I get lambasted for this a lot, especially by Sharks fans, who just want to play the mindless
we-were-simply-the-better-team card, but I'm going to say it anyway.
Despite several games where the score did not reflect the shots, scoring chances, or superior performance by one team over the other, everyone knows our series was a virtual coin-flip throughout, right down to the final seconds of last night's game. (and I agree with those who called it a 1 game edge to the Wings)
I think the Wings were victims of their early success against Phoenix, as they were forced to ramp their playoff intensity and stamina back up (as they definitely did) from their extended rest period after sweeping the Yotes. That rest obviously helped injured players like Z and Mule, but I think it hurt the overall team far more than helped, and made all the difference in a series that I thought should otherwise have gone
convincingly to the Wings in 5 or 6.
The Wings had 9 days off, the Sharks had only 4, but I predicted that the Wings would bring an increased level of intensity to each successive game in the series, which reached an astonishing peak in Game 7, which finally revealed the intense Wings seen in all four games against Phoenix.
I'm still compiling playoff history data to see if there's anything statistically meaningful, but looking only in terms of the level of intensity and stamina each team brought to each game,
relative to themselves and their previous games only, and not the scoreboard or the other team, this series went the way I thought it would.
Yeah, I don't think that the Sharks could have been swept by Chicago last year if the Sharks had not had 8 days rest. At best we would have given them a run for their money, and a longer series at least. The Sharks were on a
too-little-too-late ramp as well. But I don't think the Sharks would even be facing the Nucks now if the teams had both had 4 days of rest, because I thought the Wings were the better team this year overall.
A coin flip series ended in a coin flip. I think if they played 700 games against each other it would have ended 350 wins each or in that ball park, these two teams stack up really well against each other. And heres my question:
What if the Wings only have 4-5 days off between games? not over a week? Would they have come out stronger?
Oh, wow, I posted but missed this, sorry.
Yes, with 4-5 days off, I absolutely believe that the Wings would have been an unstoppable juggernaut against the Sharks.
FINAL EDIT:
I think it's fortunate for the Nucks that the Preds gave them a harder time than they expected. By Sunday, the Nucks will have had 6 days rest. The Sharks will have had 3. Not a big difference, but I consider 4 days the maximum before "rust" (a steady bleeding decrease in playoff stamina and intensity) starts to set in. Small advantage to the Sharks for at least Game 1. And again, I'm not talking about what happens on the scoreboard, but in how well these teams skate against one another over 60 minutes of play, and then comparing that to what each team brings to the next game
relative to their prior capacity.
Edited by Grypho, 13 May 2011 - 01:42 PM.
... don't want this to be Lids' last year but ... 
