DETROIT — The way the Detroit Red Wings' Daniel Cleary saw it, there was no mystery to what went wrong in their first game of their National Hockey League playoff series against the San Jose Sharks.
The Red Wings held an edge in play and an edge in shots on goal. The Sharks led only in blocked shots and in fewest giveaways.
Accordingly, the challenge for Saturday's second game is simple — get more traffic in front of Sharks' goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and get more shots through to the net.
"There's no skill part of it," said Cleary. "It's just wanting to do it and anticipating rebounds and being confident and being brave in going to the net and hanging around there. It's a tough area. If you're willing to go to tough areas, you're going to score. Most playoff goals are scored in that 10-foot range around the net, on rebounds. Not great-looking goals, but they're goals at the end of the day."
San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov will be looking to keep the Wings in check again in Game 2 on Saturday. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)
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The Red Wings lost the opener 2-0, the first time in three years that they'd been shut out in a playoff game. The Red Wings fell behind two goals early and then didn't give the Sharks much offensively for the rest of the night. The problem is, they didn't generate enough scoring chances of their own to test Nabokov in any significant way.
"We have to find a way to get our shots through," said Red Wings centre Kris Draper. "They did an unbelievable job of blocking shots on the power play. For us, maybe, the play is off to the side. Maybe it's not taking the big slap shot. Maybe it's just taking wrist shots and getting more pucks to the net. We did a great job against Calgary getting shots through. In (Game 1), we got too many shots blocked, especially at key times. It's up to us to find ways of getting the puck through and getting second and third opportunities."
Special teams were not much of a factor in the opener, although the Sharks scored the first goal on their one-and-only power-play opportunity of the game. The Red Wings failed to convert on three tries with the man advantage.
Even though San Jose needed to defend their two-goal lead for the better part of 50 minutes, Sharks centre Joe Thornton said: "We feel comfortable playing with the lead and we have so much confidence in our goalies as well. That's a huge part of it too. We can also play a physical game and a skill game. We have a lot of different options with the players we have here."
The Sharks expect to make one line-up change for the game, inserting Mark Bell for more size. Bell missed the series opener, along with the last three games of the Nashville Predators series as a result of a groin injury. If Bell does go in, it was not immediately clear who might come out — possibly Steve Bernier.
The Red Wings, meanwhile, will stay with the same line-up, since neither Tomas Holmstrom (eye) or Brett Ledba (ankle) are ready to return.
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock was asked: What happens when a team such as San Jose keeps everything to the outside?
"You need to get on the inside," answered Babcock. "There are 29 other teams in the league that do the same thing. There are nights when that happens — you don't get on the inside enough; you don't get enough second chances; and you leave the game frustrated."
Babcock added: "I thought Draper's line and (Henrik) Zetterberg's line did the most for us. But you need four lines."
