Detroit Red Wings claims that home-ice advantage will help against San Jose Sharks: NHL Play-offs Preview
The San Jose Sharks are on a rampage and the Detroit Red Wings may have a hard time handling the puck, as the Sharks stand with a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semi-final series. The Red Wings might finally get a chance to catch-up and take a
lead later on when the San Jose Sharks travel to Detroit on Wednesday to face-off with the home team in Game 3 at the at the Joe Louis Arena.
The Sharks have adopted a strategy that has been working well for them and that is to get under Detroit’s goalie Jimmy Howard’s skin. The offensive block of the Sharks will do whatever is possible to put the net-minder in an uncomfortable situation
including tackling, blocking view and trash talking. Howard told the media that it does not faze him and can keep his calm.
"Yep," Howard said confirming the report about San Jose’s tactics. "They're just trying to get under my skin. I don't care. They can come in and pitchfork me all they want. They can do whatever they want. They're not going to take me off my game."
The Sharks’ coach, Todd McLellan, denied the reports of his players allegedly attacking Howard in a wrong way after the Red Wings had contacted authorities to penalise San Jose’s players for their acts against their goalie. He noted that Howard himself
sometimes plays in a clumsy manner and opens up opportunities for the attackers to score.
"I have no time for gimmicks and circus acts," McLellan said. "I will address it with my players. My feedback from them is that there's no intent. We are going to the blue paint. No one is going to take that away from us. We're going to stop in the
blue paint and we're going to stand there.
The Red Wings’ coach, Mike Babcock, on the other hand has warned his players of doing the same. He told them focus on the game, which will reward the team for their hard-work.
However, the San Jose Sharks have a key factor for their winning which is still a mystery to most players and that is their own goalie Antti Niemi. The goalie is displaying spectacular performances throughout the play-off series which only includes
two goals in the two games played against Detroit. He has blocked 57 off 59 shots which just show the competence of the goalie.
It all boils down to how the Red Wings are compared with the Sharks. Detroit has not been inferior to the Sharks in the two match-ups, but the latter has scored the game-winning goal, whether it is in overtime or in regulation. San Jose might have
a 2-0 lead, but now where near the feeling of overconfidence. They know that Detroit can recover at anytime and thus, taking them easy would be the biggest mistake to make.
A healthy team has been the Sharks’ advantage throughout the series. They went against the Los Angeles Kings in the quarter-finals who were without their star player, Anze Kopitar, and emerged victorious in the end. San Jose can take benefit from this
opportunity again as Detroit does not have a back-up goalie to play in place of Howard. By tiring him out and forcing him to lose his form, the Sharks can flick those extra goals that have been winning matches for them.
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