Wings Blog

Game 1 Wrapup

Thoughts on Game 1 ...

As Don Cherry said, "Somebody better grab that Malkin and give him a smackin'" Agreed. Evgeni Malkin was a bit of a disaster tonight. Crosby might've been frustrated, but Malkin clearly wasn't ready for this kind of environment. Maybe he's hit the wall, or maybe it'll just take a game to understand the difference between the playoffs and the Cup finals. We'll see Monday. If he doesn't wake up, this'll be 1997 all over again.

Easy to say now, but this is what I've told fans countless times. Samuelsson, for all his faults, has to stay in the lineup because there's always a chance this can happen. Not a particularly good chance lately, but does anyone else think Mark Hartigan or Justin Abdelkader can produce a two-goal game like that? (And just like Samuelsson had last year in the series clincher in San Jose?)

Biggest goal of the night, though, could be Cleary's shorthanded. That's six shorties now for the Wings in the playoffs, I think, and something else for the Penguins to worry about. More important, it could be the goal that finally gets Cleary back in the game offensively. He's thrilled not to be wearing that face guard, and that could be key, especially when Franzen comes back. By the way, that's basically a set play off the faceoff. They know Draper's going to win it in the neutral zone on the backhand draw, so Cleary knows to just take off and the defenseman's job is to send it down the length of the ice. Stuart placed that one perfectly opposite side, and Cleary won the foot race. Game over.