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How can this be?
The Red Wings have outstanding shooters like Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan.
Dazzling playmakers like Pavel Datsyuk, Robert Lang, Steve Yzerman and Henrik Zetterberg.
Sharp point men like Nicklas Lidstrom, Mathieu Schneider and Ray Whitney.
And an invaluable screen-setter, puck-deflector, abuse-taker in Tomas Holmstrom.
The Wings ranked fifth on the power play in the regular season, scoring on 20
percent of their opportunities -- even though they dealt with numerous injuries,
even though Lang played only six games for them.
"That PP," Calgary penalty-killer Ville Nieminen said Friday, "can
smoke you."
So how can the Wings be 2-for-35 on the power play in the playoffs?
Their 5.7-percent conversion rate ranks third from last among the 16 playoff
teams -- and dead last among the eight teams still alive.
True, the power play is an easy target.
"What I've come to learn is that every time your power play doesn't score
a goal, everybody says that's why you lost," Calgary coach Darryl Sutter
said. "Our power play in the last series scored six goals for us, and I'm
still hearing, 'What's wrong with the power play?' "
But Detroit coach Dave Lewis thought it was the difference Thursday night when
the Wings lost their second-round opener to the Flames, 2-1. The Wings went
0-for-6 on the power play.
"We had a 1-0 lead," Lewis said. "We had a power play. We could
have made it 2-0. We didn't do that. Third period, we had a power play late.
We could have won the hockey game there. It didn't happen."
Does the opposition deserve credit? Sure, but not too much. The Wings' first-round
opponent, the Nashville Predators, ranked 24th in penalty-killing in the regular
season. The Flames ranked 13th and allowed eight power-play goals to Vancouver
in the first round.
Is Holmstrom unable to do his thing because the referees are calling goaltender
interference so strictly? Lewis said no, Holmstrom could camp out in front as
long as he didn't creep into the paint, and he knew where to go.
Now that the Wings are almost completely healthy, are they, in a strange way,
out of sync? Are they passing too much? Passing up shots? Not getting enough
traffic in front?
Whitney seemed weary of the questions.
"This game, I think people sometimes try to read too much into it and overanalyze
it," he said. "Basically, the pucks aren't going in right now."
The Wings worked on their power play in the first round. They worked on it between
series -- but not extensively.
"We didn't work on it as much as people would think," Whitney said.
"The total was maybe 10, 15 minutes, other than watching video before the
game."
They didn't work on it at all Friday.
The Wings endured power-play droughts in the regular season, and they always
broke out of them. They generated chances Thursday night, especially early,
and Nieminen said the Flames were lucky to go unscathed.
Center Craig Conroy was worried about giving the Wings an opportunity to wake
up.
"We want to stay out of the box as much as possible, because if they do
score, then they start feeling good about themselves," he said. "We
feel like, 'Hey, we've got to limit it to two or three penalties.' Five-on-five
would be more suitable to us. . . . They've got the best power play in the league."
Although the Wings might make some adjustments today for Game 2 -- such as putting
point man Jason Woolley into the lineup or altering their alignment -- mostly
it seems they want to stop thinking so much, stay positive and just play.
"Sooner or later," Lewis said, "something's going to go in."