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Closer Look Holmstrom's goal proved depth was the differencePosted: Friday June 14, 2002 1:44 AMUpdated: Friday June 14, 2002 1:45 AM
By Daniel G. Habib, Sports Illustrated DETROIT -- Prior to the Stanley Cup finals (which ended, to the surprise of absolutely no one, with the Red Wings hoisting the chalice Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena), Detroit's superior depth often was cited as the advantage that would tip the series. Early in the second period of Detroit's 3-1 Game 5 victory, the talent disparity between the teams' fourth lines -- a gap so wide, Evel Knievel would balk at leaping it -- was finally, and most decisively, brought to bear, resulting in the game's first goal. At 4:07 of the second, Detroit's fourth line of Luc Robitaille, Igor Larionov and Tomas Holmstrom was matched in an unusually long shift against their Carolina counterparts Jeff Daniels, Kevyn Adams and Tommy Westlund. After defenseman Chris Chelios kept the puck in at the right point, he swept it down the boards into the corner for Larionov, who patiently waited for Holmstrom to sweep through the slot. Holmstrom did so, just ahead of Adams, and from five feet out, extended his stick blade to push Larionov's feed through goalie Arturs Irbe's five-hole.
The bang-bang goal not only gave Detroit a lead it would not relinquish, but forced Carolina to open up its offense (Brendan Shanahan's power-play goal almost 10 minutes later only increased that pressure). Holmstrom's goal also encapsulated the difference between the fourth-line combos. The Wings' trio features Robitaille, the highest-scoring left wing in league history; the 41-year-old Larionov, a ceaselessly effective playmaker whose nickname, "the Professor," is testimony to his hockey smarts; and Holmstrom, a fearless, slippery crease-crasher who's at his best when he's descending on the net with a head of steam. The Canes' trio features three average checking forwards, all of them decent placeholders and penalty killers, but none of them a true defensive stopper. At the moment Holmstrom beat Irbe, each member of the Wings' fourth line was doing precisely what he was supposed to: Robitaille, on the off wing, was drawing Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley away from the play; Larionov was dissecting the ice, waiting to deliver a perfect cross; Holmstrom, outskating Adams, was hellbent for the crease with his stick in open ice. "I looked over my shoulder and he was gone," Adams said. "You can't let Holmstrom get on the other side of the ice to you. Maybe I should have taken him down, but he dove to get the puck and it was out of my reach." Adding to the problem, the matched-up shift had lasted more than a minute (the average length of Daniels' and Adams' shifts was 35 seconds, Westlund's was 36). That's not necessarily a fatigue problem, but in extended ice time, flaws open up more regularly. Chelios and Jiri Slegr, who started his first game of the postseason in place of the suspended Jiri Fischer, did well to contain the puck in the Carolina zone during the second half of the shift, preventing the line change the Hurricanes wanted. The penalty free-for-alls of Games 1 and 2 limited even-strength play, and kept both Scotty Bowman and Paul Maurice from having to roll four lines. To Maurice, it was an advantage -- through the first four games of the series, his weakest line was a plus-2 -- but to Bowman, it restricted the minutes available to three capable scorers. As the games got cleaner, Detroit's manpower advantage became more apparent. Said Robitaille afterward, explaining his dive to the net to retrieve the puck after the goal had gone in, "I wanted to get it for Holmstrom. He worked so hard all playoffs, I thought he deserved it." |
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