The Red Wings came out flying tonight through the first two periods of the game, but would need another 3 goal 3rd period to get another win in the series. The Wings had out shot, out chanced, and out played the Sharks through 40 minutes, but as a fan i couldn't help but think that i have seen this movie before. Sure enough the Sharks would get a leaky goal past Jim Howard to take a 1-0 lead in the 3rd period with about 15 minutes left. San Jose seemed to gain some energy and confidence from the goal and gave some push back keeping the Wings from creating any offensive chances. At least until Valtteri Filppula decided to take the game over by first assisting on Zetterbergs tying goal, and then scoring the eventual game winner that he scored off of another brilliant pass from Pavel Datsyuk. Filly has quietly been one Detroit's best forwards for the last few games playing great on both sides of the puck. His team will need that same kind of superstar effort on Thursday when they try to get a win in game 7.
Jim Howard was once again very solid, he has really settled into a nice rhythm in net. He looks very confident behind his defence men in any situation he finds himself in during the game. He made big saves on the penalty kill, which is required to win at this time of the year and his glove hand has made more then a few spectacular saves in this series. After the Red Wings took the lead on Fillpula's goal Devin Setoguchi skated into the zone and made a really nice move to get past his man but Howie absolutely robbed him with that glove. This series now comes down to one final deciding game in San Jose on Thursday night.
Goodnight from the greatest sports city in the world and "Hey, Why not us!"
The Red Wings keep their come back hopes alive with a 4-3 come from behind win in San Jose tonight. This game was another frantic pedal to the medal tilt between what i think are the two best teams in the league at this point. San Jose took an early lead before the end of the first period when Setoguchi tipped in a shot from the point. The Sharks really turned it up in the second period causing a couple of odd man rushes that finally paid off for them when Joe Pavelski put the puck over Jim Howard into the net on a two on one break. That's when the Magic Man made his first appearance of the night finessing his way across the blue line in the Sharks zone and finding Kronwall who had pinched down low to allow him to fire a snap shot into the net cutting the lead to one before the end of the second period. I'm sure all of the San Jose fans and players thought that when Logan Couture scored on an early third period break away they were into the conference finals. But the Wings would score the next three goals with Datsyuk contributing on two of those three third period goals including the game winner when he picked a Sharks pocket and played keep away until he could pass it back to Lidstrom who shot the puck onto Holmstroms stick for the tip in.
Jim Howard was once again very solid in net keeping his team in striking distance throughout the first two periods and then protecting the lead in the last five minutes of the game. Through two periods he had faced a lot of rubber and more then a few odd man rushes but still kept to his game and played the way that he wants to play in net and it is showing with how good he has been. The Red Wings now come back to Detroit for game 6 with the chance to win another game and survive once again. I was at game four on Friday for my birthday and i have been to my fair share of playoff games over the years for good and bad post-season runs, but the way that the crowd on Friday willed their team to the win in the third period was probably one of the most intense and loudest crowds i have ever been apart of. I like many other Wings fans are trying to secure their game 6 tickets for Tuesday night for the chance to be apart of that kind of atmosphere again, and finals be damned I'm going.
Goodnight from the greatest sports city in the world and congratulations to Justin Verlander on throwing his 2nd career no-hitter and to Papa Grande for getting his 200th career save.
The 2011 NFL Draft took place over the weekend and it was no secret that the Detroit Lions had some personnel needs on their team that they would need to address during this draft. But the Lions seemed to go in the opposite direction with their first three selections in the draft selecting players for positions that already have two-to-three starters in place at that position. So without further ado here are the newest members of your Detroit Lions.
Pick #1 (13 overall) Nick Fairley/DT/Auburn
draft grade: A
A big athletic pass rushing defensive tackle from this years national champion Auburn Tigers. He is a physical specimen at 6'4 291lbs, and he performed well at the scouting combine this year running a 4.84 40, 31" vertical and a 113" broad jump marking him as one of the fastest most athletic big men coming out of the draft this year. I know a lot of people wanted the corner or in failing that a pass rushing defensive end at this pick but i think if Fairley can get his work ethic together and his mind right then we could be looking at the Lions having the most dominant defensive line for the foreseeable future.
Pick #2 (44 overall) Titus Young/WR/Boise State
draft grade: B-
This pick was one of the picks what made every Lions fan want to throw their controller through their tv. With plenty of good corners and linebackers still on the board the Lions decided to not fill a need but rather to pick a player to bolster one of their positions of strength on their team with the speedy sure handed Young. After seeing some film on Young i have started to warm to the thought of having this speedster running around down field forcing opposing team secondaries to deal with his vertical threat and freeing up some space for Megatron. Now he is a small guy measuring in at a generous 5'11 and 174lbs (im sure his weight was taken after thanksgiving break) and he did play in what most people would call a weak conference out in the WAC for Boise State. But just watch this guy play and try to tell me he isn't impressive as a receiver and return man using his 4.43 speed.
Pick #3 (57 overall) Mikel Leshoure/RB/Illinois
draft grade: D
This was the other pick that made Lions fans pull their hair out and have flashbacks of someone with the initials MM making the picks for their team. I still do not like this pick especially since the Lions traded up giving up two picks to get this running back when again they could have stood pat where they were and gotten one of the outside linebackers that were still on the board. Yet again instead of drafting a player in a position of need the team went to add to a position of strength. Mikel Leshoure is a fairly large back standing at 6'0 227lbs, he has speed for a big back clocking a 4.56 40 and has some good strength to go with that speed to get through first contact and looks to be a good receiver out of the back field. We will see if his performance will validate the amount that the Lions gave up to get him in the draft.
Pick #4 (157 overall) Doug Hogue/LB/Syracuse
draft grade: C+
I think most fans including myself would have liked to see the Lions take a linebacker one to two picks before they selected Doug Hogue from Syracuse. A senior backer the measured 6'2 235lbs at the combine and ran very well putting down a 4.63 40. Watching his combine workout video shows that he could be good in the coverage game which would be a great addition to the defense since the pass coverage in the linebacking core has been lacking in the past seasons.
Draft Pick #5 (209 overall) Johnny Culbreath/OT/South Carolina State
draft grade: C+
This could end up being one of those pics that is quickly forgotten about or one that will be remembered as "hey remember when the Lions stole Johnny Culbreath in the 7th round". Culbreath is 6'5 280lbs tackle that could help anchor that tackle position and provide some needed depth on that offensive line and possibly develop into a starter down the road. Again this is a pick that probably should have been made ahead of taking a wide receiver or a running back but thats the way the Lions management and coaching staff wanted to go in this years draft.
It will be very interesting to see who the team will go after now when the free agent market finally opens up when the NFL lock out is lifted sooner hopefully rather than later. If the Lions go out and get a high impact free agent corner and/or line backer then i think all will be forgiven for some of the draft decisions that some fans are viewing as the wrong decisions right now. One thing that i dont think any Lions fan can argue with is that for the first time in a long time we can actually talk about how these newly drafted players can legitimately help use win more games next year and isn't that what we have been wanting?
Goodnight from the greatest sports city in the world and shout out to the brave bad ass soldiers who went and gave Osama Bin Laden a what for killing him with a headshot.
The RedWings had a great opportunity to earn a split in the first two games of their series against the Sharks, but end up losing both games in San Jose. As hard as it is for me to say this, the Sharks have just been the better overall team during the first two games of this series. The Sharks look bigger, faster, and look to be playing harder than the RedWings and one thing that i thought Detroit could mark down as an advantage in their depth has actually been more of a strength for San Jose. The RedWings have struggled for much of the first two games with gaining and maintaining possession of the puck in the Sharks zone to put some pressure on their D and goaltender Antti Niemi. The first game was the game i believe could end up being a pivotal point in this series. Now saying that game 1 in a 7 game series might be a key game might seem a little extreme, but i look at it from a mental edge stand point. The Wings took an early 1-0 lead in that game and they were two bad penalties and less than 10 minutes away from winning that game via a shutout and really serving notice to the Sharks that this year was going to be different. But that didn't happen the Sharks tied the game on the powerplay and then they would win it in overtime at the expiration of a 4 minute powerplay that the Wings were able to kill only to allow the game winning goal. Game 2 was a lot like game 1 only with the Sharks taking an early 1-0 lead and holding that lead until a weird fluke goal that they scored early in the 3rd period to make it a 2-0 lead in their favor. In game 2 the Wings just couldn't find a way to get any sustained offense going even though they had powerplay opportunities including a 4 minute powerplay of their own in this game. Henrik Zetterberg finally spoiled Niemi's shutout streak with about 6 minutes left in the game, but it was just to little to late in the end.
The Sharks have been the better team for the first two game but i have to say that Jim Howard has been the best player on the ice over these games despite losing them. His 44 save performance on Friday night was overshadowed by his team allowing the Sharks back into the game by taking bad unnecessary penalties. His performance in game 2 was just as good as the one in game 1 he may not have seen the same number of shots as in the first game but he kept his team in contention for the win even though they weren't getting anything very positive done on the offensive end of the ice. Now the Wings must hold serve on their home ice as the Sharks did on theirs if they want to have any chance in winning this series. I still believe that we can win this series against the Sharks and it all starts on Wednesday at the Joe.
