Avoiding a repeat

Wings can't afford slow start to series against Blues

DETROIT (AP) -- The Detroit Red Wings are playing better than they did when they last faced St. Louis, and the Blues realize that.

The Blues swept a home-and-home series at the end of the regular season.

"They were just trying to get their act together for the playoffs," Scott Young said Tuesday. "Now, we're facing a team that realizes if they don't put it together for six or seven games, they'll be out. I don't know that that desperation was there at the end of the regular season."

The Red Wings took out the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs by winning four straight games. The Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks in five, which included three consecutive shutouts.

"Every series that we've played against St. Louis has always been some very good hockey, and I think that's what everyone expects this series," Detroit's Kris Draper said Tuesday. "It's a team that has a lot of confidence right now. We just won four in a row so we have some confidence, too, so that should make for another entertaining series."

The Red Wings lost the first two games at home to Vancouver and don't want to have to dig themselves out of an early hole again.

"We definitely want to learn from what happened last series," Detroit's Darren McCarty said. "Take the good, take the bad, just make sure when we leave here we're not down 2-0."

Game 1 is Thursday night in Detroit.

"The one thing we're focusing on is being ready in Game 1 and not waiting to see how they're going to play," Draper said.

While much of the Red Wings' preparation before the Vancouver series centered on how to stop the Markus Naslund-Brendan Morrison-Todd Bertuzzi line, this time they are concerned with defensemen Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis, both of whom log about 30 minutes a game.

"It's going to be very interesting how we're going to do a job on their defense, because their defense is a very powerful force out there by bringing the puck up the ice and throwing it in, dumping it in," Sergei Fedorov said.

With his solid play against Chicago, St. Louis goaltender Brent Johnson, the grandson of late Red Wings great Sid Abel, has proven he can handle the playoff load.

"He's been playing extremely well for them," Detroit's Nick Lidstrom said. "I think we have to come out and get some shots and have guys there in front of him so he can't see some of the shots."

The Blues have pretty much the same plan against Detroit goaltender Dominik Hasek.

"Dominik, if he sees the shot, it's 99 percent sure he'll stop it," MacInnis said. "We've got to take a page from Vancouver's book and get a lot of traffic in front of the net. We don't want just one chance. We've got to get those second and third opportunities."

The Red Wings are happy about the opportunity to cut down on their travel. St. Louis is just about 90 minutes away. The trip to Vancouver is five hours.

"I think the travel's going to help a lot instead of going all the way out to the West Coast," Lidstrom said. "It will help only going to one time zone over."

 

Related information
Stories
Wings knew they weren't done, even with 0-2 hole Wings close out Canucks with 6-4 win in Game 6 Blues eliminate Blackhawks with 5-3 victory 2002 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily Schedule
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.