But then came the second period where Chicago turned it up to a different level of play. Blasting shot after shot and net-minder Jimmy Howard, the Hawks were knocking on the door. Bolland had a break away chance late in the second period and couldn't get it passed the reach of Howard's left pad. Howie, played great as always showing us why he has been our MVP in these playoffs. Howard was in great position throughout most of the night and made fantastic glove saves on great shots by the Hawks. At the end of the second period, tied 1-1 still, shots were now 23-12 in favor of Chicago and you could just sense where this game was going.
Wings lost their legs in the third period and Chicago seemed like they had 8 skaters on the ice at all times. They were everywhere, getting to every loose puck and it seemed we couldn't get the puck out of our zone.
“We just turned the puck over far, far too much,” Howard lamented afterward. “It seemed too much like every time we got it just past our own blue line, they were pushing back into our zone. We’ve got to clean that up.”
We turned into the team we were in the beginning of the season, scared of taking charge and started dumping and chasing. The Hawks forecheck was outstanding and the puck stayed in our zone like it was pulling an all-nighter. Hawks opened the game up with two goals mid-way through the third period from Oduya and Kruger and then getting there last one on an empty netter finishing the game 4-1 and leading the series 1-0.
My take on this game is that the Hawks were simply better than us. They are a very healthy and deep team that skates with four goal scoring lines. Sounds familiar to the Wings when they had Scotty Bowman as coach and we had dynamic goal scorers on multiple lines. Stan and Scotty Bowman are playing a key role in the success of building this Hawks team and its showing. We played well enough in the first and second periods and fell off the face of the earth in the third period. The Wing's achilles heel in the playoffs so far has been their third period play. Once again giving up 2 or more goals in the third which led the opposition to run away with game 1.
“In the third period we were giving up too many chances again,” Wings defensemanJonathan Ericsson said. “They were coming with breakaways and stuff like that. We’ve got to clean that up. It’s frustrating, but it’s only the first game.”
Wings had chances to pounce all over Crawford with a few open shots but we tried to get cute, forcing passes into lanes that were covered up by Hawks defenseman. We are not going to get a ton of chances against this Hawks team and when we do, we have to take advantage of it. The refs blew two calls early in the game and Hossa showed us his theatrical skills while diving to the ground forcing the refs to put up his hand. Blown calls are frustrating to anyone, yet we didn't use our power play opportunities to get goals so it cancels itself out.
In the end of the day, Detroit kept themselves in the game keeping it 1-1 mid-way through the last period and then we fell apart. Hawks outshot the Wings 36-14 in the last 2 periods which is unacceptable and we must figure out a way to make it easier on Jimmy Howard or this series could be a short one. It's time to move on and look forward to game 2. We have a few days of rest and are already back in Detroit after flying home last night. Lets rest up, re-evaluate and come to play Red Wings hockey Saturday early afternoon!!
We'll come back just like we did against Anaheim and split the series 1-1. LETS GO WINGS!!!
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