"Power play? What power play?" Thoughts on Red Wings - Flames game 4

1. It's gotten to the point that watching a Red Wings playoff road game is sheer torture. Over the past 4 seasons, I've learned to expect the Red Wings to struggle in mightily in these games. It's not much fun to watch hockey while hoping for the best, but expecting, and then getting, the worst.

2. The "Power play." It's a simple term, and it should be simple to execute. There was once a time when the Wings made the power play look effortless. It was once an outright pleasure watching the Red Wings find the open man. It was pure hockey artistry. But now? For lack of a better term, their power play is ugly. Now it's painful to watch a talented team struggle to even get off a shot with the man advantage. It sure as Hell isn't an advantage.

If the Red Wings can't improve on the power play, they won't win the Cup. They may not get out of this series.

3. Did Hasek even touch Iginla with his stick? I'm still trying to figure out that call which gave the Flames their first 5 on 3. Hell, there were strange calls all night long, against both teams. Good call or bad call, doesn't matter. Thanks to the continuing struggles of the Red Wings special teams, whenever the officials get involved, it's going to be to the advantage of the Flames.

4. That was the Bertuzzi we were expecting to see. A force on offense, and physically intimidating. He's only going to get better as the playoffs go on. I only hope the playoffs last longer than the next 3 games.

5. Robert Lang was a little better, but he's still not playing near expectations. It's obvious that Mike Babcock is not going to sit him. I hope to Hell he finds even a semblance of his game soon.

6. Dominik Hasek is being outplayed by Miikka Kiprusoff. There's no question about it.

7. If I'm going to listen to homers, I'm going to listen to Mickey Redmond and Ken Daniels. I still find it hard to believe that the announcers of a national broadcast, such as HNIC's, would be outright homers. Yes, I know it's a Canadian broadcast, but it just seems unprofessional. The Red Wings announcers are paid by the Wings, so you expect a certain level of bias. But you'd think the HNIC crew was paid by the Flames.

8. I'm convinced this series is going 7 games. There's nothing in the Red Wings recent playoff history that would allow me to think otherwise. They don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Hell, if I go by their recent history, they'll lose the series in 6 games.

9. The majority of what I said in my post about game 3 works for game 4. The Red Wings outshot Calgary, outplayed them for long stretches, Kiprusoff made some huge saves, the refs made some very questionable calls, and the Wings played well enough to win, but still lost. So feel free to use any of the following clichés when talking about the Red Wings. "It's the same old same old," "It's déjà vu," "The more things change the more they stay the same," "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." They all fit...