2011 NHL Playoffs: Can the Detroit Red Wings Turn Things Around?

After watching the first two games of the series and basing it just on those two performances, I would say the Red Wings can't turn the series around. Jimmy Howard has played some of the best hockey of his career just to keep the Wings in the games. The Detroit Red Wings have not allowed fewer than 30 shots on Howard yet in this year's playoffs. That stat alone goes to show how off the usually defensive-minded, puck-controlling Wings are.

Even if the Wings could have held on to Game 1, they sure didn't deserve it. Jimmy Howard faced 46 shots...14 shots more than the last place Oilers averaged on the season. You can't expect to disappear on defense, score one goal and come out with a win, it's seriously amazing that Howard could even keep it to a 2-1 OT loss. 

I don't mean to hate on the team that I personally have loved since I was five years old, but considering I've been watching them for 18 solid years, this is some of the most disorganized and sloppy play I've ever seen from them. Unnecessary turnovers and penalties have been fatal to the games' outcomes. The Wings' breakout passes are in the skates of the forwards and the Sharks' aggressive style has them back on their heels. Not to mention the physical play of San Jose has the Wings looking almost scared to chase the puck down.

A couple things are going to need to happen if the Wings want to turn this series around to come out on top. First, Jimmy Howard has to continue his stellar playoff performance, which I don't think should be a problem. He really seems to be on his game and steady (besides the second goal of last game which was a little bit of a fluke given the bounce it took).

Secondly, the Wings offense has to show up for the entire game. Game 1 I don't think they were even there. Game 2 was better but the shots were coming from the top of the circle with no traffic in front. The Wings need to crash the net and have to penetrate the Sharks zone better.

Finally they need to stop getting penalties. How can Datsyuk and Zetterberg score goals even-strength when they are dead tired from killing penalties? They can't. It's the Red Wings killing themselves in this series with awful offensive zone penalties.

If they can fix these problems they may have a shot, time will only tell if last year's series will repeat or not and we will begin to find this out on Wednesday.