Final
3-1 SanJo (Hi Mr. P!)
Thoughts
Do I really need to go through this game again? I think it was pretty easy to see where things went wrong last night. A red-hot team in their own barn conspired against the Wings from the start, and when you add no jump from the Wings and sloppy play, the result speaks for itself. Frankly, I chalked this one up to the loss column as soon as I heard Joey Mac was getting the nod between the pipes, yet he was one of the bright spots (save for the third goal) on the night for the Wings so I suppose I could shove that in my pipe and smoke it. In fact, I’ll just blame the Shitbox for the third goal so that I can say I was proved wrong about something last night.
But that’s the problem: this Wings team is predictable. They’ve been predictable since the calendar rolled into 2011 and they continue to show up, put in 50% effort and watch as teams that are fighting for playoff spots beat them. The Wings have the ability to strike fast and often, but they seem more interested in getting on the bus and getting back to the hotel than they do winning games. Is it time to panic? No. Sure, it’s not alot of fun to watch right now, but this is what happens over an 82 game season. And while it sucks to watch teams like San Jose stay red hot, that doesn’t mean anything when the playoffs come around. If the Wings want to fiddle around and take their sweet time getting into form, that’s up to them. All it means is that it’ll be another two weeks of painful hockey with a few wins interspersed with some ugly losses, but the hope is that they’ll kick the tires and light the fires heading into April and roll into the playoffs with a head of steam.
Will it happen? Who knows. It’s been a season of predictability with this team, but the motivation level of the Wings is one thing we may never completely understand.
Loss Candy
(Ed. note: Swedish themed today to celebrate my dominance over IKEA furniture this week.)
Boys: Say hello to Petra Silander.
Ladies: Enjoy the view that is Beiron Andersson.
Am I surprised? In the WIIM pre-game thread, I had a 4-1 Sharks win with Joey Mac being Player of the Game, and was only off because Dany Heatley hits trees better than open nets (yep, I went there; that’s what happens when the Wings lose and I get less than 5 hours sleep).
The Sharks (and Hawks) may be hot right now, but that doesn’t change the fact they played like dog shit at the beginning of the year and could go right back to being those mediocre teams they were in October and November. The Wings are just doing what they do every single year: race out to a big lead in the division and then coast through February and March before ramping it up again for a long playoff run. If the Wings are still playing like this in 2-3 weeks, then I will start to get worried.
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