Wings Return Home Down 2-0 Against The Sharks

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.