Stop me if you’ve heard this before but the Red Wings are good… Scary good.
Detroit moved out to a practically insurmountable 3-0 lead on the Stars in the Western Conference Finals with a 5-2 victory in Game 3.
The Wings were without their top playoff scorer Johan Franzen, who is “out” with concussion-like symptoms. That didn’t matter as Pavel Datsyuk notched his first career hat trick, which is surprising when you consider he was the team’s regular season scoring leader.
Mike Babcock’s crew also found a way to put the clamps on the Dallas’ offense by holding them to just 18 shots on goal. The Stars are averaging 27.8 SOG during the playoffs, but fired just four shots at Red Wing netminder Chris Osgood in the third period alone.
You can’t fault the Stars for a lack of passion. They knocked the Wings around every chance they could and it’s proven by out-hitting them 47-20 on Monday night.
Where Dallas failed was the inability to get the puck onto the stick of Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow more than they did in Game 3. The Stars’ top scoring pair accounted for just two shots on Osgood. Brad Richards (who is actually performing near where the team expected now) had three SOG, one of which lit the lamp. However, his goal was as much a fluke as it was a good score.
As bad as the Stars’ offense ran on Monday, much of the blame can be placed squarely on Marty Turco’s shoulders. The Dallas backstop appeared to have turned the corner after years of first round exits by going 8-4 with a 1.73 goals against average and 92.8 save percentage. Sadly all of that was a mirage once he took on Detroit. He has lost all three starts with a 3.69 GAA and stopping 87.2 percent of the shots coming his way in the West Finals.
Turco’s troubles stopping Detroit has put the Stars in the spot of having to come back from a 3-0 deficit…something that has happened in the NHL just three times in league history. But something tells me that Dallas should just try and get a lead in a game once in this series, which they haven’t done yet.
The injury bug is light for both teams right now with Dallas’ winger Jere Lehtinen (leg) is “day-to-day.” Meanwhile, Franzen didn’t travel with the Red Wings to Texas and is still expected to be “out” for the possible series clinching Game 4.
The puck drops at 8:00 pm EDT with Versus broadcasting the game nationally.
Gambling Notes:
-- The Wings have won five straight road playoff games after losing their first two in Nashville. Detroit is 20-17 away from Joe Louis Arena since the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
-- The sportsbooks have made Detroit a $1.65 road favorite (risk $165 to win $100) while the total stands still at five.
-- The Red Wings had watched the ‘under’ go 43-30 this year. During the postseason, however, they’ve seen the ‘over’ go 7-4-2…2-1-1 in the Western Conference Finals alone.
-- Detroit is 26-17 when listed as a road “chalk” this season, with the ‘under’ going 20-18-5.
-- Dallas is 9-10 in home games following up a lost at the American Airlines Center this year, with the ‘under’ posting a 10-8-1 mark.
-- The Red Wings are 3-1 in their last four games at Dallas since Nov. 2006. The ‘under’ is 3-1 during that time as well.
You can reach Judd Hall via e-mail at judd@vegasinsider.com
