There's something to that.
I think we're seeing Todd McClellan's growth as a head coach vs. his old boss. The Sharks have been trying to model themselves after Detroit's puck possession style, and they've struggled mightily vs. Detroit in the last two regular seasons, especially at the Joe, because Detroit has been doing it for years, and better.
When they dropped 6 straight in March, Todd was trying everything, and finally hit on splitting up the line of Heatley/Thornton/Marleau late in the year. Thornton got hurt, and for a bit, he brought them back together, but most of the playoffs, one of the three has been on the third line. That makes the 3rd line a decent possession line of its' own, since guys like Malhotra and Couture play this style much better than guys like Roenick, Grier and Goc did last year. Clowe, Seto, and Pavs speak for themselves in the 2nd (1st?) line. Babcock hasn't been able to put Z/Lids against one line, shut them down, and go whistling home like 2007.
That gives San Jose 3 decent possession lines, and a 4th line for energy that isn't playing much (like 5-8 minutes a night). And because guys like Samuelsson, Hudler, and Hossa are gone, replaced by guys like Miller, Bertuzzi and Eaves/Abdelkader Detroit's been really more two possession lines, one dump and grind line and a 4th energy line. This is probably where Leino crapping the bed to such an extent hurts.
For the first time that I've noticed, the Sharks will also have periods where they're just holding the puck in the Detroit zone like the Wings have done for 15 years to the rest of the league, and it's something they haven't adjusted to well, and you're getting more of the legit penalty calls (ignoring the crack induced ones for the moment) tilted toward the guys in red. Detroit isn't really that much more disciplined then the rest of the league when they finish top 4 year after year in penalty calls, but they just have the puck a lot more, and most penalties are called when chasing the puck.
