CHICAGO - There are no guarantees in hockey, but sometimes there are great opportunities.
The Red Wings have created a doozy of the latter.
The Wings hold a 3-1 edge in their series against the Chicago Blackhawks, a top-seeded team suddenly precariously close to toppling in the second round of the playoffs. The Wings have the first of three opportunities to advance tonight at United Center, and if it doesn’t happen then, there’s a shot at doing at home and make for a very memorable Memorial Day.
Even the Wings say they are surprised they’re one victory from the Western Conference finals after being so close to missing the playoffs entirely a month ago. Goaltender Jimmy Howard said ifhe were a journalist he would have picked the Blackhawks to win the series, this coming minutes after shutting out the Blackhawks, 2-0, in Game 4.
“They had an unbelievable year this year,” Howard said. “They were playing great hockey coming into the playoffs. They’re a great team.”
The Blackhawks came into the series with more depth, which they still have, but the Red Wings are playing with such a hot hand, they barely remember they finished seventh.
“I don’t think we think about that,” Henrik Zetterberg said. “It’s more we go out and focus on playing hockey. We don’t really look at where we finished in the regular season. It’s a new season, playoffs, we know that.
“We’ve been through it a lot. We’ve been the top seedand lost in the first round. It’s a new season. You can’t really care what you did in the regular season. You’ve got to play good hockey when playoffs start, otherwise it goes fast.”
Zetterberg has set the tone for his teammates with the way he’s flustered Chicago captain Jonathan Toews. “That sends a message,” Howard said, “to the rest of the team.”
Howard said the Wings have to match the Blackhawks’ desperation the rest of this series, but the Blackhawks must match Detroit’s determination. It’s Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa who must lead the way for their teammates. It’s Chicago’s third line that must separate itself from Joakim Andersson and his wingers, Damien Brunner and Gustav Nyquist, atrio that’s been a huge factor as Detroit and Chicago’s top two lines have canceled one another.
The Wings are back-checking to perfection, are killing penalties with fervor, are showing stick-to-itness, as Mike Babcock likes to call it.
To a man, the Wings have made sure to note they have won only three games, not four. And this is a team with players who know there are no guarantees no matter how much a series looks in hand. Zetterberg and Howard, Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall, along with Jonathan Ericsson, Justin Abdelkader, Daniel Cleary, Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen were part of the 2009 Stanley Cup finals team that held 2-0 and 3-2 leads over the Penguins, only to ultimately lose.
Sports, Pages 21 on 05/25/2013