Thanks for a fun season, Red Wings. Every season is a new experience and they’re not all good, but I had a lot of fun following the team this season and I have a lot of things to look forward to next year.
CSSI Methodology Explanation here
Goaltending
Jonas Gustavsson performed admirably in this game. He gave the Wings a chance to win and that’s all we could ask for.
The Goals
1st Period 03:27 – Boston Goal (PP): Loui Eriksson (backhand) from Dougie Hamilton and Tuukka Rask
Boston gets an easy entry on the power play and Eriksson puts home a puck that bounces around a few skates out front before getting around an aggressively challenging Gustavsson. The Wings get a clear as Boston just misses a pass that probably makes this writeup two sentences shorter. Rask leaves it for Hamilton coming back into his own zone to turn and head back up ice .Dougie (the grown man) skates through center, being pushed to the right side by Helm at center ice. Hamilton’s speed here allows him to step past Datsyuk, who leaves Bergeron at the boards to get over on Hamilton while Quincey is backing into the middle. Datsyuk misses the puck, the player, and his stick, allowing Hamilto to keep control down to the outside of the right faceoff circle. From here, he throws it into the middle of hte ice where Helm is watching the slot. Helm blocks the pass, but doesn’t control it as it bounces right to Eriksson following up down the middle. Datsyuk is slow to get over and stop Eriksson, who walks it right to where Quincey would be standing if he hadn’t gone for a hit on Hamilton behind the net. Gustavsson is still recovering from going down to block the shot that would have come if Helm hadn’t blocked the pass and isn’t able to get over and stop Eriksson from backhanding it into the net. I’m going to give Datsyuk a full minus on the coverage here, which is too soft both at the blue line and down low. Quincey will get a half-minus for leaving the near-post coverage to go for an unnecessary hit.
2nd Period 14:41 – Detroit Goal (PP): Pavel Datsyuk (wrist shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Daniel Alfredsson
The Wings pull even on a power play goal as Datsyuk gets to a rebound in front and puts it over the outstretched Rask. Datsyuk fights off the faceoff and Zetterberg is able to poke the puck to the slot for a nice opportunity by Kronwall that Rask stops. Kronner follows up to the corner before going back to Z at the point for a give-and-go with Alfredsson that opens a lane for Zetterberg to shoot through with Franzen screening. Rask stops this one, but the rebound bounces to the left side where Datsyuk comes in from the dot and puts it home. Zetterberg does good work on this power play and will get a plus.
2nd Period 19:56 – Boston Goal (PP): Zdeno Chara (slap shot) from Patrice Bergeron and Torey Krug
Boston retakes the lead late in the 2nd period on a power play blast from Chara. The faceoff gets scrambled and Chara gets it back to the point for a shot that Gustavsson fights off. Krug gets to his own rebound and gets it to Bergeron in the corner who fires it back up to Chara at the top of the circle for a one-timer that gets through. No adjustment.
3rd Period 04:27 – Boston Goal: Milan Lucic (wrist shot) from Torey Krug
Boston goes up 3-1 as Lucic finds himself alone out front after a turnover and he’s able to finish. The B’s get a wonderful scoring opportunity off a 3-on-2 rush that Gustavsson fights off and Lashoff clears to the side boards before anybody can get to the rebound. Franzen takes and circles back to his corner with the puck, trying to make an outlet pass through the middle of his own zone that gets picked off at the blue line by Krug, who walks it to the left side corner before throwing the centering pass that finds Lucic alone on the doorstep. Ouellet will be cleared. He has to respect that Krug has passing lanes both to the front and to the slot on the turnover and can’t do anything about this play. Helm will keep his minus as I once again don’t like his backcheck on the Soderberg opportunity (he coasts the last few feet). Abdelkader will get an extra half-minus as it’s his fault the B’s got t his odd-man rush in the first place thanks to bad zone coverage. The non-coverage of Lucic here is really bad and it looks like it’s Lashoff’s fault, but I don’t see it like that. Lashoff goes behind the icing line to give Franzen an emergency outlet as Mule collects it. As Krug picks off the pass and walks down the wing, Lashoff is coming out from that position and watching as two additional Bruins players (Soderberg in the middle and Iginla on the right) are pouring down from the blue line. As he makes the move to the front of the net, he sees Franzen shadowing Lucic in front and makes the read that, since he’s got the momentum, he should be the one who jumps up to cover the slot. Unfortunately, Franzen thinks the same thing, which is why nobody is covering Lucic as he scores what turns out to be the series-winner. I’m going to let Lashoff keep his minus, but I think this mistake is on Franzen, who will get a minus for the turnover and an extra half-minus for the coverage.
3rd Period 16:08 – Detroit Goal: Henrik Zetterberg (wrist shot) from Justin Abdelkader and Pavel Datsyuk
Detroit pulls within one on a late double-rebound goal by Z at the side of the net. DeKeyser passes to Pavs coming up the right side out of the Wings’ zone and Datsyuk gets it to the center stripe before dumping it high to the far side where Zetterberg is heading in to retrieve the puck. Chara lets Z get there first so he can push him off the puck, but the Wings’ captain proves more resilient than he thought and is able to keep his bearings and threaten to come back at him. This forces Chara to simply try dumping it up the boards where Kronwall waits to pull it off the boards. Kronner immediately fires it across the ice to Datsyuk at the right faceoff dot for a shot attempt that hits off Hamilton and rolls to the front. Abdelkader is crashing the middle here and gets a shot at the rebound which Rask stops. As Chara comes in to clear out Abby, the puck rolls off to the side of the net where Zetterberg gets to it and puts it home on the sharp angle. Z will get a plus here for good work to force the turnover which leads to the goal
3rd Period 19:44 – Boston Goal (EN): Jarome Iginla (wrist shot) from Milan Lucic and David Krejci
Iginla ends the series with 16 seconds left with an empty netter from center ice. The faceoff in the Bruins end gets pushed to the boards on the Wings’ side, but Lucic steps up and gets to the puck first, escaping all the way to center before Zetterberg is able to slow him down. Unfortunately, Iginla has joined the rush and receives the pass on the right wing side with nobody to stop him from mailing it into the net from center. I’m going to let everybody keep his minus on this goal because this is the crew that had been out the previous shift before the icing faceoff and the simply have to score. Since they didn’t do that, the minuses are earned. However, I’m also going to give Kronwall an extra half-minus. He has to recognize what’s happening here and step up on Lucic immediately. Failing to do this is part of what gets Lucic out of the zone.
Penalty Adjustments
1st Period 02:34 – Justin Abdelkader (hooking): Abdelkader is skating back on Lucic trying to slow his breakout. The refs give him a hooking call. I don’t think it’s a particularly strong call, but Abdelkader makes it easy on the refs. Minus to Abdelkader.
1st Period 04:26 – Shawn Thornton (high sticking): Detroit gets their first power play as Thornton pops Lashoff in the face while going for a puck. No adjustment.
1st Period 17:12 – David Krejci (tripping): The Bruins go shorthanded as Krejci chases Smith into the corner of the Wings’ zone and brings him down. No adjustment here. This is just Krejci being careless
2nd Period 14:29 – Milan Lucic (high sticking): Detroit gets a man advantage as Brendan Smith steps in to help end a scrum in the corner of the Wings’ zone and gets a high stick to the face for his trouble. This is lazy stickwork by Lucic and not a drawn call. No adjustment.
2nd Period 16:48 – Danny DeKeyser (holding the stick): DK tries holding off Iginla in the Wings’ zone, but loses the battle and holds the stick to slow his man down. Minus for DeKeyser. Can’t do this.
2nd Period 18:40 – Loui Eriksson (goaltender interference): Eriksson runs Gustavsson on a scoring chance and the ref sends him for it. No adjustment, although Quincey pushed Eriksson in.
2nd Period 19:33 – Johan Franzen (holding): Mule grabs onto Boychuk to keep him from being able to get to a loose puck after a shot on the Wings’ power play. Boychuk makes it known, but Franzen will get a minus. It’s unbelievably dumb for Mule to try this.
2nd Period 19:44 – Brendan Smith (cross checking): Smith pushes Iginla in the back in front of the Wings’ net and Iggy loses his balance. Smith will get a minus for getting caught.
3rd Period 1:11 – Brad Marchand (roughing): Kronwall draws one on Marchand as they tie each other up and Marchand roughs up Kronwall for it. I’m going to give Kronwall a plus here. The refs were probably looking for a reason to call something and he helped give them one.
3rd Period 06:59 – Daniel Alfredsson (tripping): Alfie gets lazy with his stick and brings down Krejci just at the Boston blue line coming out of the zone. Minus for Alfredsson.
3rd Period 08:27 – Patrice Bergeron (hooking): The refs look for an opportunity to give the Bruins a penalty and find one as Bergeron loses the puck to Kronwall and very mildly hooks him. It’s a soft call, but it definitely is a penalty. Kronwall helps by taking great body position. This will earn Kronner another plus.
3rd Period 12:42 – Brad Marchand (roughing): Marchand punches Zetterberg in the back of the head after a Wings’ zone entry, earning himself a penalty. No adjustment. Just Marchand being Marchand.
3rd Period 16:56 – Detroit Bench (too many men): The Wings take another bench minor at a brutal time as they’re trying to catch up and save their playoff season. There’s positively no excuse for such a stupid penalty. In looking at it, Tatar jumped on when he shouldn’t have. The minus will go to Tatar.
Bonus Ratings
+1 to David Legwand: I thought he was consistently the Wings’ best forward not named Zetterberg in this game.
-1 to Danny DeKeyser: He made a lot of unforced errors in this game that extended Bruins’ zone time. Uncharacteristic game for DK.
Honorable Mentions:
Defensively, I thought Ouellet did a decent job. I liked Smith in this series for the most part, but not enough today to give him a plus.
Current Game Chart
Playoffs Totals Chart
Screener’s Assist Totals
| Player Name | Screener’s Assists Totals |
| Todd Bertuzzi | 1 |
