FROM DETROIT — Randy Carlyle clearly outcoached his counterpart, Todd McLellan, during the Ducks' first-round playoff series against the Sharks.
Carlyle let his top line, centered by Ryan Getzlaf, play against San Jose's physically big but competitively small Joe Thornton line, and the Ducks' success had McLellan scrambling. McLellan broke up his top line and eventually reunited it at the players' request, but by then the Ducks were well on their way to dismissing the Sharks in six games.
Carlyle forced McLellan to react to the Ducks' game plan when the top-seeded Sharks should have been dictating the tempo and strategy. It helped, too, that Carlyle had a deep well of character players to rely on and San Jose is famously lacking in the grit that's often more vital than skill during the playoffs.
The Ducks' second-round series against the Red Wings, tied at 2-2 as the teams flew to Detroit on Friday to prepare for Game 5 on Sunday at Joe Louis Arena, is unfolding a lot differently.
It's not that Carlyle is being outcoached. Not that it would be an embarrassment if he were. Babcock, after being on the wrong end of a first-round upset in 2006 and a loss to the Ducks in the 2007 West finals, found his footing and won the Stanley Cup last spring.
And with a few moves that were instrumental in Detroit's 6-3 victory in Game 4, he put Carlyle in the position of reacting instead of initiating.
Given the Ducks' lack of offensive depth compared to the roll-four-lines Red Wings, Babcock's team appears to have gained the upper hand in what is now a best-of-three series with two games on its home ice.
Babcock's decision to mix his top two lines Thursday might stand out as the turning point.
Taking Marian Hossa away from Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom to play with Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula jarred two goals out of Hossa's stick after three games' worth of excellent chances that went unconverted.
All the opportunities they said were bound to become goals finally were finished off, providing affirmation that even world-class athletes need more than you'd think.
The move also gave the Red Wings better balance, creating two swift, strong scoring lines. The Ducks' checking line of Drew Miller, Todd Marchant and Rob Niedermayer had done a good job against the Datsyuk line. But it can't stop that line, now with Henrik Zetterberg in Hossa's place, and smother the Franzen-Filppula-Hossa trio, too.
