Gave: Wings must overcome playoff inexperience to beat Lightning
Every guy can tell you about his first one, but the look on the face of Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said everything.
When asked what words of advice he might have for his young teammates on the verge of getting their Stanley Cup baptism tonight in Tampa Bay, Zetterberg paused with a sardonic smile.
"It's tough to explain. You have to almost experience it," he said. "I remember my first time, and it ... was ... awesome. Just the different feel going into a playoff game compared to the regular season. Having that (feeling) for the first time was pretty special."
When the puck drops tonight (6:30 pregame, 7:30 face-off on FOX Sports Detroit) for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series with the Lightning, rookie goaltender Petr Mrazek will just begin to understand what Zetterberg was talking about. So will defenseman Alexey Marchenko. And forwards Teemu Pulkkinen and Landon Ferraro.
Several other Wings players -- forwards Luke Glendening, Tomas Jurco, Riley Sheahan and Tomas Tatar -- had their first playoff experience last spring in the 4-1 opening-round loss to Boston.
This is an awfully young and inexperienced team. The kind that tends to struggle in the playoffs, no matter how good things looked at times in the regular season.
In other words, as defenseman Niklas Kronwall well knows, experience is critical.
"Some of these guys get a first chance of finding out what it's like to play in the playoffs," Kronwall said. "It's a different game. Everything is tighter. Everything is harder. At the same time, it's a lot more fun.
"A lot of guys learned a lot last year, and hopefully with that experience we're ready to take that next step as a team."
Zetterberg seconded that notion.
"I think last year was important for this year," he said. "A lot of guys had their first playoff experience last year, and we hope that will help them this year."
Veterans especially tend to understand how special this time of year can be, and how fleeting the opportunities are.
"Every year you get in, you have a chance," Kronwall said. "Some of us have went all the way. But it's been a long time since we were really close. And every time you've got to make sure you embrace it and make the most of it.
"We haven't been able to do that the last couple of years, so this is something we have to embrace, and do it together."
Like Kronwall, Zetterberg has never missed the postseason since arriving in Detroit. And both have had a big hand over the last dozen years or so in keeping the Wings' 24-year playoff streak alive.
"I've been blessed to have that every single year since I got here," said Zetterberg, whose first playoff experience happened to be the year Mike Babcock's underdog Anaheim team beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Wings in 2003. "It's the fun part of the season. It's a special time. It's why you work hard all summer and through the regular season, to be in the postseason.
"We haven't made the deep runs that we wanted to lately, but we have a chance this year again."
In fact, since the Wings advanced to the Cup finals in 2009, they have won just three playoff series.
In 2010, they beat Phoenix in a seven-game series before losing to San Jose in five games. History repeated itself the following year, when the Wings swept the Coyotes in the opening round before falling to San Jose in a hard-fought, seven-game series.
It was one-and-out for Detroit in 2012, losing in five games to Nashville. The following year, the Wings bested Anaheim in a memorable seven-game series -- winning three of four overtime games -- before falling to eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago in the second round, in another seven-game series.
Last year, the Wings were eliminated early by Boston.
Darren Helm has been around long enough to experience a sea change in the way the Wings approach the second-season each spring. His first time was beyond memorable. He was a rookie when Detroit won the Stanley Cup in 2008, and he remembers the agony of defeat the following year when the Wings lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals to Pittsburgh.
"It was a confident group my first couple of years in the playoffs, and things just kind of rolled," he said. "I might have taken it a little bit for granted. especially now that we've had a couple of years when we haven't done too good in the playoffs. And we've got to find a way to turn that around."
PREDICTION
There's a lot to like and admire about this team, which has given Detroit fans a season to cherish. This was the year that long playoff streak was supposed to end, the experts said. Instead, the Wings finished third in the tough Atlantic Division with 100 points. That's astounding, and a tribute to both the players and the coaching staff.
Tampa Bay has its own share of youthful inexperience, but the Lightning showcased a consistently better team all season long. The Wings kept pace though February before their weaknesses were exposed.
Inconsistent goaltending got the most attention, however, careless giveaways and an inability to get the puck safely out of their own zone were problematic. So were special teams, especially the power play. And they struggled on face-offs down the stretch. All of which points to a short series going the wrong way.
But I hope I'm wrong because this team has been delightful to cover, and I can't bear the thought of this wonderful season ending so soon.
PICK: Too much youthful inexperience. Lightning in five.
