Woe Is Us

Penguins fans celebrate at the final buzzer of a 4-2 series-tying Pittsburgh victory in Game 4. (Detroit News photo)

Well. We are NOT Happy Campers here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington today. The game last night got off to a bad start, had its redeeming moments late in the first period and early in the second, but was otherwise all downhill for us Wings fans… especially during a certain 5:37 timeframe in the second period. I was on the phone with SN1 (and SN2, as well) when the Flightless Birds scored their third goal during that span and I wanna tell ya… the language in play wasn’t pretty. Here’s Bob Wojnowski, writing in the Detroit News:

Again and again, the Penguins attacked, skating in swarms, rushing the net. And for the first time all series, the Red Wings buckled.

And now, the Wings look strangely vulnerable. Full danger has arrived, clamped to the backs of Penguins stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, who are finding more and more room to roam. The Wings were backing up, even frazzled at times, and they have some issues that aren't going away.

One issue is that the Penguins are as skilled and swift as advertised, and it was all on display in their 4-2 victory Thursday night at Mellon Arena, which tied the Stanley Cup Finals at 2-2.

The Wings can match almost any team's firepower, but they're having a harder time doing it without star Pavel Datsyuk. And as these games are progressing, they're having a harder time keeping up with the young Penguins. After a decent start, the Wings looked weary, playing their fifth game in eight nights.

Heavy minutes for Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom are piling up, more pronounced without Datsyuk, who skated in warmups but was out for the seventh straight game with an apparent foot injury. The Wings aren't buying the fatigue angle, and the truth is, a 2-2 tie between these teams is about right.

But in a stunning stretch of the second period, when the Penguins scored three goals to seize command, the Wings were careless with the puck and slow to recover. They must recover quickly now, with Game 5 on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

This was the fourth consecutive game where the team that was outshot won (the Wings had last night's shot advantage, 39-31). It was also the first time in over 20 years where the home team has won the first four games. As for that last… I’m more than OK if that particular trend continues, as the Wings have home ice advantage. And finally… I’m with George:

I'm not suggesting that looking at this loss as anything other than colossal is unacceptable. The Wings made some egregious mental mistakes and got out-worked, out-hustled, and, perhaps most disturbingly, out-willed. Nicklas Lidstrom admitted that the Wings made far too many lateral passes through centre ice which ended up on Penguins sticks, and their penchant for giving up odd-man rushes was plain old disturbing.

I'm just saying that the self-flagellation going on in Hockeytown is equally disturbing.

Worried? I'm worried, just like you are. I think that the Wings have to stem a tide of all-too familiar mistake-making before it catches up with them. But I'm not giving up hope as of Thursday night/Friday morning.

There will be… and is, at the moment… lots of second-guessing, teeth-gnashing, doom-sayers, and folks jumping off the bandwagon. That’s par for the course when your team drops two games in a row during an important series. But it’s far from the end of the world. The series is tied right now and nearly everyone said going in that this would be at least a six… if not seven… game final.

The end of the world as we know it would be if the Wings drop tomorrow night’s game. It would pretty much be over then. I don’t expect that to happen.