Red Wings Advance in 7 as the 7 (told you so again)

Photo Credit John Gross

I'ma little late, but I'm taking a break from my vacation to bring you my thoughts that I know you all can't live without.

But our resilient Red Wings took out the Not-Mighty-Anymore Ducks of Anaheim, in 7 games, giving all us Wings lovers another third period scare in the process, but hung on to win 3-2 in the decisive game 7.

This seven game series was without a doubt one of the most fun playoff series I've ever had the pleasure of viewing (most of it.)  Two evenly matched teams battling it out night in and night out, only one game was a bad game.  4 of the 7 games went to overtime on top of that.

But our beloved Red Wings found a way to make past the second-seeded Ducks and now have a date with Chicago.

But how could the Red Wings, who just a matter of weeks ago were out of the playoffs, fund themselves still playing hockey?  Allow me to give you a rundown of some key points...

Bearded Style.

1. Playoff mentality
• When the Wings were always finishing as one of the top teams in the conference, there was one thing that always worried me about our first round matchup: The playoff mentality.  The Wings, and other low-seed teams, have been fighting for their playoff lives for weeks all the way up until the final game of the season.  They've been in playoff mode for weeks and this sometimes gives them a huge leg up on the opponents.
• Wings were 9th and had to win the last 4 games to get the 7 seed.  Minnesota finished 8, but had that spot kind of locked up for awhile, they fell into 8th but still had leeway over Columbus.
2. Perfect Matchup
• The Red Wings matched up beautifully with the Ducks, and even took the season series against them.  Yes, regular season doesn't matter in the post season, but you had to imagine there was a sense of confidence playing the Ducks as opposed to starting with Chicago.  Players claim not to think about this, but they do.
3. Youth Development
• Folks, this is the most important one here, the young folks of the Wings became men.  Babcock said it himself, without the development of the Anderson-Nyquist-Brunner line this team doesn't get past the Ducks and it's true.  That line gave Babcock good shift after good shift and scored two key overtime goals.
• But let's not forget the contributions of the other youngsters, Emmerton, Lashoff, Dekeyser, Smith, and Kindl.  While only the later of the two played every game of the series, these guys all got valuable experience this series/season, they all show a promising future for the Red Wings.
4. Beard Support

• Yupp, I predicted them to win, check the Twitter.  I may be wrong about most things, I was right about them making the playoffs, the seed they'd get(both preseason predictions, Ryan can back me up,) and them getting past the first round.

Next up we got Chicago, and unfortunately, the Wings looked outmatched.  Then again, everyone is outmatched against Chicago.  What gives me hope is that 3 out of 4 of the regular season matchups too OT or shootout, so it's been close.  And the Wings are hot and healthy for the first time.

Unfortunately, this pains me to do, but I'm going Hawks in 6.

This is your bearded blogger, keeping it real in Hawaii

Aloha y'all