Datsyuks play in round two, in retrospect.

[Wombat 26]

Datsyuk was good, but something he should be saying (and the team in general) is that it was not good enough. He is, for good or bad, burdened with heavy expectations. He is up for the best defensive forward in the league, and the league MVP. Unfortunately for him, that means he needs to step up and damn near dominate at both ends of the rink. He's putting in the effort and he's getting chances to both setup and score goals. That assist he had last night was sick! His defense was excellent.

Anaheim has probably the deepest and best defensive blueline of any team in the NHL, and they have some good defensive forwards. Clearly it was a tough matchup, but the Wings need more out of him if they want to get further in the playoffs. Good, but not good enough.

[betterREDthandead 58]

Sami Pahlsson. He should have won the Conn Smythe in '07 for doing precisely what the Ducks did to Pavel this go round.

He still had those other guys backing him up though. I don't think he can do it by himself. I don't think there's anyone in the league where you can tell them that Pavel Datsyuk is their responsibility alone and have that work out real well.

[KrazyGangsta 79]

People also seem to ignore the fact that Pavel had Scott Neidavacation draped on his back all game, every game. You can criticize Dats for not putting up impressive numbers, but you can't ignore that his shadow is one of the best defensive players in the league... It's like calling out Nash without mentioning that Lidstrom dogged him every game.

Exactly ... Niedermayer is top 2-3 D in the NHL along side Pronger which him also is a top 5 ... just imagine how hard it must be. On top of that a hot goalie.

[high_stick69 7]

Dats had a great series! The puck did not go in the net for him, but he did have a lot of great scoring chances. Hiller is a great goalie! Additionally, Dats played rock solid defense and thats the way you win hockey games in the playoffs. No complaints! Great effort, lots of heart, and responsible to the team. Can't ask for more except maybe to face a goalie that's not on fire.

[kozac 10]

Sami Pahlsson. He should have won the Conn Smythe in '07 for doing precisely what the Ducks did to Pavel this go round.

Good call on Pahlsson, he's the only player on the Hawks that worries me... A LOT

[norrisnick 1]

He still had those other guys backing him up though. I don't think he can do it by himself. I don't think there's anyone in the league where you can tell them that Pavel Datsyuk is their responsibility alone and have that work out real well.

It wouldn't take much for Q to give Pahlsson and Keith some game tapes of this series and tell them to do EXACTLY what Marchant and Niedermayer did. They have the ability, mobility, and stamina to hound Pavel (or anyone for that matter) all game long. Keith is very very good.

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

I guarantee you if Anaheim scored that last goal and not us, everyone on this site would be blasting Datsyuk.

Instead, everyone is excusing him and talking about how great Scott Niedermayer is.

Bottom line is that Datsyuk has been a huge disappointment so far in the playoffs, and I'm not going to make any excuses for the way he's played.

[betterREDthandead 58]

I guarantee you if Anaheim scored that last goal and not us, everyone on this site would be blasting Datsyuk.

Instead, everyone is excusing him and talking about how great Scott Niedermayer is.

Bottom line is that Datsyuk has been a huge disappointment so far in the playoffs, and I'm not going to make any excuses for the way he's played.

Again: You completely missed Datsyuk's penalty killing last night. You completely missed the defense he's been playing. You think maybe part of the reason people have been excusing him for not scoring is because he's doing pretty much everything else right? "Huge disappointment"....load of s*** is what I call that.

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

Again: You completely missed Datsyuk's penalty killing last night. You completely missed the defense he's been playing. You think maybe part of the reason people have been excusing him for not scoring is because he's doing pretty much everything else right? "Huge disappointment"....load of s*** is what I call that.

If he's playing well defensively and not scoring, than that is a disappointment.

Remember, the thread was about Datsyuk and not Maltby. Pavel's primary job is to score lots of points.

Datsyuk, Homer, and Hossa's lack of scoring is partly one of the reasons it went 7 games as opposed to it being a shorter series.

But like I said, go ahead and make excuses for his point production.

[Guest Shoreline]

Again: You completely missed Datsyuk's penalty killing last night. You completely missed the defense he's been playing. You think maybe part of the reason people have been excusing him for not scoring is because he's doing pretty much everything else right? "Huge disappointment"....load of s*** is what I call that.

Spot on. Scoring is the only part where Datsyuk hasn't lived up to a statistical end. Everything else is just fine. He's still contributing to goals, and hopefully can score some. Right now he's by no mean a huge disappointment. There's a certain few who have a knack for being stupidly negative, and obsessively focusing on a single issue and embellishing it to mean more than it does.

Edited May 15, 2009 by Shoreline

[Guest micah]

Pavel Datsyuk's name is mentioned with the premier 2 way forwards in this league. The expectation is that he will play solid D and put up points. Anything less is a disapointment.

If one of our average forwards had a series like Pavel's, I'd be happy. When Pavel Datsyuk doesn't put up points, he's underperformimng. Even if he's playing good D. Even if he's playing against world-class D. He is supposed to be among the best forwards in the league, and this series he did not play like one of them.

I fully expect him to awaken for the series with the Hawks.

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

Pavel Datsyuk's name is mentioned with the premier 2 way forwards in this league. The expectation is that he will play solid D and put up points. Anything less is a disapointment.

If one of our average forwards had a series like Pavel's, I'd be happy. When Pavel Datsyuk doesn't put up points, he's underperformimng. Even if he's playing good D. Even if he's playing against world-class D. He is supposed to be among the best forwards in the league, and this series he did not play like one of them.

I fully expect him to awaken for the series with the Hawks.

Nice post. Finally someone else is willing to say it instead of trying to sound politically correct.

The fact that those defenseman were able to completely shut him down offensively, shows that he didn't play up to par considering how good he's been in the past. It was talent versus talent, and his talent was completely dwarfed in this series by Anaheim's star defenders. It's not like Datsyuk isn't used to playing against the other team's best defensemen.

Look what Getzlaf did against our defense with Lidstrom on it.