ShareThisBy RAY RATTO
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, May 03, 2007
It isn't timidity, or even hesitancy, that put the San Jose Sharks' hold on their Western Conference semifinal series with the Detroit Red Wings in jeopardy. It's strategy borne of playoff tradition, basic conservatism, and an overarching faith in the goaltender, his defensemen and the blessings of the neutral-ice trap. It makes sense, it's responsible, and it usually works.
But frankly, it's scaring the hell out of the customers.
For the third time in four games in this series, San Jose scored the first two goals, and for the second time, those two goals didn't hold up, leaving the citizens to wonder if maybe the Sharks were being the anti-Warriors _ a little too mindful of their responsibilities on the other end of the building, as opposed to the M.O. of our current local favorites, the Golden State Oh What the Hells.
Wednesday's 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4 of this Western Conference semifinal was Game 1, and especially Game 2, to an almost eerie tee _ the Sharks scoring twice in the first, then letting the Red Wings carry the play until the end. It is a dangerous way to play, and requires exquisite confidence not only in your goaltender, but in your defensemen and the trap.
It is, for those of you not so steeped in hockey lore, the anti-Warriors plan.
It was strategy much beloved in Game 1, when the Sharks' early goals were enough, but not so much in Game 2, and definitely not Wednesday night, when Mathieu Schneider's deflected slap shot at 16:04 of overtime beat Evgeni Nabokov and sent the series back to Detroit tied at two.
Or maybe it isn't strategy at all; head coach Ron Wilson suggested that the real problem is that only one line _ the Joe Thornton/Jonathan Cheechoo/Milan Michalek line _ is exhibiting much creativity, allowing the Wings to clamp down on the other three.
Point is, though, it's has been the M.O. for four games, and whether by design or error, it has worked only half the time.
Schneider's goal, which came during a delay-of-game penalty to San Jose's Craig Rivet, came after the defenseman made a brilliant reactive stop of Scott Hannan's clearing attempt. He gloved the drive, laid it onto the blade of his stick and whistled a shot back at goal which hit the Sharks' diving Patrick Rissmiller and changed direction enough to beat Nabokov, almost lost in a crowd in front of him, and hit the roof of the net.
The result was chilling, but the overall pattern is more long-term disturbing for the Sharks. As much as they believe in Nabokov, the defensive pairings and their neutral-ice trap when ahead, it might be time for the Sharks to loosen their defensive requirements at least enough to allow for some offense. After all, the rope-a-dope is a strategy that, when employed by anyone other than Muhammad Ali, often leaves you as the dope.
San Jose had built a quick lead on a snappy goal by Jonathan Cheechoo near the end of the first period, and then doubled it at 8:07 of the second on a bizarre knuckleball by Marcel Goc that amazingly deflected off defenseman Andreas Lilja's helmet.
Indeed, Detroit's best moments seemed to be restricted to those times when Tomas Holmstrom, just back from an eyelid injury, found his place in front of the San Jose net. His first appearance of the Wings' power play was typical Holmstromic work, as he planted himself immediately in front of Nabokov's line of sight and caused five shots and five rebounds. None resulted in goals, but it seemed to be the template for victory that the Red Wings had lacked in the first three games.
It was certainly sufficient on Detroit's first goal, on which Holmstrom was properly placed to pick up the rebound of Nicklas Lidstrom's slap shot with 4.5 seconds left in the second period and slip it past Nabokov. The power-play goal, coming as it did at the worst conceivable time, narrowed San Jose's lead to 2-1, but seemed to be only minimally damaging until Robert Lang tied the game in the waning moments of regulation.
That goal, at 19:26.9 , was an unusual softball for Nabokov to allow. Lang had received the puck from Valteri Filppula, who had won it in a struggle alone the left-side wall, and as he closed on Nabokov, the goalie seemed to lose focus for a moment, as if he expected Lang to pass to Holmstrom, free on the right side and heading toward Nabokov. Lang, though, chose to do it himself, putting a snap shot past the hesitant Nabokov, and ended a 40-minute run in which the Wings had outshot the Sharks, 29-5.
Weirdly, that was almost the exact margin of shots in Game 1, in which the Sharks scored twice in the first 10:09 and then were out-shot thereafter, 31-13. Nobody seemed to be complaining about the Sharks' defensive posture then, of course, but that night, they blocked 18 Detroit shots and helped Nabokov collect one of the easiest shutouts of his career.
This was a different night, though, with a different result. The Sharks could not escape their willingness to be seduced by their confidence in their defensive skills and tactical strength. It has worked one time in three tries, and though the Warriors were burned by being insufficiently careful in Game 5 of their series, the Sharks have been burned twice by being too careful, and people are starting to think that it seems less like a winning strategy than an overly conservative world view, one which has put San Jose's Cup dreams in peril.
(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
