Deja vu - Definition:
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feeling of reliving something: a feeling of having experienced something before, although in fact it is the first time that it has been experienced
Last year,
Patrick Marleau was the overtime hero in Game 3 to put the Red Wings down 3-0 in the series. A full year later to the day,
Devin Setoguchi did the honors by scoring his 3rd goal of the game at 5:11 of overtime to once again give the San Jose Sharks a 4-3 overtime victory in Game 3 and provide themselves with what appears to be an insurmountable 3-0 lead in this Western Conference semifinal series.
It's difficult to complain with the effort and performance from the Red Wings tonight. Despite this series sitting at 3-0, it's as tight as a series could be.....aside from the 3-0 series deficit. The Red Wings had the rink tilted at various times during Game 3 and came up empty handed when it mattered most. This series could easily be totally different, if you subtract a deflection off of Brad Stuart's stick in Game 1 and the deflection off Henrik Zetterberg's stick tonight in Game 2.
Regardless, if I had to choose a reason why Detroit faces a 3 game deficit for the second consecutive year against the Sharks (aside from horrible "puck luck"), it is because San Jose's group of top wingers (Clowe, Heatley, Setoguchi, Marleau) possess more "gamebreaking" capabilities than Detroit's top four wingers (Franzen, Holmstrom, Cleary, Bertuzzi). You can add to the equation the fact San Jose has a better 3rd line centre than Detroit (Pavelski over Filppula). Even if you give Detroit a slight edge in the middle with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, it isn't THAT significant, as both
Joe Thornton and Logan Couture aren't slouches.
Despite this, Detroit more than capable of defeating San Jose when you have the likes of Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom operating at a high-level. For 55 minutes, that appeared to be the case this evening. But as Red Wing fans have been accustomed to seeing on too many occasions over the past couple years, Detroit squandered a 3rd period lead when some poor defensive zone coverage, in particular on this occasion by
Darren Helm, led to Dan Boyle tying the contest up at 3 with only 4:08 remaining in regulation time.
In the overtime, Detroit had the better of the chances once again, including a two-minute power play when Setoguchi was held by
Todd Bertuzzi but somehow made it appear as if he were the player getting held. Nevertheless, the Red Wings could not take advantage of the power-play and
The other thing that stood out for me in Game 3 was seeing the 3rd defensive pairing surrendering both the tying and game-winning San Jose goals.
Jonathan Ericsson allowed
Kyle Wellwood to pounce on a rebound and setup
Dan Boyle on the game-tying marker. To add salt to the wound, Ericsson misplayed Joe Thornton as "Jumbo Joe" entered the Red Wings zone, allowing Thornton to find a streaking Setoguchi for the overtime winner. I continue to fail to understand why this defensive pairing's ice time is almost always comparable to the other two Red Wing pairings.
Nevertheless, despite my "nitpicking", the Red Wings were still deserving of winning Game 3 and forcing a pivotal Game 4. Instead, they are now left scrambling for answers and face elimination head-on beginning Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.
Perhaps Red Wing GM Ken Holland, who spoke to the Hockey News’s Ken Campbell prior to Game 3, said it best when describing the difference between winning and losing in the playoffs. He takes his pen out and draws an imaginary line at the top of a wall.
“People think the difference between the team that wins the Stanley Cup and everybody else is here to here,” he says, drawing another line about three feet below. Then he draws another about three inches below the top line and says, “It’s really between here and here. So what am I saying?” he asks, now putting his thumb and forefinger together. “The difference is about this much.”
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