Coyotes Dominate, WIn 4-2

The playoff opener at the Joe was foiled by those damned Phoenix Coyotes. I'm going to keep this brief, but the Coyotes just dominated the play. First period was a good period for Detroit, but anything after that was all Phoenix. Shane Doan got hurt and couldn't return, but Phoenix played better without him. The Coyotes dominated physical play again, and they won the battles of the game. Battles for lose pucks, scrums in the corner, scrums in front of the net, they were all going in favor of Phoenix.

The Coyotes came out wanting the victory more than Detroit. Phoenix's game was refined, Detroit's was sloppy. The Coyotes executed their game plan, Detroit did not. Lidstrom looked like a 40 year old defenseman and Jimmy Howard looked like a rookie. Simple as that, Phoenix wants it more than Detroit right now. The question is, can Babcock light a fire under his team? I think so, this team is better than Phoenix, it's why they play 7. You have off games and lucky wins, but in a 7 game series, the best team usually comes out on top.

Game 4 wil decide the winner of Game 5 in my opinion. If the Coyotes leave Detroit taking two then it's game over Wings fans. Detroit needs to come into game 4 ready to go. They can't afford to play sloppy. Jimmy needs to play like the goaltender that was in net during the second half of the season, not the one before the Olympic break. Pavel and Hank need guys like Bertuzzi, Cleary, Franzen, and Holmstrom to get going. Those guys are the key to Detroit's victory.

Detroit-5
Coyotes-3