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Detroit Red Wings Team Page | Roster | Stats Regular Season Record: 50-19-13, 113 pts Head-to-Head Record: 1-3 Last Stanley Cup Win: 2002 Last Stanley Cup Final Appearance: 2002 Last Postseason Appearance: 2006 Players with Stanley Cup Rings: Kirk Maltby (3), Kris Draper (3), Tomas Holmstrom (3), Nicklas Lidstrom (3), Chris Chelios (2), Mathieu Schneider, Chris Osgood (2), Pavel Datsyuk, Dominik Hasek.
Team Analysis: For much of the regular season, the Red Wings could be categorized as a team that was high on talent, but low on physical play and toughness. The latter certainly made its presence felt in Round 1 against the Flames. Miikka Kiprusoff stood on his head against the Red Wings, but Mike Babcock's squad was able to muster up goals by crashing the net and applying pressure in the offensive zone. A lot of the offence and physical play came from the their third and fourth lines, which includes forwards Dan Cleary, Valtteri Filppula, Johan Franzen and Kris Draper. Todd Bertuzzi, who played in the last four games of the series, is also getting back into his physical game. That leaves the best players needing to be the best players. If skilled forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk add more to the scoreboard, Detroit's offence will be very well-rounded. The blueline is as good as expected. Nicklas Lidstrom leads the team with eight points, while Chris Chelios, Mathieu Schneider, Danny Markov, Brett Lebda and Andreas Lilja have kept the shots and scoring chances low. Case in point, Dominik Hasek stopped 20 of just 21 shots in Game 6 - which went into double overtime.
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San Jose Sharks Team Page | Roster | Stats Regular Season Record: 51-26-5, 107 pts Head-to-Head Record: 3-1 Last Stanley Cup Win: - Last Stanley Cup Final Appearance: - Last Postseason Appearance: 2006 Players with Stanley Cup Rings: Bill Guerin.
Team Analysis: Of the eight teams that advanced into the second round, one could argue that the Sharks had the toughest time getting through. That's not a statement about the team's abilities, but the nature of their gruelling first-round tilt against the Nashville Predators. It was tight, physical and downright dirty at times. If anything, they are a better team for it. Joe Thornton shook off his reputation as a playoff underachiever with six assists in the series and is tied with Patrick Marleau for the team's scoring lead. The front lines also got plenty of scoring helps from Milan Michalek, Ryan Clowe and Jonathan Cheechoo. Craig Rivet has been a big help on the blueline with five points in five games, while Matt Carle, Christian Ehrhoff, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Scott Hannan and Kyle McLaren limited the Predators to 25 shots or less in four games. The only drawback so far has been the power play, which has been abysmal with just two goals in 30 chances. Evgeni Nabokov was a bit shaky in goal in Games 1 and 2 against Nashville (allowing nine goals), but settled in nicely allowing two goals or less in each of his last three games.
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Statistical keys to the series
- Detroit ranked 21st in the league on the power play, with a 17.1% success rate. San Jose ranked second at 22.4%.
- Detroit ranked 7th in the league in penalty killing, with an 84.6% success rate. San Jose ranked 14th at 83.3%.
- Kirk Maltby (125), Danny Markov (111) and Johan Franzen (110) are the Red Wings' leading hitters.
- Kyle McLaren (134), Steve Bernier (131) and Patrick Rissmiller (124) are the Sharks' leading hitters.
- Kris Draper is the Red Wings' top face-off man -- 57.3%.
- Marcel Goc is the Sharks' top face-off man -- 55.2%.
- Detroit's Robert Lang ranked third in the league with 104 giveaways.
- Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk led the league with 107 takeaways.
- San Jose's Joe Thornton ranked second in the league with 114 points.
- Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom ranked third in the league with 27:29 of ice time per game.
- Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom tied for third in the league with a plus-40.
- Detroit's Dominik Hasek ranked second in the league with a 2.05 goals against average.
- Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg tied for the league lead with 10 game-winning goals.
- Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk tied for the league lead with eight clutch goals. Datsyuk led the league with 20 clutch points and Zetterberg ranked second with 18.
- Patrick Marleau led the Sharks with seven points in four games against the Red Wings this year.
- Mathieu Schneider led the Red Wings with five points in four games against the Sharks this year.
- Johan Franzen led the Red Wings with a plus-7 in Round One.
- Scott Hannan and Christian Ehrhoff led the Sharks with a plus-3 in Round One.
- Nicklas Lidstrom led the Red Wings with 29:09 of ice time in Round One.
- Craig Rivet led the Sharks with 26:34 of ice time in Round One.
- Detroit's leaders in power play ice time (per game/regular season): Nicklas Lidstrom 5:39 Mathieu Schneider 5:19 Tomas Holmstrom 4:07 Henrik Zetterberg 4:05 Pavel Dstsyuk 3:59 Robert Lang 3:34
- San Jose's leaders in power play ice time (per game/regular season): Joe Thornton 5:01 Matt Carle 4:36 Jonathan Cheechoo 4:22 Patrick Marleau 4:15 Christian Ehrhoff 4:03 Bill Guerin 3:47 * Guerin's totals include games with the Blues.
- Detroit's leaders in penalty killing ice time (per game/regular season): Chris Chelios 4:50 Nicklas Lidstrom 4:32 Kris Draper 3:34 Andreas Lilja 2:57 Danny Markov 2:55 Henrik Zetterberg 2:51
- San Jose's leaders in penalty killing ice time (per game/regular season): Scott Hannan 3:25 Mike Grier 3:19 Marc-Edouard Vlasic 3:18 Curtis Brown 3:17 Craig Rivet 3:13 Kyle McLaren 2:50 * Rivet's totals include games with the Canadiens.
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