It is after Mother's Day, and there are two unusual things in the beautiful Bay Area: The rain has not left us for the summer yet, and the San Jose Sharks have not, either. I have seen each happen only once since I moved out here in 2003, and I hope both become commonplace.
And maybe I should say there are three unusual things, because Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau came alive when their team needed them most. (For more analysis on the series, please see my companion piece .)
After Game Two, when Joe Pavelski scored a goal for the fifth straight game, including his third straight game with two goals (not to mention a goal in each Detroit game from a fellow linemate), Red Wings coach Mike Babcock made a change. He finally put Pavel Datsyuk's line out there to stop them instead of matching it up against Thornton's.
Before that, Thornton's line had still managed a goal in each game; after it, they exploded for seven goals in three games. (Meanwhile, Pavelski's line managed just one more goal, which is why I will argue that no player in hockey does what Datsyuk does: In a "bad" series, he shut down the hottest line in the playoffs and all but shut ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by MJ Kasprzak
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May 10th, 2010 by MJ Kasprzak Leave a reply »
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