WCF Game #6 reaction
I’m currently working on a season wrap up, but until it’s completed here is a round up of the hockey blogosphere as well as the mass media.
Dave @ Gorilla Crouch:
This was a season of transition for the Red Wings. The two most popular players on the team departed, with Steve Yzerman retiring to join the front office and Brendan Shanahan signing with the New York Rangers. There were legitimate questions about whether the team would even make the playoffs. To the organization’s credit they responded by winning the top seed in the Western Conference and advancing to the Western Conference Finals against the Ducks. It was the first time the team advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs since the 2001-02 season.
Anaheim clearly deserved to win the series but as a Red Wings fan I have to say that I wasn’t concerned about Detroit’s ability to compete with the Ducks. That wasn’t the case in previous playoff losses to Anaheim following the 2002-03 season, Calgary following the 2003-04 season, or Edmonton last year. So suffice it to say I think Mike Babcock deserves a lot of credit for how the team performed both during the regular season and in the playoffs. I can honestly say there isn’t a coach in the NHL I’d rather have than Mike Babcock.
IwoCPO @ Abel to Yzerman:
If you don’t realize that The Kick To The Groin had everything to do with the listless first two periods of Game 6, then you’re misguided.
It stuck with them and they couldn’t shake it until it was too late. And it wasn’t Lilja’s mistake that will be the wretched memory of this series. It wasn’t Lilja’s lapse in judgment or the steal from Selanne and that eventual goal.
Nope. The image that will stay with us like Larry Bird and Dennis Johnson, and like Darrell Evans getting picked off third, will be that bastard of a fluttering puck floating over a suspended Dominik Hasek, moving so slowly that it took us all a moment to realize that it was even real. The OT loss was almost inevitable. Allowing Anaheim to tie Game 5, after multiple attempted clears and maybe even one offsides, was the beginning of the end.
Because no matter what Ted Kulfan told us, or Helene St. James or Ansar Khan. No matter the descriptions they gave of a confident plane ride and an upbeat Babcock, it was Game 5 at the Joe that really did us in.
Despite an effort from two kids that came of age in the third period of Game 6, they didn’t have enough to overcome the absolute disaster of Game 5, The Kick To The Groin.
Matt @ On the Wings:
Well. That sucked. Not a very good way to go out, to be honest, though the end was certainly breathless.
Thank you Red Wings for the extended playoff run. Thanks for giving us a chance to hope again. Thanks for fighting through two tough rounds and for making it interesting in the third. Thank you for waking up in the third period and making it a game, long after many of us had given up. Thank you for a great season. I hope it was the beginning of something, that this wasn’t the end of it.
Congratulations to the Ducks. I thought you guys were fortunate to win Games 4 and 5, but you definitely deserved to win Game 6. Good luck in the Finals against the Senators. I have a feeling you’re going to need it. Go Senators!
Steph @ No Pun Intended:
Christy wrote everything else I wanted to say about the game right here including but not limited to what happens when you play like ass for fifty minutes of a game and how ten minute comebacks against the Ducks only work if you’re the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Hockey Gods are looking down at you with pity in their eyes and thinking “Wow do they ever need a reason to keep living.” It was too little too late, guys, but thanks for those few minutes of anticipating glory and at least ending the season flying high.
Daniel @ Ducks Blog:
Everything about this series screamed inconsistancy, but that doesn’t really matter now does it? I got it right with Ducks in six, but I sure didn’t invision it happening like this. This is the team you will see against Ottawa on Monday. Congratulations to the Ducks, I was very humbled tonight by this team, I thouhgt they down right sucked in every game except the first one. You saw the best and the worst of this team and I hope Ottawa took some notes, because it wont be pretty, hell I don’t even think it will be close. More to come tomorrow, sleepy time. I get to use the Stanley Cup Finals category soon, yes!
Finny @ Girl with a Puck:
Spirits high due to having a SH goal, the Ducks soared onward to pad the lead in the second with a hard-working whack from sophomore Corey Perry. Linemate Ryan Getzlaf assisted on the goal and found the back of the net in order to make the score 3-0 in Anaheim’s favor.
Yet, the Wings would not bow down and worship at the skates of the incomparable Scott Niedermayer and Samuel Pahlsson. They battled back with goals from Henrik Zetterberg and a pair from Pavel Datsyuk, giving Ducks fans a bit to sweat about in the final moments of Game 6.
On their feet, fans screamed and hollered (in my case, to the point where I may have possibly pulled a muscle doing so), and eventually, in those final seconds when WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS were on the tips of our tongues, we jumped, screamed, and basically erupted with excitement.
Ansar Khan has some great series analysis @ MLive.com:
This year, the Wings had an excellent chance to get back to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 2002 and win it all. And they felt they deserved a better fate after being eliminated by Anaheim following Tuesday’s 4-3 loss in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.
The Ducks started strong, outplaying the Wings in the first two games. But, the Wings took over the series in Game 3. They were, for the most part, faster, more energetic and deeper. They looked to be the better team, but the better team doesn’t always win in the NHL playoffs.
The Wings will look back at this series as a golden opportunity that slipped through their grasp. But, unlike those other teams that underachieved in the postseason, this club acquitted itself well. It did better than most anticipated during a transitional season after losing franchise cornerstones Steve Yzerman to retirement and Brendan Shanahan to free agency.
“It says a lot about us reaching as far as we did,” captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. “A lot of people didn’t think we could do that.”
Ted Kulfan @ The Detroit News:
The sports landscape just got a little lighter for Detroit sports fans.
The Red Wings saw their season end Tuesday, but not without a fight, losing 4-3 to Anaheim.
The Wings lost the Western Conference finals in six games.
After a season in which the Wings battled through numerous challenges and much adversity, the Wings almost pulled through in their most important game.
“It’s very disappointing ,” goalie Dominik Hasek said. “It’s sad to lose that game and go home. We came back in the third and you hope for something but unfortunately the season is over.”
Helene St. James @ Detroit Free Press:
Dominik Hasek pinpointed the problem over and over in recent days, emphasizing the importance of special teams if the Red Wings wanted to continue their playoff run.
In the end, their failure to launch their powerplay was their undoing. Granted opportunity after opportunity to make a difference Tuesday, it stumbled early, and by the time it got going, it was too late.
The Wings fell 4-3 at the Honda Center in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, losing three straight games to drop the series to the Ducks, 4-2.
Bob Wojnowski @ The Detroit News:
The game ended with the Ducks hanging on, as the Wings unleashed a final flourish. It was amazing action as they tried to erase a 4-1 deficit, outshooting Anaheim, 16-3, in the third period, but it was not enough.
“We put everything out there, and we’ve got to be proud of that,” Henrik Zetterberg said. “It was just a little short. It’s really tough when you get this close to the Finals and can’t do it.”
If the Wings showed early what they showed late, they might be preparing for a Game 7. But they were sloppy and slow at the start, while the Ducks showed speed and urgency, determined not to mimic the Wings’ big mistake: You get a team down, you better keep it down.
Mitch Albom @ Detroit Free Press:
And so the first season of the No-Yzerman-No-Shanahan Era comes to an end in Detroit, with many good things and memorable highlights: nice development by the team’s young guns and a return of perhaps the cagiest goalie to wear a Red Wings uniform. And before any critical analysis, we must acknowledge this Detroit team went farther than any since the Stanley Cup-winning squad of 2002.
But while the amazing Lidstrom proved that being shy and humble is no reason you can’t inspire, fans still are left hungry for more in the playoffs from Zetterberg, who scored a goal in the first game of this series, and Datsyuk, who scored one in the second. Neither scored again until Game 6 was out of reach Tuesday night — then they got productive.
Yes, it was great that they led a comeback. But it was, if we’re being honest, too little, too late. If you are going to advance, your big guns have to fire. Your big guns must draw blood. The skill of these two players is hugely apparent. But the productivity has to match the wow factor, or all you have left is highlight footage — none of it involving a Cup.
But that still can come. They still are young. This is a team that had to mix young and old players together, not always easy, and had to play the toughest games without its Nos. 2 and 3 defensemen. And let’s recognize that playoff hockey by nature is such a dicey proposition, a bounce here or there, a hot goalie to shut you down (and the Wings certainly faced that with Giguere).
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One Response to “WCF Game #6 reaction”
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May 24th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Hi
Thanks for a great coverage of the Red Wings Season. Keep up the good work and continue in the next season.
Being a hockey fan in Germany you learn to suffer. Just take a look at the WCH in Russia this year. This was one of the better teams Germany have sent to a WC and still we did not made it into the play offs. But it made it easier to accept the early end of the Red Wings play offs. But I will not say you kind of get used to it.
By the way, good luck with your german tests. If I can give you any help, just ask!
Peter