Naptime Costs Wings, Sharks Take Game 1

I'm sure most of you knew when you read my preview earlier today that there was no small amount of joking in my 'prediction' of this series. Had I actually believed Detroit would take the top team in the West in 4 games, I would've used the S-word. Since the Wings, however, went into a half-a-period coma and allowed 3 goals before I could finish taking a piss, I can say 'sweep' because it's not jinxing anything. The aforementioned sidetrip to vegetable-land by the Detroit skaters was the killer in Game 1 of this WCSF match between Detroit and San Jose, as the Wings were only able to scrape together 3 goals. But Geek, you might be asking to yourself, doesn't that tie the game at 3 all? Well yes, that would be the case, if not for the Sharks earning an extra goal on a 5 on 3 that was caused mostly by laziness-turning-into-desperation. Long story short: Detroit shot themselves in the foot early and handed Game 1 to the Sharks as a gift-wrapped present.

Let's analyze this turd of a Game against The Geek's Winning Formula.

1.) Big Game Hunting - Well well, look who showed up to play tonight. That first line for San Jose doesn't look so impotent now, does it? You can't expect guys of this caliber to stay quiet forever, it just. doesn't. happen. The Sharks' top line showed up to play, and between San Jose's top 2 lines, they created all the scoring. Detroit had no answer for Joe Pavelski, who added another 2 goals under his belt, and whilst trying to solve that conundrum, Heatley and Thornton turned it on, even without their linemate Pat Marleau. This disturbs me a little, because that top line is starting to click now before Marleau even gets back, I dread letting them run rampant with the complete line out there.

2.) Make Them Doubt - Ha. What we just did was bolster their confidence in themselves by giving them such a huge early lead that no matter what we did, we just couldn't catch up. I know that the 10-15 minute bout of narcolepsy isn't something that will become a trend, but we shouldn't have been giving them a chance to begin with!! After the 2nd goal, I suggested on Twitter that Mike Babcock should've called a timeout to settle things down. I'm wishing now that he had, because it might have calmed Detroit down and prevented that 3rd goal from happening. The Wings were reeling and needed to stop and screw their heads on straight. They weren't given that chance and things just got worse.

3.) Out of the Desert, Kill the Droughts - Well, the bright spot to this game is here, as the 3 Red Wings goals tonight were more than the previous combined total goals of the 3 players who scored them. Of Cleary, Rafalski and Franzen, there was only a single goal to be had before tonight. So the good news is some of the snake-bit skaters are getting a groove back (hopefully). Let's hope we see much less catatonia and much more asserting of authority in the games to come.

I'm disgusted that Detroit lost this game, not because I'm a slappy pressing the panic button, but this is a game the Wings should have won. Do not try and tell me otherwise, because if Detroit plays the first half of that 1st period with a pulse, we're not looking at a 3-1 hole after 20 minutes. At best you're looking at 2-1 because Babs calls the timeout to wake his players up and we're getting ready for Overtime. Unfortunately only hindsight is 20/20, and we see Detroit in the same position we did last series, down 1-0. Ahh well, last one ended pretty well. No reason this one can't either.

That's it, I'm out. Need to sleep off the rage.

Till Game 2, Wingnuts!! Let's Go Red Wings!!!