Postgame Thoughts: Red Wings @ Sharks – Game Seven

Between Game Three and Game Four I said I didn’t think that the Red Wings would be able to come back to win their series with the Sharks. Unfortunately, I was right, but I couldn’t have predicted how close they would end up coming.

The Wings fought for their playoff lives for four games and came up a goal (two goals, technically) short. They won’t win the Stanley Cup this year but doing something that only seven teams had done before them – forcing a Game Seven after dropping the first three games of the series – is something to be proud of.

Detroit did not go quietly tonight, either. Their slow start doomed them – as playing less than sixty minutes has done all season – but they fought right down to the end. Without Johan Franzen and Todd Bertuzzi and Danny Cleary, at that. There are positives to take away from this and they shouldn’t be forgotten.

In the end, though, it was a loss and there are negatives that come with that.

As I’ve already said, losing on Patrick Marleau’s goal makes it particularly bitter. Not because it’s Marleau but because it was scored with Devin Setoguchi in the crease, in contact with Jimmy Howard. I don’t know if I really think it warranted a goalie interference call but I flash back to a night in Nashville two months ago when Detroit had a goal called back for so much less and it just bothers me.

That said, the play never should have happened. Niklas Kronwall never should have gotten caught out of position. Jiri Hudler should have blocked the pass. Cascading failures that ended a season.

I’ve never been big on post-mortem write-ups but maybe I’ll put something together this year. At the very least, there will be more news and updates about the site coming up through the summer as DetroitHockey.Net’s 15th season continues until our birthday in September.