Red Wings update

Not long ago, yours truly wrote he had no idea how the series between the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings would turn out. The Beantowners had put up the best record in the NHL over the regular season, but the Motowners had knocked them off in 3 out of their 4 meetings. And..... Detroit went into Boston and defeated the Bruins yet again in Game 1 of their playoff series.

That gave the Wings confidence, momentum, and home-ice advantage. Maybe a lowly #8 seed could indeed prevail over the winners of the President's Cup -- right? Not so fast. It's time to reassess and, actually, the obvious has been there all along.

Idle thought: If you watched the game, you saw a commercial advertising Red Wings tickets for next year. If you act soon, you can get in on the low-low price of just $340 to attend the games. Of course, they neglect to mention those pesky shipping and handling charges, sometimes referred to as parking and concessions. Nevertheless, how can one pass up a once in a lifetime deal like that? There's only one logical thing to do. Get hold of that Fred Thompson guy and apply for one of them thar reverse mortgages. In other words, pawn your house to get enough money to attend, and maybe I'll see ya at the Joe in the nosebleed section. Tissues not included.

But back to the series. While the Wings won the opener 1-0 on an improbable goal by Pavel Datsyuk, they've been outscored 7-1 in the last two games. And that scoring pretty well reflects how the Bruins have dominated them all over the ice.

Now down 2-1 in the series, can the Wings come back and win it? It's possible, but highly unlikely. That's because the Wings are basically a team of speedy talented little guys, with a decent but not great goaltender. They're not going to out-physical anybody.

Conversely, the Bruins are big, physical, and quite talented themselves, with a better than average goalie. It could even be argued the Wings winning Game 1 was a fluke.

Thing is, even assuming the same talent level, when a team of speedy little guys meets a team that is vastly physically superior, in the long run the brutes usually prevail. Sure, anybody can luck up and win one game, and if this was a one game series the Red Wings would be moving on. But it's not. It's a best 4 out of 7 series. And when the same teams are playing each other over and over, the big guys typically have a way of wearing out the little guys eventually.

Detroit is without their captain, one Henrik Zetterburg, you say? True enough, and he's a phenomenally gifted player. But he's also a little guy. Though he's due to return to the ice soon after back surgery, do you think for one second the Boston bullies wouldn't pound him every chance they got? Of course they would. That's life in the NHL playoffs.

Let's cut to the chase. It's maybe live or certainly die time for the Red Wings in Game 4 on their home ice. They need to bring their AAA game to the rink and hope somehow they can not only win, but send a message to the Bruins that it ain't over yet. You may be bigger and stronger, but we'll find a way to beat you.

Because if that doesn't happen and they go down 3-1, no need for the fat lady to show up or Yogi Berra drop a few more words of wisdom. It's over. The big guys will have once again pounded sand in the face of the little fellas. And I suspect that's exactly how it's going to play out....