CSSI Analysis: Red Wings 0 - Rangers 3

The Red Wings lost and they deserved to. Not much else to be said about it.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Box score here

Goaltending

Jimmy Howard had two goals tipped by him and then badly played an odd-man rush. He shares in what was a bad performance by the team here.

The Goals

1st Period 05:14 - New York Goal: Brian Boyle (wrist shot) from John Moore and Dominic Moore
A broken defensive play early in the game gets the Rangers a 1-0 lead on a turnaround shot for Boyle in the slot. The Andersson-Alfredsson-Miller line does some good forechecking that ends when Andersson puts a shot on goal and Drew Miller is interfered with before he can get to the rebound, which kicks out and is moved up ice. John Moore gets the puck in the middle, but both breaks his stick and gets checked by Alfredsson. The puck rolls forward to Boyle who was crashing to the crease in front. Boyle collects, spins, and fires it. The puck hits Brendan Smith's stick and goes over the pad for the game-winner. Honestly, much of this goal is luck, but the Rangers have a 4-on-3 advantage because of a backcheck problem. Lashoff and Smith keep their minuses for not preventing this. Smith is closer to being at-fault here, but he's also covering two people and has to switch immediately from the guy closer to the net (his own man), to Boyle. A save/block here would have been a noteworthy play that would have likely led to an overall plus. Miller will be cleared as the victim of being taken out of the play. Alfredsson's minus will be halved. He plays good D on Moore, but the broken stick changes things up. Andersson will get an extra minus. He needs to backcheck harder. When it's a 4-on-3 rush, hanging back to watch for the fifth trailer isn't the right play. Pushing hard to the middle is.

3rd Period 00:14 - New York Goal: Chris Kreider (tip-in) from Ryan McDonagh and Derek Stepan
Detroit gives up another goal to open the third and lower hopes of a comeback thanks to a tip-in from a point shot. Legwand loses the faceoff and the Rangers dump it in. Ericsson pokes it around a forechecker, but Nyquist mishandles it to the middle of the ice, which forces him to try to clear it up ice away from Rick Nash. The puck bounces off Legwand in the middle of the ice just above the circles and is retrieved by Stepan, who feeds it to the point for a one-timer by McDonagh that Kreider tips in. Franzen and Kronwall are cleared here as they're holding position where they should be. Legwand will get a half-minus for turning the puck over (having the puck hit him is barely his fault and losing the faceoff is barely a problem..two barelies make a half). Nyquist will get a turnover minus for losing the puck and then flipping it up the middle of the ice. Ericsson will get a half-minus for not recognizing that he should probably try pushing or otherwise checking Stepan in front as the puck is on its way.

3rd Period 12:11 - New York Goal: Chris Kreider (wrist shot) from Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh
Kreider finishes the scoring on an odd-man rush where he's given all day to shoot at a mostly-open net. Somehow magically a faceoff happens at center and McDonagh ends up skating the puck behind his own net with Nyquist chasing (NBC doesn't show the whole play here so I have no idea how this goes down exactly). Franzen pinches down the wall on McDonagh to cut him off, but is beaten by a pass up the middle to Stephan heading up ice. The puck-carrier steps past Kronwall pinching at the half-boards and Kreider joins from the opposite wing side to make it a 2-on-1 against Ericsson. Riggy directs a hard-charging Bertuzzi to worry about Stepan, but isn't confident enough in it to stay in the passing lane as they cross into the Wings' zone. Stepan goes to Kreider at the top of the circles and his momentum carries him all the way to the dot where he fires a shot past a sprawling Jimmy Howard who was very slow to get over because he started this play five feet outside of his own crease and left himself with a three-step movement need to square over to the puck carrier. I don't care to call this a weak goal considering it was an odd-man rush, but I'm going to clear the minus for Bertuzzi as he shouldn't be expected to back out to cover two pinches that shouldn't be happening. Franzen and Kronwall will each get a minus for letting Stepan escape like this. Nyquist keep his minus. McDonagh starts with an advantage on getting to the puck, but I think Nyquist needs to press harder to try and angle off this pass. Ericsson will get a half-minus for not covering the cross-ice pass better. He gets caught a bit and completely let down by his goalie, so it's not a full minus.

Penalty Adjustments

1st Period 14:59 - Ryan McDonagh (tripping): The Wings get a rush up ice that gets cut off prematurely when McDonagh takes out Franzen at the blue line. No adjustment here. This isn't a drawn call so much as a stupid decision by McDonagh.
1st Period - Johan Franen (interference): Franzen goes to the box for skating through center ice and having Marty St. Louis back into him before falling down. No adjustment. What a dive.

2nd Period 00:26 - Chris Kreider (holding): Nyquist gets held for the second time in the game and draws his first penalty, as this time it's Kreider who is worried about the youngster getting the puck past him. Nyquist will get a plus.
2nd Period 08:16 - Kyle Quincey (cross-checking): Battling in the Wings' end, Quincey gets rough with Marty St. Louis, giving him a number of chops in the back. Finally, St. Louis gets in a position to flop and does so. Even though it's a dive, there's enough cross-check action going on in this play to earn Quincey a minus.
2nd Period 11:08 - Daniel Carcillo (tripping): Carcillo jams the legs out from under Lashoff at center trying to help out his teammate. No adjustment.

3rd Period 07:34 - Jimmy Howard (roughing): I don't care about goalie penalties and don't even track them. No adjustment. It's not on any of Howard's teammates that this penalty went like it did, as I thought the zone time was extended by a slash from a Rangers player.

Bonus Ratings

-1 to Riley Sheahan, Tomas Jurco, and Tomas Tatar: They had some of the better chances, but overall this line was a mess today in terms of neutral zone and defensive zone play.

Honorable Mentions:

I'm starting to feel badly for Alfredsson in that he's not getting much offensive help.

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