By Chris Bouthillier, Puck Drop Staff Writer
May 25, 2008
It's been a long time coming.
Mikael Samuelsson entered Game 1 with two goals in this year's playoffs, and Saturday night he matched that total in a 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. If you look at it from a fans point of view, it looks good that the Wings finally have secondary scoring in their lineup.
From an analyst's point, "finally" would be the first word that comes to mind. Samuelsson's 63 shots in the playoffs are third in the league, and with only 4 goals to his credit, his shooting is an abysmal 6.3%.
But it's not like he has been playing awful. He has a plus-7 rating and averages 15 minutes a game. For a role-player, those are pretty solid numbers. His breakout game came at the perfect time.
With Nicklas Lidstrom's first-period tally waved off due to goaltender interference from Tomas Holmstrom, Pittsburgh and Detroit were scoreless until 13:01 of the second period. At that moment Samuelsson took full advantage of a tired Penguins' defence and put the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury with a wraparound.
Momentum carried over to the third period, as Samuelsson finished his check on defenceman Hal Gill and went through four Penguins players in the slot to drill the puck past Fleury again.
Both goals weren't flashy but for a workhorse, those goals are characteristic.
With Johan Franzen out of the Red Wings' lineup, the team lacked secondary scoring. Coming into the finals against a young Pittsburgh Penguins lineup, the Wings desperately needed to match their offensive depth to keep up with the Penguins' speed. Franzen has 12 goals in 11 games during the postseason.
Looking on to the rest of the series, Game 1 is a sign of things to come. The Penguins' biggest problem on Saturday night was the inability to convert on 4 powerplay chances in the first period. They have to find a way to break down the solid defence corps of the Wings and expose Chris Osgood, who only faced 19 shots in Game 1 (12 coming in the first period).
For Detroit, the recipe is simple: dump pucks into the Penguins zone and win the races. The Wings were able to utilize their puck-possession game Saturday night and it kept the Penguins hemmed in their own zone.
Detroit's experience will be the difference-maker in this series. Eight players from the Wings' 2001-02 Stanley Cup win are still with the team. Also, five players from Team Sweden's 2006 Olympic Gold Medal-winning squad are members of the Red Wings.
Face it. The Red Wings simply know how to win.
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