Red Wings On The Brink

Going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs one thing the Detroit Red Wings had going for them was their record on home ice.

Detroit was 31-7-3 at Joe Louis Arena and hadn't lost consecutive home games all season. Despite conceding home ice in the 1st round by finishing the season with a 6-9-3 record the feeling was that if the Red Wings could get a split on the road in their first two games they could take control of the series when it returned to the Motor City.

Instead it was Nashville winning both games in Detroit. Because of that the Red Wings are now one loss away from being eliminated in the 1st round for the first time since 2006.

After last night's loss I received a text from my friend Shaban asking me "What up with the Red Wings?"

To answer his question in a simple way, Nashville has been the better hockey team.

Why have they been a better hockey team? I'll give you a few reasons.

The first and most obvious reason is the play of Pekka Rinne in net.

Rinne has been as good as he was expected to be only allowing eight goals in four games. He has a GAA of 2.01 and a save percentage of .942. Right now whenever Detroit shoots the puck on net it is finding Rinne instead of the back of the net.

Of course that only applies when a Red Wings shot doesn't hit a defenseman en route on goal.

One thing the Predators have done well in this series is take away Detroit's shooting lanes. It seems like every shot Detroit takes there is a Nashville player that is either in position to block the shot or force the Red Wing player to rush his shot so it doesn't get blocked.

Another reason why the Predators are up 3-1 in this series is the play from their defenseman.

Each Nashville defenseman are on the plus side of the plus/minus ratings with the exception of Ryan Suter and Roman Josi who are even right now at zero.

And while Suter and Shea Weber get the attention on the blueline the one player that has had the biggest impact in the series for the Predators is Kevin Klein.

Klein scored the 2nd goal in game three by joining the rush up the ice and beating Jimmy Howard top shelf to give Nashville a 2-0 lead they would not relinquish.

Last night Klein made an impact again with the game tied at one.

As Martin Erat brought the puck into the zone three Red Wings players chased him off to the right of Jimmy Howard. That left the middle of the ice open.

All Erat had to do was leave the puck for a trailing Kevin Klein, who buried it into the empty net, giving Nashville a 2-1 lead en route to a 3-1 win.

Every year a player steps up unexpectedly and makes an impact. Right now for Nashville that player is Kevin Klein.

Because of this Detroit is down 3-1 in the series and facing elimination Friday night.

I can't say I'm surprised because I picked Nashville to win the series but I thought the series would go all seven games. It still can but Detroit needs to find a way to score on Rinne or else this series will be done in five.

It could be worse Detroit fans, you could be Pittsburgh or Vancouver.