40 Minutes Good Enough… For Now
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The Red Wings will need to improve their consistency if they have any hope of advancing deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs. On Saturday, Detroit started strong racking up a four goal lead on the strength of Pavel Datsyuk’s four point game. The effort was almost spoiled due to a dismal effort in the third period which saw the Phoenix Coyotes battle back to within a goal.
The Wings, who has been plagued by poor starts all season long, absolutely dominated the first two periods and had Phoenix on the ropes entering the third period. Then the sloppy play started which included taking four third period penalties and giving some momentum back.The effort was a complete reversal of the opening period of the first game which saw Detroit start flat allowing Phoenix to take an early lead.
While the Coyotes are a competitive team, the Red Wings are clearly the stronger of the two teams. Unfortunately, their lack of consistency and discipline has given the coyotes a chance in both games. Detroit cannot expect to continue to win games by allowing opponents to storm back into contention. If they can make it past Phoenix, the competition will only intensify the deeper this team goes. They must find a way maintain their intensity from start to finish or else it could be another disappointing post season effort in Detroit.