As long as he's not handling the puck, Dom Hasek is in good shape. Dave Sandford/Getty Images

There's a good lesson for San Jose in their Game 2 loss to the Red Wings on Saturday: You won't win many hockey games with five minutes of your top effort.

Sure, they managed to steal Game 1 on the road that way, but it's surprising that coach Ron Wilson couldn't keep his team from going back to that well. Meanwhile, the veteran-heavy Wings, who were reeling after falling behind 2-0 just 4:17 in, recognized there was a lot of hockey left to play and regrouped around Mike Babcock's game plan.

It really was as simple as that. After devoting the painful first 15 minutes to a foot-shooting exhibition, the Wings started to find their way toward the end of the first. Shaking off the early tightness, they began taking advantage of San Jose's inexplicable passivity, winning races to the puck and battles along the boards that allowed them to control the flow of play. That veteran savvy really showed up in the second, when they held the Sharks off the shot sheet for nearly 14 minutes.

It was a tight game with both sides struggling to generate offensive chances, but after 60 minutes the Wings had worked harder, longer.

As a result, both teams got the result they deserved today.

Other knee-jerk reactions:

San Jose's inability to put their boots on the collective throats of the Edmonton Oilers led to their unceremonious dismissal from the playoffs last season. Despite the addition of several battle-hardened vets -- Mike Grier, Craig Rivet and Bill Guerin -- to bolster the roster for this year's run, the Sharks are making the same mistakes against Detroit. After taking their 2-0 lead early in Game 1, they mustered a mere 11 shots over the final 50 minutes. They authored a nearly identical script today. Clinging to a 2-1 lead after the first, they tested Dominik Hasek just 10 times over the final two periods.

They may be younger, bigger and stronger, but the Sharks won't survive this round if they can't extend their fast starts to a complete, 60-minute effort.

The other big story of the game? Giveaways.

The official stats had the Wings coughing up the puck 24 times to just 12 by the Sharks. Those numbers may have been a little kind-hearted, as both teams made an endless series of bad decisions with the puck that directly led to four of the five goals and most of the game's best scoring chances.

The Sharks' first goal was courtesy of a pair of uncharacteristic giveaways by Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby that led to a Kyle McLaren point blast being tipped in by Jonathan Cheechoo after just 36 seconds of play. Joe Thornton's goal less than four minutes later was gift-wrapped by Hasek, who clearly needs to be reminded at the start of every period to leave the puck for somebody, anybody, else. If he's not the worst stickhandling goalie in the league, he's certainly in medal contention.

While the Wings made the big mistakes early, San Jose made their fatal errors late. Dan Cleary's tying marker was created after a botched blue line handoff between Christian Ehrhoff and Guerin allowed him a free lane to Evgeni Nabokov. Pavel Datsyuk's winner was the culmination of some nice work down low by the Wings that came about as a direct result of a Nabokov pass that was picked off by Henrik Zetterberg. At this time of year, the equation is simple: Give away the puck, give away the game.

Through their first five games this season, the Sharks lit up the Wings on the power play, going 14-for-32. Today, they went 0-for-6 and rarely generated sustained pressure. Credit the Wings for shutting down the passing lines and showing patience in their zone. Rubbing salt on the wound was Cleary's shorthander to tie the game…

Where's San Jose's second line? Patrick Marleau, Mark Bell and Bill Guerin were expected to play a major role in the series, but the thinking was that they would, you know, actually enhance the Sharks chances of winning. Instead, they were miserable Saturday, generating just two shots between them (both by Guerin) and rang up a minus-6 as a unit. Marleau was minus–3, and an abysmal 3-for-14 on the draw.

Bell, who was flat out miserable in his own end, likely will be replaced by Joe Pavelski for Game 3. Unfortunately, there's no simple solution with Marleau. The captain's passivity -- there's that word again -- is negating what's been a decent effort so far by last season's playoff whipping boy, Thornton. If Marleau's going to wear that letter, he needs to be the guy that sets the standard when his team is struggling to find its game. Anything less, and the Sharks may face another long summer at the beach.