Eric Fish takes us inside the Red Wings Game 5 loss!
Written By Eric Fish
Game Five
Edmonton 3, Detroit 2
Quick question, what’s the purpose of regular season NHL games?
For teams like the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and Edmonton Oilers, it’s to try to win enough games to make the playoffs.
For the Detroit Red Wings, it’s to secure home ice advantage throughout the postseason – which they did successfully in the 2005-06 regular season by winning the President’s Trophy.
So then why, with 20,000 fans screaming their lungs out prior to a crucial game five in a tied playoff series, do the Wings come out and flop in front of their home crowd.
The series is tied 2-2. Game five swings the series in one team’s favor. It’s a huge game for the momentum swing of the series. You play all season long to have that big of a game in your home building. How do you blow it? Teams would kill for that opportunity.
That’s not to say the Red Wings didn’t have their chances. Detroit took an 11-4 first-period advantage in shots and did about everything right but score a goal in the opening stanza.
But Edmonton doesn’t go away and what better than three second-period goals to remind Detroit and the Joe Louis Arena fans of it. They weren’t pretty goals, neither of the lamp-lighters will make ESPN’s Top Ten, but each of the tallies backed a 3-0 Oiler lead and sank every Red Wings fan deeper and deeper into their seats.
In a period and a half of game five, the loudest the building got with noise - other than boos - was when the final score of the afternoon Detroit Tigers game was announced throughout the arena.
Brendan Shanahan scored late in the second to put some life back into the building, but the effort put forth in game five to simply put it, just wasn’t good enough.
Now the Red Wings face elimination going back to Edmonton for game six and while nobody should be thinking that Detroit isn’t still capable of winning the series, there’s so many thoughts racing through the heads of Wings fans.
The beloved captain, Steve Yzerman, missed his second straight game with a back injury. His final appearance in a Winged wheel and in an NHL game may have been Tuesday night in game three. Yzerman has been the heart, soul, and face of Detroit sports for longer than most fans can remember. How can you bear the thought of sending the man into retirement on a losing note?
It’s no question that Manny Legace hasn’t played up to playoff standards. Is the pressure getting to him? He knows that if he doesn’t get his team deep into the postseason, he won’t be here next year. Now Manny wasn’t horrible in game five, but it’s not the type of goaltending that gets it done this time of year. I like Legace a lot. He’s a stand up guy, win or lose he always answers every question the media bombards him with, and he’s goofy enough to be an NHL goaltender, but the goaltending position is the second most criticized position in Detroit behind football’s quarterback. I personally don’t want to see Manny playing for another team next season, but it’s all about winning in Hockeytown.
As I was walking through the departing Red Wings fans to get down to the locker room for post game Saturday, I overhead two season-ticket holders speaking.
“So, see you on Wednesday?†the one man asked with the possibility of a potential game seven in mind.
“See you next year,†the other man said shaking his head.
Let’s hope not.
