The Wings came back to Detroit having successfully earned the road split over the first two games of the series in order to face a Boston team that hadn’t won a game at the Joe in… [looks at notebook]…. fuck it, who cares? Boston won 3-0 in a game that probably wasn’t even that close.
Both teams still somehow managed to only cheat as much as each other in this game, which is magical (and also beneficial to the Wings, who by all possession and eyeball-test metrics should have been shorthanded more often than the Bruins). Boston got one goal and… well you already know the score here. Shots were 34-23 in favor of the Bruins.
CSSI Methodology Explanation here
Goaltending
Jimmy Howard gave up a goal he shouldn’t have, gave up a goal on what basically turned into a 2-on-0 rush, and gave up an empty net goal. He also stopped a ton of odd-man rushes as his team pushed to create offense. I’ll worry more about goaltending after the realization that Luke Glendening has half the goals this team has scored in three games so far.
The Goals
1st Period 09:00 – Boston Goal (PP): Dougie Hamilton (wrist shot) from Reilly Smith
Howard gives up the first goal of the game on a power play rush that gets Hamilton a shot from inside the circle that his glove is too slow to stop. The Wings get a clear and a change halfway through the PP, forcing the Bruins back to their own zone where they ice it on the zone entry. Helm loses the offensive zone faceoff and the Wings back off while Boston comes out from behind their own net. Smith passes to Hamilton coming up through center, stepping around Helm at the blue line and then getting an easy zone entry as Quincey is already backed up at the top of the circles. Q moves over to angle him off and Hamilton fires it from 10 feet above the dot. Howard whiffs and it’s 1-0. I don’t like the play here, but this is a soft goal. No adjustment.
1st Period 15:48 – Boston Goal: Jordan Caron (wrist shit) from Shawn Thornton and Kevan Miller
Detroit makes an awful line change and the Bruins get an easy goal. The 4th line gets a decent shift off a faceoff win in the offensive zone, but can’t produce a shot before Boston retakes possession. The D-man bounces it out of the zone off the glass and Smith gets the puck to be chased back by Marchand all the way around his own net to the half-boards before being forced to chuck the puck out of the zone before he gets double-teamed. While this is happening, Boston changes their lines. Campbell rags it around Legwand near the benches before passing over to Miller at his own blue line. Miller turns and immediately recognizes Thornton coming off the bench through center with speed around a Red Wings‘ line change. Kindl stops it from being a do-whatever breakaway, but Thornton gets a good shot from very close. Howard stops the shot low to the blocker side, but Caron is the first person to get to the net-front behind this play. Howard can’t control the rebound and Caron puts it over him. This is a stupid-ass decision by the Wings to change and I’m going to put that mostly on the bench. However, Legwand is going to pull a minus for failing to slow down the transition as he skated right by Campbell. I’m also going to let Helm keep his minus. He covers a guy, but he has to realize Lashoff isn’t catching Caron here and keep pressing. He’s the only one with a shot at preventing Caron from getting the rebound. Kindl, Andersson, Jurco, and Lashoff will be cleared. Finally, Kronwall will get a minus. He wears a letter and chose incredibly poorly to go ahead with this change, despite how bad an idea that was. I expect better from him.
3rd Period 18:01 – Boston Goal: Patrice Bergeron (wrist shot) unassisted
Boston gets a long empty-netter as Tatar can’t get the puck around Bergeron at the point and Bergy has space to line up his putt. Tatar will get a turnover minus. Abdelkader, Datsyuk, Sheahan, Kronwall, and DeKeyser will be cleared.
Penalty Adjustments
1st Period 03:33 – Jordan Caron and Justin Abdelkader (roughing): After a Datsyuk turnover in the defensive zone, Boston gets a great scoring chance that just hits off the post. Caron comes in and causes trouble in Howard’s crease. In the ensuing scrum, Abby and Caron go to the box for matching minors. I’m going to go ahead and give Datsyuk a half-minus for causing all this.
1st Period 07:40 – Detroit Bench (too many men): The Wings lose the offensive zone on a mishandle and are forced to reset the cycle with a pass to the far side of the ice away from the pressure by Boston. Andersson jumps off the ice and immediately plays this puck, not thinking about whether his man had actually gotten off the ice. I’m going to give Andersson a minus for this. Have to focus better here. I’m also going to give Legwand a minus for not getting off faster.
2nd Period 02:27 – Tomas Tatar (holding): Tatar can’t control a pass and then tries to forecheck on Miller in the zone, holding onto his man after losing body position. Minus for Tatar. Easy call to make.
2nd Period 05:10 – Brendan Smith (tripping): Marchand gets a puck in the neutral zone and shakes around Smith before tripping over his leg. Marchand sells it hard and Smith sits. Minus for Smith. Can’t miss this check here. Simple as that.
2nd Period 09:43 – Brad Marchand (holding the stick): The Kid Line gets a little bit of zone time that finally draws a penalty when the miraculously recovered Brad Marchand holds Nyquist’s stick. Nyquist will get a plus.
2nd Period 11:08 – Bruins Bench (too many men): Iginla jumps on and gets involved in a play in the neutral zone too early and the Bruins go down another man. No adjustment.
Bonus Ratings
-1 to Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen: Pavs didn’t have a good game. He turned the puck over too much, didn’t drive possession to the middle well enough, and lacked finish. Franzen looked unfocused the entire game. The number of times the puck got through or past him is unacceptable.
Honorable Mentions:
Kronwall actually played a pretty decent game, considering how often he was pressed to overcome an error.
Current Game Chart
Playoffs Totals Chart
Screener’s Assist Totals
| Player Name | Screener’s Assists Totals |
