No Air Means Doused Flames

Streaks -- you wanna talk streaks?

Because you can take that 26-game playoff goal-scoring drought of Pavel Datsyuk's and send it the way of maskless goalies, helmetless forwards, and ad-less boards.

Datsyuk's on a streak, alright. And so is Valtteri Filppula (whose name I had to quadruple check the spelling of, because it's one of those that will always look misspelled, no matter which consonant you double). And, for that matter, so is Jiri Hudler. And Mathieu Schneider. And Steve Yzerman, who's working on a two-game streak of not dressing for a playoff game.

OK, that last one is fudging things. But the others are legit. Datsyuk and Filppula (or is it Fillpula? or Flippula? and what was that first name again?) each have two-game goal-SCORING streaks. Hudler has an assist in each of the first two games. And Schneider has a two-game point-scoring streak. All this, plus stifling defense and relentless attacking, has the Red Wings up, 2-0, in their Western Conference quarterfinal series against Calgary.

So enough about how Datsyuk can't score in the playoffs. Enough about how his recently-signed seven-year contract extension is going to put too much pressure on him. Enough about how the Flames are going to use their physicalness to bully the Red Wings.

For now, anyway.

The Red Wings are up two-love in this playoff series because they haven't let the Flames get off the dime in either contest. If this was a murder, it would be done by asphysxiation -- slow yet steady.

You can almost imagine the Flames players stepping onto their bus outside of JLA and taking in a huge breath of relief -- even if it's one filled with carbon monoxide. Because there sure hasn't been much air to breathe for the Flames inside the Joe.

And you know what happens to Flames when they don't get enough oxygen, don't you?

This is the time for the Red Wings to become greedy, ruthless, and snarling -- and I mean sweeping the Flames out of the playoffs. No nonsense. No goofing around. If the Red Wings can't smell blood by now, then they ought to take the clothespins off their noses and sniff. The Flames are ready to be had, and a first-round sweep would be a wonderful away to establish things in these playoffs.

Easier said than done, I know. If Flames goalie Miikka (double consonants AND vowels) Kiprusoff keeps playing this well, and his teammates raise their games a notch, we could be looking at a 2-2 series headed back to Detroit. He's been that good in the Flames' net. The Red Wings have outscored Calgary, 7-2, so far. Without Kiprusoff's heroics, that ratio is more like 12 to 2.

One more thing as the Red Wings head to Calgary for games 3 and 4: bring a flame-retardant broom.

***********************************************

A quick "Out of Bounds" welcome to a new member to the old blogroll: Scott Warheit, whose new blog, Quo Vadimus, is now available -- covering sports, politics, and whatever else Scott wants to tackle. Warheit is a former Detroit News columnist, and is a regular contributor to MLive.com. Welcome, Scott!