[Honolulu_Blue]

This series certainly feels like "deja vu all over again".

It feels very similar to the Anaheim, Nashville, and Calgary series. The Wings out shoot the opponent, without ever getting too many quality chances, and the opposing team plays a tight, defensive style of hockey that throws the Wings off their game. The other team just sort of hangs around, waits for an opportunity - like a power play or turnover - they strike and resume the defensive posture. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It seems teams have figured this out pretty well. As ar as forwards and defensemen go, Edmonton is, arguably, a deeper, more talented team than either of the Wings other recent play off opponents. Since the Wings don't get many quality scoring chances, the level of goaltending isn't /as/ important.

The trap works well against the Wings for two reasons. First, the Wings are not that fast. They haven't had good team speed since Fedorov *cue the boos* left. The new rules still allow the trap, but what they don't allow is the hooking/grabbing to slow teams down through the neutral zone. The Wings lack the overall team speed to exploit this. Second, the Wings aren't that physical. The other way you beat the trap is to dump the puck and go after it. The Wings certainly aren't suited to this style of play at all.

The only the Wings have left is to try and use puck control and passing. The trap makes it very hard to do this successfully. Players clog the passing lanes and you pretty much need perfect, flawless passing to break through. As we saw on yesterday that rarely works. There were a ton of plays that started out nice, but then just fizzled when they got to Edmonton's blueline because of a bad pass, a puck hopping over a stick, an Oiler getting in the way, or an off-sides.

Line up:
I don't know if Babcock will go with Cross. Lebda provides more speed than Cross does. I am not sure putting Cross in there would help. Wooley is a possibility, but a long shot as well.

So far Datsyuk has shown nothing, but I am not sure how fair it is to judge him. He hasn't played in a while and there is no way to know how injured he still is. That said, Kelly Hrudey on CBC was ripping him apart after the first period and he's never performed in the playoffs in the past...

The Brightside:
Both Edmonton and Detroit have played much better on the road than at home this season. I think the Wings relax a little more on the road and try to take a simpler approach to the game. This should help them immensely. Edmonton will be rocking. It will be very important for the Wings to try and take the fans out of the game as early as possible.

There's still a lot of hockey left to be played.