Red Wings plan to be ready from start of Blues series

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings aren't stumbling into the second round of the playoffs, but they're not joyously leaping toward the task of facing the hot St. Louis Blues.

The Red Wings ousted the Vancouver Canucks by winning four straight games after two loses, and the Blues eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks in five games, including 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 Blues realize Detroit isn't the same team they swept in 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. "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 lost the first two games at home to Vancouver and don't want to have to dig 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."

Draper said Detroit has to be ready Thursday night when the puck drops to start Game 1.

"The one thing we're focusing on is being ready in Game 1 and not waiting to see how they're going to play," he 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 around 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," Detroit's 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 a 90-minute flight away, compared to more than five hours to Vancouver.

"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."

Noteworthy

Detroit captain Steve Yzerman did not practice with the team Tuesday because of his sore right knee. Although Yzerman has not been practicing, he has played in every playoff game.

Head coach Scotty Bowman reunited Detroit's "grind line" of Kirk Maltby, Draper and McCarty during the Vancouver series. That line saw time against the Canucks' top line and would be happy to face the Blues' top players. "We want the responsibility of shutting the other team's top line down, frustrating them and getting their players off their game," McCarty said.

St. Louis forward Doug Weight is a native of Warren, a Detroit suburb. "I'll have 30 or 40 people there at the games that I know," Weight said.

When asked whether the current St. Louis Blues are a better team now than when he played for them, Brett Hull responded, "Of course not."