The Phoenix Coyotes desperately needed a victory on Monday night in Game 3 vs. the Detroit Red Wigns to avoid a 3-0 deficit in their Western Conference quarterfinal series.
They didn't get it.
Two quick goals early in the first period by
Ruslan Salei and
Drew Miller gave Detroit a two-goal they would never relinquish, winning the game 4-2 and leaving the Coyotes with the unenviable task of attempting to win four consecutive games in order to move on to Round 2 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Goaltender
Jimmy Howard played a key role in last night's victory as he turned aside 28 of 30 shots, including a barrage of shots during the latter portion of the first period and 11 of 12 shots faced in the second period. Phoenix did their best to climb out of the early hole they dug themselves, but Howard was extremely strong in maintaining Detroit's two goal edge, including big stops on
David Schmelko,
Andrew Ebbett and
Taylor Pyatt.
Do you think he is feeling a
little confident?
"We had a third man high all night long. We made them come the full 200 feet. We're doing a tremendous job keeping it simple, tying up sticks, allowing me to see the puck. When I can see it, I'm going to stop it.''
---
Jimmy Howard after Game 3's win in Phoenix.
That quote is music to the ears of Red Wing fans who may have some concern that Howard is not capable of leading his team to a Stanley Cup. He has outplayed the highly touted
Ilya Bryzgalov in all three games thus far in this series.
Last year during the regular season, he came out playing extremely well and grabbed the starting job from an ineffective and injured
Chris Osgood. He kept Detroit in the playoff hunt as the team struggled during the regular season, but his play began to deteriorate near the very end of the season and the playoffs, as potential fatigue might have been a contributing factor.
In contrast, this season Howard's play was good, but not specatacular early on. He hit some rough patches during the middle of the season but has responded well in the latter portion of the year since signing a two-year contract extension. It's as if he has ramped up his game to hit top form for a potential two month spring tournament.
If Detroit continues to get this type of goaltending from Howard, they will be extremely tough for any team to beat going forward in a seven-game series.
Another contributing factor as to why they have a stranglehold on this opening round series against Phoenix is the continued various offensive contributions the Red Wings get from all four lines. On a night where they once again played without regular season leading scorer
Henrik Zetterberg and red-hot center
Pavel Datsyuk was held pointless, the Red Wings still managed to score four goals for the third consecutive game.
The third and fourth lines for Detroit stood out all game long, with the
Valteri Filppula trio (w/ Hudler and Miller) scoring twice, while the Draper-Helm-Eaves lines scored once and caused havoc all night long. Not to be outdone,
Johan Franzen returned to the scoresheet with a beauty third period breakaway "snipe" that gave Detroit ample breathing room by restoring their three goal lead. It's that secondary scoring, along with a potent power-play and star power up front, especially once Zetterberg returns, that makes Detroit a dangerous foe for any team to face this postseason.
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The Red Wings killed off six penalties in Game 1 but have been porous ever since, allowing Phoenix to score five power-play goals in the past two games. This area is probably the lead candidate of items Detroit wants to work on and strengthen despite their commanding 3-0 series lead.
Meanwhile, as the penalty killing unit continues to struggle,
Nicklas Lidstrom continues to not see ice-time in shorthanded situations. Aside from 29 seconds in Game 1, both Lidstrom and
Brian Rafalski have been shut out when it comes to their "time on ice" during shorthanded situations. When it comes to Rafalski, that is not a surprise as he only averaged :13 of shorthanded ice time per game during the regular season.
But Captain Nick? The Norris Trophy candidate?
He averaged 2:40 per game of shorthanded icetime during the regular season, behind the normal first pair duo of
Niklas Kronwall and
Brad Stuart. But now in the playoffs, he's fifth in icetime for out of all Red Wing rearguards, ahead of only
Ruslan Salei.
Now either this is one brilliant coaching move by
Mike Babcock, preserving his stud defenseman for a lengthy playoff run or Lidstrom is playing at less than 100%. Now I have immense respect for Babcock and consider him one of, if not the best coach in the NHL. However, I'm going to side with the latter option here.
There is no way in the world Babcock would "preserve" Lidstrom at this point in the season. The time to do that would have been in various spots during the 82-game grind. Sure, there have been spots in this series where Detroit has had a three or four goal advantage and possibly Lidstrom's work could be reduced. But even in Game 1, which was tight pretty much throughout, Lidstrom was only 5th out of all Red Wing defensemen.
Most interesting I find is the fact his regular partner currently is
Brad Stuart. Through 3 playoff games, Stuart has averaged 16:46 per game at even strength. However, Lidstrom has only averaged 14:37 at even strength.
Jonathan Ericsson leads the group with 18:21 of average even strength ice time in this series.
All of this information leads me to believe something is not right with Lidstrom. Perhaps that is one of the reasons the Coyotes were targeting him physically, in particular last night in Game 3. He obviously has to be relatively close to full health, as he is still averaging close to 19 minutes per game.
Perhaps it's just a sore back or a similar type of nagging injury, something that is more of a nuisance for him to deal with. But it does not compute with my brain that a likely nominee for the Norris Trophy as best NHL defensemen is only fifth out of six defensemen on his team when it comes to "time on ice" during the playoffs.
Even Babcock isn't
that courageous to intentionally reduce his ice time at the most critical juncture of the season.
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