Going into game 7 of the Sharks-Red Wings series, people were expecting a lot (as they should have). History was on the line as the Red Wings were looking to be the fourth team in NHL history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. Also, each game up until now was close so game 7 was set up to be a thriller especially in the always-noisy Shark Tank in San Jose’.
The game started off just as exciting as we thought it would. Hard hitting and extremely fast paced. The fans were giving the Sharks the edge as they pretty much won the race to every loose puck. Their good fortunes came for them on the powerplay in the first with about 8 minutes to go in the period. Joe Thornton (more on Jumbo Joe later) set up Devin Setoguchi with a gorgeous cross-ice pass from below the goal line and Seto finished it with a laser from one knee into the cage. The Sharks continued their domination and then with just a minute remaining, their energy and determination on the forecheck led to another goal. Henrik Zetterberg made an uncharacteristic mistake in his own zone and simply gave the puck to Logan Couture and the 22 year old wasted no time in simply blasting the puck top shelf over Jimmy Howard.
The Red Wings needed an answer in the second period. If they let the Sharks get the third goal, the HP Pavilion Center would go out of control enabling the Sharks to cruise to an easy win. The Wings’ good fortune came after killing off a penalty to Pavel Datsyuk, they came in on a 3-2 odd man rush. Filppula made the simple pass across to Henrik Zetterberg and Zetterberg brought the puck to his backhand before roofing it against Niemi who got a piece of it. This, in some way, made up for the costly turnover by Zetterberg at the end of the first that led to the second San Jose’ goal. The Red Wings kept the pressure on fort the remainder of the period and after being outshot in the first 17-11, they outshot the Sharks 17-6 in the second.
The Red Wings had to finish the game without Todd Bertuzzi (hit his jaw against Dany Heatley’s visor in the first) and Dan Cleary (awkward and hard collision with own teammate in the second) because of injuries. This slightly affected the Wings’ gameplan as they were missing a 2 great veterans, each with their own unique ability, Bertuzzi a big body with a knack for goal scoring and Cleary someone who can skate as fast as anyone else on the ice. Well the game continued its rapid pace until the Sharks were able to score with a little over 7 minutes remaining in the game. Devin Setoguchi took a hard shot that JUST squeezed through Howard before sitting on the goal line. Then Patrick Marleau, who was crashing the net hard, banged the puck home. Marleau, who was chewed out by everyone INCLUDING former teammate and current Vs. analyst Jeremy Roenick as a player who has underachieved greatly this series against the Red Wings (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZl9AyIZB1M Roenick’s criticism via PuckDaddy). Well tonight Marleau played a fantastic game even before he scored. He skated hard, he had a few hard checks, and he had several quality shots on net. Literally 20 seconds before Marleau scored, I turned to my Dad (who was rooting for the Red Wings) and said, “Marleau’s been playing great out there tonight. I really hope he scores a goal. He needs something to show for his efforts this game.” A few seconds later and BOOM. Marleau scored. Of course my Dad was mad at me for this and didn’t talk to me for the rest of the night but I was okay with that. So now the Sharks looked like they had control of the game. But less than 2 minutes later Pavel Datsyuk scored for the Red Wings putting them down one goal with just 6 minutes remaining in game 7. Datsyuk brought the puck up along the boards and put a hard backhand wrister on net that beat Niemi far post. The puck literally hit the most inside of the post as it could. This was the third backhand goal this series that Niemi gave in. First Bertuzzi in game 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW02oDReA_I Then came Zetterberg’s goal tonight (video to come hopefully soon) Then came Datsyuk’s goal tonight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6gDUBR2sd4&feature=channel_video_title (via bestdanghockeygoals). This reminds me of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the second round, the Red Wings faced the Anaheim Ducks who had rookie goaltender Jonas Hiller. Hiller dazzled in the first round forcing the series to go 7 games with the underwhelming Duck’s team. Hiller and the Ducks lost game 7 but had a memorable series including a stunning triple overtime victory in Detroit. Next season everyone was hopeful that the Ducks will go far especially with their fantastic goal keeper. Next season, however, the Ducks, and especially Hiller, got off to a mediocre start. One 4 game stretch saw Hiller give up 21 goals and they lost all 4 games. A speculation was made that Hiller was having trouble with the slower shots that he faced. Against Detroit a year before he couldn’t be beat with the lasers from guys like Lidstrom and Zetterberg but now the slow shots were eating him up.
Since then, Hiller cleaned up his game and is an all star in Anaheim but this might be the case with Niemi as he has played great for the Sharks this series besides for those few weak shots he gave up.
Well the Red Wings got a few more good chances in the game but couldn’t close the deal on their chance to make history tonight and the Sharks won the series.
Now everyone played well for the Sharks. Specifically Joe Thornton. All he had was one assist on the first goal (which was a gorgeous pass) but he did ALL the small things right tonight. He was 60% in the faceoff circle, spent 22 minutes on the ice, and didn’t have a single shot. But what Thornton did doesn’t have a stat. He was strong on the forecheck, ALWAYS came back hard on defense when needed, brought the puck up and created fantastic scoring chances. He’s the captain of the Sharks and he 100% led them to win tonight. He has a reputation of not showing up in big games but he deserves most if not all the credit for tonight’s win. He energized their bench and their fans tonight.
Now I showed the video of Roenick ripping on Patrick Marleau after the game 5 loss on home ice. Marleau deserved it. After having 5 points in the first round (2 goals, 3 assists) the Sharks regular season points leader went limp through the first 6 games of the series without getting a single point. Tonight I noticed the change in him early on. Marleau (along with the rest of the entire San Jose’ roster) played with a lot of grit and emotion and looked good for once this series. Then of course came this goal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neRbyNXj_i8&feature=channel_video_title (courtesy again to bestdanghockeygoals. He’s a great guy with an even youtube channel who I’ve communicated with in the past). Well what did Jeremy Roenick have to say for himself after Marleau’s game 7 performance tonight? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSkVuK81FQQ&feature=channel_video_title so he praised him for tonight. Roenick had more from his Twitter page. “Ok sharks win like I said. But let me get to the non hockey people telling me that marleau made me eat my words! NO HE DIDN’T !!...Game 7 he was very good. Scored a huge goal but more importantly made great defensive plays to save possible goals. I didn’t help sj win!!...Ill say when players are good and ill say when they r bad. I just used the wrong word choice in game 5 but stand pat on his poor play!...As I will stand pat on his inspired play tonight. Whether he did to spite me or not all that matters is his team is moving on!!!...Its now up to Marleau and the sharks to amp their play higher now because next round is harder because its the semi finals!...This issue and topic are now laid to rest!! I will not talk about it anymore. There has been great hockey and better to come. Let’s enjoy it.” I’m not a fan of his commentary but I don’t fault him for his criticism of Marleau. As Roenick pointed out, he deserved it. A team’s best player has to step up in big games and when he doesn’t, the media focuses on him. So sure Roenick isn’t the best commentary in the game but hey; anything’s better than having Pierre McGuire in the announcer box.
One last thing on this lengthy post. The Sharks have had the tag of “playoff chokers” on them for a while now. In 05-06 season, after beating Nashville in round 1, they lost to Edmonton in round 2. In 06-07 they beat Nashville again in round 1 but lost to Detroit in round 2. In 07-08 they beat Calgary in round 1 but lost for the 3rd season in a row in the second round, this time to Dallas. In 08-09 they took a step back and lost to the Anaheim Ducks in the first round. In 09-10 they finally made it to the Western Conference Finals but got swept by the Blackhawks. You’d think their “choker” tag would come off of them after last year but it still hangs around their necks. And in my opinion, it will. It will remain there until this team wins the Stanley Cup. They’ve already proven they can make it to the playoffs but their promising seasons don’t mean anything until they win what they’re looking for. They’ve disappointed themselves AND their fans for several seasons now. All they have to do is win 8 more games.
(look at top rated comment…mine should be the second one)
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