The Red Wings lost 3-2. For the second night in a row they probably deserved to lose. I’m just going to look at that and see they got two points out of the weekend and that’s what I’m going to use to sleep tonight.
2-4 for Nashville on the power play, 0-4 for Detroit. I don’t want to talk about the reffing standard. I’d rather hear my grandmother describe going through puberty. The Wings held the Predators to only 20 shots to their 37.
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Goalie Ratings
Joey MacDonald didn’t play poorly enough to get fault for this loss, but he didn’t play well enough to prevent it either. I still like him as a temporary solution, but the clock is ticking as it seems more teams are getting used to his aggressive style. He also still frightens me when he handles the puck. Pekka Rinne outplayed MacDonald, who will get a -1 head-to-head. MacDonald will also get a -1 overall. He really only had one big save, but the Preds’ 2nd goal is the only one where I really can say I don’t blame him at all.
Scoring and plus/minus analysis after the jump
The Goals
Penalty Adjustment: 2:40 in, Holmstrom goes to the box for hooking as he’s backchecking on Nick Spaling and gets his stick into the midsection. Homer gets a minus.
1st Period 07:30 – Nashville Goal: Patric Hornqvist (wrist shot) from David Legwand
Andrei Kostitsyn gets the puck at his own half-boards and tries throwing an outlet up-ice. Nyquist knocks it down at the blue line, but can’t handle it cleanly. While he’s trying to get a handle, David Legwand sweeps in to steal it from him to start an odd-man rush against Kyle Quincey. Legwand skates up the left side to the faceoff dot before passing through Quincey for Hornqvist on the opposite side for a wide open net. Nyquist will get an extra minus for the turnover while Quincey will get an extra minus for his failure to stop the cross-ice pass. Helm and Franzen will be cleared of minuses, as will White. The pinch by White is a good one and actually forces a bad outlet that gets blocked by the covering forward. The Nyquist turnover ruins the play, not the White pinch.
1st Period 07:43 – Detroit Goal: Drew Miller (wrist shot) from Danny Cleary and Brad Stuart
Abdelkader wins the ensuing faceoff to Brad Stuart, who throws a pass to Cleary on the other side of center. Cleary tips it into the zone where Drew Miller gets to it thanks to Ryan Ellis stumbling. Miller’s backhand attempt from the outside of the circle is deflected behind the net where he gets the puck again and outmuscles Ellis to escape from behind the net out to the bottom of the circle where he throws a puck through Rinne to tie it. Abdelkader will get the third assist on this play. Drew Miller will get to send a thank you card to Ellis and Rinne for sucking on this play.
1st Period 11:59 – Nashville Goal (PP): Andrei Kostitsyn (wrist shot) from Sergei Kostitsyn and David Legwand
The Penalty: Doug Janik (high sticking): Brendan Smith gets hooked to the ice, which forces Doug Janik to have to battle Colin Wilson for a puck that should have never been free in the first place. Wilson later grabs his face and the ref gives Janik a penalty for it. The problem is that it’s Drew Miller’s stick that gets up on him. Miller will get the minus, despite the stupidity of the non-call on the hook that brought down Smith.
The Predators get into the Wings’ zone with ease and get set up with crisp passing on the perimeter to get the PKers moving around. Finally, Roman Josi goes to David Legwand on the half-boards, who threads a pass to Sergei Kostitsyn in the middle. S. Kostitsyn redirects the pass to the front of the net through Ian White and onto the stick of his ugly fucking C.H.U.D. of a brother. Andrei spins the puck around Joey MacDonald and puts it into the open net. This is a very good PK setup that relied on actually using the man advantage to your advantage. Quincey will get a half-minus though. When Legwand has the puck, Quincey has his stick to the outside lane (blocking precisely no options). If Quincey has his lumber to the inside lane instead, he maybe prevents this pass to Sergei Kostitsyn.
Penalty Adjustment (x2): 14:48 into the 2nd period, the Wings get their first power play of the game as Shea Weber gets called for interference on only the 28th instance of the same by the Preds. This isn’t a forced penalty so much as it’s a dumb play by Weber. While the Wings are on the PP, they get a 2nd chance as Holmstrom is hooked by Francis Bouillon on a rebound in front of the net. Homer’s doing good work at the net front here and will get a plus.
3rd Period 04:34 – Nashville Goal (PP): Andrei Kostitsyn (wrist shot) from Sergei Kostitsyn and David Legwand
The Penalty – Kyle Quincey (interference) THEN Brad Stuart (interference): Overlapping penalties here as Nashville scores on the 2nd 5-on-4 of the sequence. Quincey’s penalty is on a light shoulder contact on Patric Hornqvist that sends the swede flying halfway across the rink. Gamesmanship by Hornqvist here, no adjustment. While the Wings are killing this penalty, Brad Stuart goes to the box for hitting Roman Josi away from the puck. This one actually is a good call. Stuart will get a minus.
The Preds get set up in the same formation that led to their previous power play goal. This time, Weber goes to Legwand at the half-boards. Janik has his stick blocking the center lane and gives Legwand an opening to go to Sergei Kostitsyn low at the net-side position. This sets up a pass through Ian White to Andrei Kostitsyn at the back door for the easy put-in. Janik will get the same half-minus as Quincey did earlier for having his stick in the wrong lane.
Penalty Adjustment: Francis Bouillon gets turned around by Gustav Nyquist behind the Nashville net and takes his hand off the stick to slow Nyquist down. Good hustle by Goose to draw this one. Nyquist will get a plus.
3rd Period 14:35 – Detroit Goal: Justin Abdelkader (wrist shot) from Gustav Nyquist and Darren Helm.
Abdelkader brings the puck in and gets a good shot on goal that Rinne blocks off to the corner. Abby regathers and sets it up to the point where Brad Stuart has to regather it and pass off to Janik at the point. Janik goes to Abby at the half-boards, who continues it on to Nyquist. Goose quickly spins it off the boards and heads to the middle with it where he tries to pass it off to Helm on the back door. Shea Weber has the puck go off his skate to the corner where Helm lifts the stick of Gabriel Bourque to allow Nyquist to recover and take low. Nyquist, covered by Weber, brings it to his forehand and throws it toward the front of the net where it’s stopped by Abdelkader, who is tied up with Suter. Abdelkader holds strong body position as he turns to the inside to get a shot on net that Rinne stops. The rebound comes straight back to Abby and he puts it over the sprawling goaltender. Abby does good work on this play. Abby will get a self-assist and a bonus half-plus. Helm will get a plus for the stick-work, as will Nyquist. Janik will get the third assist.
Penalty Adjustment: Shea Weber gets called for the same tough-guy antics that’s been going on all game. There’s really no point in adjusting here.
Bonus Ratings
-1.5 to Jiri Hudler: Happy looked like he didn’t want the puck on his freaking stick all game long. He has got to stop passing up shooting opportunities. I’m especially mad about his half-assed skating to get back on a cleared puck very late in the game.
Honorable Mentions:
Brendan Smith was really the only Wings player who was close to an overall plus and he just didn’t do enough to get one in a game where all of Detroit struggled. I liked the one shift by Abdelkader that led to his goal, but I was unimpressed with the other 22 shifts he took.
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