goal lead at home.  Our Prediction?  Since the Sharks have been a team with multiple personalities lately, we’re going to make multiple predictions (no, that’s not a copout at all).  If the best team in the NHL shows up for the first time in a couple weeks they should handle the Wild easily, so the prediction there is a 5-2 Sharks win.  Should the “other” Sharks team show up tonight we like the Wild 2-1 in one of the least exciting games of the season.

Look, we’re not suggesting Chinese-style government control over human reproduction (one of the many reasons we’re pro-choice), but we couldn’t have done anything to prevent the fertility doctor from impregnating a woman with 6 kids and no money?  Really?  The things we choose to care about and regulate sometimes boggle the mind.  Consider the hoops you have to jump through just to get a driver’s license, the cash it takes to get a liquor license, or the approval process for owning a gun.  While we don’t want to suggest that it should be easier to get a license or a gun, should it really be harder to do that than have kids 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14?  

What we need is some regulation on artificial fertilization.  If a woman or a couple wants to be impregnated, and already has children, they should have to demonstrate to a social worker that they can in fact care for the children.  It’s not that we want to discourage people form having kids, it’s just that we want to discourage people from having kids they can’t pay for who might turn out to be serial killers.

The other potential problem we see with the machine will be performance.  One of the great things about netbooks is that even with their limited disk space they are still real computers that can run real software that we all use every day.  As much as Apple has a ton of apps in the store that can do a lot of things with the iPhone or iPod, there are still some serious limitations to what it can do.  Will those same limitations exist on this new machine?  Will it be closer to a fully functional Macbook so that it makes sense as a work machine, or be more like a locked down entertainment device similar to the iPhone/iPod Touch?

We’ve learned in the past never to doubt Steve Jobs and Co because they are usually a lot smarter than we are.  Having said that though, we’re just not sure where and how this product is going to fit in and what it will really be competing against.  Netbooks are by definition low end machines, so will anyone be willing to shell out extra money for a “luxury” low end machine?  In this economy?

And then we saw the trailer.

All of those fears disappeared (you can practically hold up the book to that scene where Osterman becomes Dr. Manhattan) but one thing continued to put a damper on our fan boy excitement; the inherent time limit of a movie.  How do you decide what to cut out of the book and what impact does that have on the story?  We saw Watchmen as a limited series, maybe 5 hours total, produced by people with the guts to keep it gritty, dark, and dirty (like HBO used to be).

We’re happy to report that visually Zach Snyder stays every bit as true to the book as you hope he will when you see the trailer.  The attention to detail was impressive, so much so that there are more than a few places where the images of the book match those of the screen every bit as much as they do in the Osterman-becoming-Manhattan scene (our favorite details were the copies of Hollis Mason’s autobiography Under the Hood scattered throughout the movie).  A few of the musical selections were somewhat questionable (we’re looking at you, “The Sound of Silence” and “Hallelujah!”), but even in those misses the tone was right.  

We still think our concerns about time were well founded though.  Perhaps it was the removal of Tales of the Black Freighter, or some of the smaller details and plot points that were also cut (most notably, in our opinion, the murder of Hollis Mason), but there was a certain gravity that was missing from the world of Watchmen in the film.  One of the most compelling aspects to the book is that the world is so dark, so sinister, so chaotic, that even the audience finds it hard to have hope.  Each of the characters is a villain in some regards, and yet because of the dire state of the world even Ozymandias can be seen as doing the right thing.  Say what you will about their actions, each character has motives that are pure.  Despite the visual similarities between book and movie, the world of the movie is still a little too ordered, a little too bright, a little too calm.  It seems like it’s worth saving, whereas in the book we’re not sure that’s the case.  

Our final assessment is that we don’t really have a “final” assessment.  Just like with the book, we’re interested to see if our opinions change after a second time through.  There’s no doubt that the film captured Rorshach perfectly, and the first 45 minutes to an hour are nearly flawless.  Somewhere in the second half it gets a little muddled, and the pacing seems a little off, but we can’t wait to see the extended version on DVD that has Tales of the Black Freighter included.  You see, a funny thing happened on the second time through the book; we realized that what was initially our least favorite part of the book was absolutely critical.  Not only does Tales of the Black Freighter mirror the story of Watchmen, it slows down the second half of the story and gives the audience a lot more time to catch up and contemplate all the implications of what’s happened and what’s about to.  It may sound like we’ve been harsh on the movie, but the truth is we liked it.  A lot.  Not only was it as true an adaptation as we can imagine, it’s arguably the best graphic novel/super hero/comic book movie of all time.  Right now, after just one viewing, we think it’s probably behind Batman Begins and about even with Iron Man.  But in the extended format, with Tales of the Black Freighter and hopefully a few extra scenes, we think it has a chance to be the best of the bunch.