Sharks Compared B'Hawks to the Red Wings

DP · May 15, 2010

MLIVE.com Blog

By George Malik
May 15, 2010, 5:31AM
The NHL's Western Conference finalists, the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, most definitely take pages from the Red Wings' book in playing high-tempo, puck possession hockey, and if you believe the Sharks, the Chicago's forwards attempt to emulate Detroit's best, as the Chicago Sun-Times' Adam L. Jahns notes:

May 15, Chicago Sun-Times: 'They have a bunch of guys who want to get their noses dirty,'' [Evgeni] Nabokov said Friday after the Sharks practiced. ''They have big bodies going to the net. But every team is going hard to the net right now. They learned a lot from Detroit. ... You just got to stay patient. You deal with that. You just try to find the puck through [Byfuglien].''
...
San Jose also sees some similarities between the Hawks and Red Wings, whom they quickly dispatched in five games in their semifinal.

''I don't know if it will be much different,'' Sharks captain and veteran defenseman Rob Blake said. ''[Henrik] Zetterberg and [Pavel] Datsyuk control the puck very similar to [Patrick] Kane and [Jonathan] Toews. Obviously, Toews is leading the league right now with points. So he's been involved definitely in that offense. You add Byfuglien to that with that net presence, and he was definitely very dominant in the Vancouver series, much like a [Tomas] Holmstrom.''
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'He's a big body; he's bigger than [Holmstrom],'' Nabokov said. ''He's there to try to screen. But his game is to try to get the rebounds. He's pretty quick. He's pretty strong. It's tough to contain him out there. It's similar, but it's different.
The Sharks do plan on using the same, "Tie him up" (cough cough hook, hold and interfere) strategy with Byfuglien, as Blake told the Chicago Daily Herald's Tim Sassone:

May 15, Chicago Daily Herald: "More important for us, the first shot is going to come, but you have to take care of that stick on the second one," Blake said. "The second opportunities, he's very good at. He's got very good hands on those loose pucks around the net."
...
"Byfuglien was very dominant in the Vancouver series," Blake said. "I don't know if you want to engage with him so much in front of the net because he's too big and you'll wear yourself out. He's going to maintain that spot and if you throw a double screen there, it's even more traffic for the goalie. I think we'll handle it much similar to what we did with Holmstrom in the past series, but, again, these guys are very good at what they do. They get there and they plant themselves."
I'm ridiculously biased, of course, but I believe that comparing Holmstrom's Picasso reveals Byfuglien's inner Starving Artist approach to screening netminders.
Byfuglien reminds me of Eric Lindros back in his heyday, using his massive size to bump goaltenders and essentially shove both the puck and goalie into the net (somehow, the NHL has no problem with players shoving goalies into the net, but dare tip pucks by them with an inch of clearance between Homer's butt and a goalie's face, and that's a no-no).
Byfuglien doesn't possess Holmstrom's ability to mirror goaltenders' positioning and subtly sneak himself right onto the line separating crease from slot. Holmstrom honestly has better goaltending fundamentals than two thirds of the NHL's goalies, all while receiving hacks and whacks with little to no retaliation, while Byfuglien simply uses his size and guesses where he's at, and he often retaliates in plain old stupid fashion when defensemen dare shove him out of their goalie's sightlines.
"Homer" makes an ugly job subtle; "Buff" just makes an ugly job look like anything a brute can master with a little practice.
Click to expand...

Lets see, is Big Frame upset by this? Pumped for tomorrow!

Big Frame · May 30, 2010

Not really. Look at the front office of both teams. Hawks GM Stan Bowman, Son of Former Red Wing Hockey coach Scotty Bowman. Scotty is the senior advisor. But I have no clue what he does. Q-Stach was born across the River in Windsor, and coached with the Avs, when they were a bunch of punk ass bitches.

The Sharks head coach Todd McLellan was Babcocks asst coach the last time they won the cup.

I take it as a complement actually. Wouldnt you want to mimick the best team?

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Sharks Compared B'Hawks to the Red Wings

DP He shoots, he scores!

Big Frame Well-Known Member

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Sharks Compared B'Hawks to the Red Wings

DP He shoots, he scores!

Big Frame Well-Known Member

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