CSSI Analysis: Red Wings 1 - Islanders 5

[Editor's Note: I still haven't completed the writeup for Sunday's Chicago game, but I don't want to get any farther behind. The numbers in this post are missing that game from the adjustment standpoint. As soon as I have that post done and the numbers updated, the charts on the bottom of this post will automatically update themselves]

What a garbage game by the Red Wings. It's pretty hard to find positives in a game where the Wings didn't move their feet enough, didn't engage physically enough, didn't focus enough, and generally sucked. So... I won't try.

Darren Helm being interfered with before getting to a rebound on a shorthanded breakaway was the only missed call which made me exclaim something out loud. Other than that, the reffing wasn't a story here. Power plays were even at 3-3 in this one (although the Wings went 0-fer and still managed to spend almost a minute more on the ice than the 1-for-3 Isles.) Shots were 30-24 Isles because why the hell wouldn't they be?

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Goalie Ratings

Ty Conklin let in five goals and his opponent let in one. I suppose that it might actually be possible for him to win the head-to-head in some stupid odd manner, but that's not what happened in this game. Nabby solidly outplayed Conklin with big saves. Conks will get a -1 in the head-to-head. Overall, I felt Conklin actually held off the the rout in the first period, as he made a couple of big stops to keep the Isles off the board early. There were saves I wish he made, but this game isn't close to being on him. I'm going to give Conks an even rating on the night.

Scoring and plus/minus analysis after the jump

The Goals

Penalty Adjustment: at 15:34 of the first period, the Wings get the first power play as Valtteri Filppula carries in on the wing. Milan Jurcina goes for a big hit on Flip at the half-boards, but Filppula is set and throws a check right back at him at the same time. This causes Jurcina to lose his balance and fall over. As this happens, he brings his stick up into Filppula's face. I like this play by Filppula and he'll get a plus for it.

1st Period 19:07 - Islanders Goal (PP): Matt Moulson (deflection) from PA Parenteau and Mark Streit
The Penalty - Brad Stuart (roughing, unsportsmanlike): Shortly after the expiration of the Jurcina penalty, Stuart goes to the box. Matt Moulson carries the puck out of the zone and Stu makes a play extending his arm at Moulson as if to establish contact and slow him down. Moulson moves and Stu's glove catches him in the jaw. It's a bit of unfortunate timing, but it's Stu's fault. It's also his fault that he gets an additional two for mouthing off to the ref. For each of these penalties, Stuart will get one minus.
The Isles score on the first half of the two minors with some very good puck movement against a very passive Wings PK unit. Detroit kills off the first 40 seconds before Streit gains the zone and gets the PP unit set up again. The Isles move the puck every direction around the outside of the box trying to find a weakness and nearly score when Matt Moulson hits John Tavares streaking in on the back door with a pass from behind the Wings net. After this miss, Tavares re-gathers behind the line and the Isles get set up once again. Tavares throws a hard cross-ice pass from the bottom of one circle to Parenteau standing on the other side. Parenteau has to take a second to gather the puck and loses the shooting angle. Instead of forcing something, Parenteau goes to Streit back at the point to change up the angle before receiving it back at the half-boards. From here, he goes to Moulson standing low on that side. Moulson steps out with the space he has and tries to throw it across the top of the crease to Tavares rushing the net. Instead of completing the pass, Moulson sees the puck deflect off Drew Miller's skate and in. It's tough to assign blame on such good puck movement, but Miller has to be aware that not only is Tavares' stick a danger, but also his own skates are. Miller will get a half-minus for the coverage that leads the puck into the net off of him.

2nd Period 07:31 - Islanders Goal: John Tavares (wrist shot) from Kyle Okposo
This play starts in the Isles' own zone with the puck on Johan Franzen's stick. Mule gets a puck in the corner under light pressure and decides to try and dump the puck around behind the net to Zetterberg on the far side. The dump isn't very strong and John Tavares picks it off the boards six feet away and feeds it out to Kyle Okposo standing in front to start up ice with it. Okposo meets Moulson at the top of the zone to join the middle lane while he brings the puck into the zone on the left wing. Travis Hamonic completes the front pressure as he enters just behind those two on the far side and forces Nick Lidstrom to worry about that far side coverage. While Franzen covers the middle lane that Okposo turns himself towards, the streaking forward drops the puck off for John Tavares to pick up coming in behind the play at the top of the circle. Ian White is low in the zone covering Moulson, Franzen has to cover the pass back to Okposo (but skates a bit too low doing so), Lidstrom is tied up with Hamonic, and Zetterberg is trailing the play to keep Tavares from going high across the zone to another trailer. This leaves Jiri Hudler three steps behind the man he's supposed to be covering and watching as Tavares lets his momentum carry him to the faceoff circle before he snaps a shot glove side on Conklin. The two men who were out of this play without an opportunity or an expectation to stop it (and will therefore have their minuses cleared) are Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg. They're both covering their men and not involved anywhere in the turnover or failure to stop a pass/shot from getting by. Ian White has a bit of a decision point as Tavares carries in and I feel he could have left Moulson to square up on Tavares and force him to make a different play. However, that could have led to the exact same result. I'm going to halve White's minus. Hudler starts this play six feet in front of Tavares in the eventual race to the Wings' blue line and ends up losing that race by two strides. Tavares is fast, but Hudler needs to get back harder. This is going to be an extra minus for Jiri. Franzen makes the biggest collection of errors on this play though. The weak dump that Tavares intercepts in the offensive zone will earn Franzen a turnover minus and his positioning in being the second man covering the defenseman Hamonic low in the zone instead of skating over to Tavares to cover for Hudler will get Franzen another half-minus.

2nd Period 11:10 - Islanders Goal: Kyle Okposo (wrist shot) from John Tavares and Matt Moulson
The Wings get caught on a bad change and New York makes them pay. Cory Emmerton gets a pass behind the Isles' net and is pressured into going back up the boards. Emmerton's puck play is weak and Travis Hamonic gets to it before Johan Franzen can pinch in and prevent him from poking it around to the point where it takes a favorable bounce off Matt Moulson and out of the zone. Kyle Okposo is there at center ice very quickly to pressure Brad Stuart while Tomas Holmstrom and Cory Emmerton each go off for a change in the same area of the puck battle and Johan Franzen waits for Stuart to beat two Islanders for the puck at center. Unfortunately, Stuart can't do this and Okposo ties up Stuart to allow Tavares to pick it up while Moulson trails at center. The crossing play brings Tavares in on the edge of the circle and Okposo just trailing him. The tie-up also means that Brad Stuart is now behind both of them and off-balance. Kindl tries to stop the pass from Tavares to Okposo all alone in the slot, but it gets through. Conklin slides over in the butterfly, but Okposo nails the top corner before Conk can even square. First order of business here is to clear Hudler and Zetterberg of minuses. With the way this play develops, they have no chance of making a difference here. Emmerton will earn a minus despite not being on the ice, as his weak dump around the boards leads to the transition. Franzen will pick up an extra minus for the coverage that lets the puck by and for not backchecking harder to try and prevent the odd-man situation from happening. Brad Stuart does not have the kind of up-ice support he would need to make such an aggressive play on Okposo at center and as a result, he is beaten on this play. Stuart will get an extra minus. With the way this develops for Kindl, he will keep his minus for not stopping the cross-ice pass, but he'll receive no additional blame.

2nd Period 18:32 - Islanders Goal: Michael Grabner (wrist shot) from Matt Martin and Mark Streit
Late in the 2nd period, Michael Grabner gets in on the fun. Defensive play by both teams has Zetterberg poke the puck off Grabner's stick just outside the Islanders' zone and then go off on a change while Holmstrom controls the puck just inside the line. Streit cuts off his angle down the boards and Homer turns to protect the puck only to see more pressure from Grabner on the other side. Here, he tries to get it to Cory Emmerton streaking into the zone off the line change, but Emmerton is not skating hard enough into the zone and not paying enough attention as the puck wanders its way past him to be picked up by Martin exiting the zone. Martin takes about four steps before realizing that Grabner has a head of steam built up and is in great position to take a pass on the other side of center to split the D and head in on a breakaway. Grabner takes it to the hash marks and roofs it for the 4th of the game. Cleary's minus will be cleared on this play. Cleary is playing good offense when the puck is turned over. Kronwall will have his minus halved. He's got to make sure that Martin can't just keep it himself to walk around and get a break of his own, but it feels like after he realizes Ericsson is caught, he could jump into gear a bit quicker to see if he can make a play on Grabner. Holmstrom will have his minus cleared. The puck is turned over off his stick, but his options get completely taken away and he fights to create a good one. It's not Homer's fault that Emmerton isn't ready to receive a pass he should be. Speaking of which, Emmerton will get an extra minus for what creates the turnover here. He has to be paying attention and hustling to get this pass. Finally, Jonathan Ericsson will get an extra minus for stepping too far up on the assumed zone entry and letting a guy get behind him for a goal.

3rd Period 02:36 - Detroit Goal: Justin Abdelkader (tip-in) from Jakub Kindl and Tomas Holmstrom
Early in the third, the Wings break the shutout with some good play in the offensive zone. Abdelkader and Kindl combine for a defensive zone faceoff win that turns into forechecking zone time on a dump-in by Holmstrom. Homer steps around Eaton and bangs hard into Staios to help get the puck back. This action is completed by Homer and Drew Miller in the corner. Homer jams it to Kindl at the point and everybody gets to net-front position as Kindl steps to get into a lane around Niederreiter at the point to throw a wrister into traffic. The puck deflects off the stick of Abdelkader at the hash marks as he's tied up by Staios. From there, the puck goes through a Tomas Holmstrom screen and finds its way into the net through Nabokov. This is a good hustle play by Homer on retrieval and also a good screen job. Homer will get a bonus plus for his forechecking work and a screener's assist for forcing Nabby to guess on the shot. Miller has a little to do with this play in helping to free it up to get it to the point for Kindl. Miller will get a half-assist (non-touch). Abby's clean faceoff win to start the rush will get him a half-plus.

Penalty Adjustment: 7:35 into the third, Todd Bertuzzi loses the puck at center to be picked up by Kyle Okposo stepping back into the Detroit zone. Okposo dekes Kronwall into a standing shot-block and then threatens to walk around him. Kronner loses his balance and as a last-ditch efford hooks Okposo to prevent a scoring chance. Kronner will get a minus for this, but Bert will also get a half-minus for where he turns the puck over.

3rd Period 13:57 - Islanders Goal: Matt Moulson (tip-in) from Mark Streit and John Tavares
Later in the third, the Isles prove they're not screwing around and put in one more for good measure. The Isles control off a faceoff and get good zone time with a goal almost 30 seconds later in the Detroit end. Helm gets a chance to clear as he comes out of his own corner, but pressure by Okposo forces him to try a fancy bounce-pass off the boards which misses Emmerton and instead rolls to Moulson for a flubbed shot attempt at the top of the Circle. Tavares picks it up and circles back around to the front of the net. Here, he finds everybody watching and is able to throw a seeing-eye pass to the opposite point to an uncovered Mark Streit. The Isle's D-man tees it up and it deflects off Moulson past Conklin for the game's final goal.Helm's turnover will lead to an extra minus for the speedster. Pretty much everybody else fails to prevent this play from developing, so no more extra minuses on this one.

Penalty Non-Adjustments

1st Period 19:49 - Andrew MacDonald (roughing): MacDonald is carrying the puck behind the Detroit goal and apparently gets an elbow or something up on Ericsson as they circle. I'd have to see a reverse angle to see if this is even worth a penalty, but I definitely don't think Ericsson drew it by any means.
3rd Period 05:08 - Travis Hamonic (high sticking): Guys' not paying attention to his stick in the offensive zone. No adjustment.

Bonus Ratings

+1 to Jakub Kindl and Jonathan Ericsson: Riggy had the mistake that earned him an extra minus on the goal and was punished for it as he should have been. Without that, I felt these two had a very solid game. They were calm and generally better-positioned than their higher-line counterparts.
-1 to Valtteri Filppula: The adjusted penalty plus doesn't make up for how many wide open goals he missed (2). It's not acceptable for a guy to make as many offensive zone mistakes as he made and I feel he hurt the team with them.

Honorable Mentions:
I thought Homer and Helm were moving their feet, but could have skated a bit harder. I hope the Wings can recover from this in time for Thursday.

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