Red Wings

Red Wings

Except for maybe their mothers, everybody in the universe thought the Detroit Red Wings were cooked after Logan Couture scored to give the San Jose Sharks a 3-1 lead less than a minute into the third period of Sunday.

Detroit was a battered hockey team, and it showed during Game 5 of its Western Conference best-of-seven semifinal series at San Jose.

The Sharks had taken it to the Wings most of the night, and after Couture's goal, it appeared that the Sharks would eliminate the Red Wings in five games from the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second consecutive year.

My thoughts were already second-guessing Detroit coach Mike Babcock. And then the Red Wings became the Red Wings.

It was beautiful.
Led by a hurting Pavel Datsyuk, a spirited effort from their defensive corps and the tenacity of Dan Cleary and Henrik Zetterberg, the Wings rallied to stun the Sharks, 4-3, to keep the season alive.

"It's interesting, as you watch the playoffs, there's lots of nice players during the regular season and they've got good skill level and all that," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "If you don't have a drive train, if you don't compete at the highest level, you can't win at this time of year,"

"To me, the players on our team today that were good, whether you're on the first line or fourth line, or first 'D' or sixth 'D', it's all about competition level. Tt's about digging in and winning that simple little battle."

Babcock made those comments when asked about Datsyuk during the post-game press conference, but Babcock's words were more of a statement about his team.

The Red Wings could have packed it in. They were down a forward, with Johan Franzen on the bench with a tender ankle. Their best face-off man, Datsyuk, couldn't take face-offs. And twice they fell behind by two goals.

Somehow, someway, the intangibles -- heart, desire and will -- took over.

This was clearly evident when each time San Jose went up by two, the Wings answered quickly. And once they tied the score, their stars -- Datsyuk, Nick Lidstrom and Tomas Holmstrom -- combined to score the winning goal.

Patience and guts won this game for the Detroiters. Like the city the Red Wings represent, they have a resiliency that is astounding.

However, the Wings are still down in the series, 3-2, and their margin for error is none.

Being on the road could be the elixir that San Jose needs, since the choke label will be mentioned often leading up to Game 6. The Sharks know full well that the "same old Sharks" label has suddenly resurfaced. They will be a determined hockey team Tuesday night.

As far as the Wings, the effort will be there and the crowd will be completely bonkers. But how healthy will Datsyuk and Johan Franzen be? Will Mike Modano be inserted into the lineup if Franzen can't go? Or will it be Jiri Hudler? Can Jimmy Howard continue to hold off a relentless Shark attack?  Will Nick Lidstrom play more than 46 seconds on the penalty kill?

Based on what we've witnessed thus far, it's tough to go against the Wings in Game 6. They proved on Sunday in San Jose that it's going to take quite a punch to knock out the Red Wings.