CSSI Analysis: Red Wings 4 – Canadiens 5

Intro goes here.

Same complaints about awful reffing standards slowly sapping my enjoyment of hockey goes here.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Box score here

Goaltending

Goaltending opinions go here. Be sure to give an even-handed description of the play by the guy who won/lost the game.

The Goals

1st Period 05:14 – Montreal Goal: Tomas Plekanec (wrist shot) from PK Subban and Brendan Gallagher
Montreal gets the first goal as Plekanec gets too much space in the middle and snipes it top corner on Howard. After a long shift and a dump-in, the Wings change and the Habs start it up ice. After a lost board-pinch in the neutral zone and a bit of a lucky bounce, the Habs get it in with Galchenyuk carring up the left wing boards against DeKeyser. By the time the play comes into the trapezoid, Quincey steps down to help out and forces Galchenyuk to pass it up the boards where Gallagher gets it and immediately goes to Subban at the point. As the defense cycles to adjust to this, Plekanec sneaks into the slot from the back side while Subban quickly passes it to him. Alfredsson is watching the opposite point while Quincey is posted at the net-front. Plekanec gets time to turn because after Gallagher makes the pass, he drags DeKeyser across the middle of the ice, getting between Quincey and the puck. On the far side of this pick, Quincey is frozen while Plekanec is free to rip it into the net. Nobody is getting cleared on this play. DK and Alfredsson will each earn a half-minus for taking bad angles on defense as the play gets to Plekanec. Andersson gets a half-minus for the badly lost board battle at center. Helm is not covering tight on Gallagher when the Galchenyuk pass comes around the boards and this gives too much room. This will earn Helm a half-minus. Quincey will get an extra minus for not reading the play. He gave Plekanec far too much room.

1st Period 14:11 – Montreal Goal: Tomas Plekanec (snap shot) from PK Subban
Another turnover for the Wings and it’s 2-0 on a good setup play between Plekanec and Subban. On the 4-on-4, the Wings give up a scoring chance that goes over the net for Smith to pick up. Brendan tries carrying it up ice, but is turned away by the defense getting back. Here, Smith re-cycles back to his own blue line and makes a pass to Kronwall heading up ice. The pass isn’t sharp and hits Kronwall in the back skate instead of the stick. Kronner misses the skate-to-stick play and Plekanec is right there already moving the right direction to take advantage of this mistake. Gallagher again skates between defender and stick to make room while Plekanec moves to the center of the ice watched by Smith. Kronwall has to watch Gallagher as they both move deeper into the zone. The puck-carrier notices Subban joining the rush behind the Detroit forwards and drops it to him in the slot. This drop pass freezes Smith in front and locks Howard into squaring to the middle. Meanwhile, Plekanec is getting in shooting position at the dot for the return pass. Subban finds him and he sweeps it into the net. Franzen and Nyquist will be cleared. Smith and Kronwall will each receive a full minus for the turnover with Smith getting another half on top of that. Smith has to make the pass better, but Kronwall reacts terribly to the bad pass as well and tries to get fancy.

2nd Period 01:28 – Detroit Goal: Riley Sheahan (wrist shot) from Luke Glendening and Brian Lashoff
The Wings get on the board early in the second with a good forechecking effort to create a turnover which gives the Wings some room to create a scoring chance that they don’t mess up. The Wings get into the zone after forcing Montreal to dump it in so they could get a change, as DeKeyser makes a good pass to Glendening going through center. Glendening drops to Bertuzzi, who pushes it into the corner for a two-on-two battle. The puck moves up to Eller at the half-boards, but a good step-up by Lashoff turns it over. Glendening doens’t get a scoring opportunity, but is able to hound Subban trying to escape to the corner. Before being run into the boards, Subban tries to go to Bournival up the ice, but Jurco steps into him to turn it over to Lashoff at the point. Lasher immediately pokes it back to Glendening coming up the boards to turn into the slot facing away from the goal. From here, he finds Sheahan coming off the bench up the far side to receive the pass. Sheahan walks it in and slips it over Price’s shoulder for the goal. I’m going to give Lashoff and Glendening each a plus as both made two good plays to help this one develop. Jurco will also get a half-plus for a well-executed pinch.

2nd Period 11:03 – Montreal goal: David Desharnais (wrist shot) from Tomas Vanek
Montreal gets the two-goal lead back as Vanek separates Kronwall from the puck and gets it to Desharnais for a quick shot out front. Legwand gets a bit of help from Smith to win a scrambled faceoff. To escape the pressure, Legwand makes a five-foot pass to Kronwall that bounces over the D-man’s stick. As Kronwall goes to retrieve in the corner, Vanek steps into him to knock him off balance and take away the puck. Vanek circles down below the net facing the play and is able to find DeSharnais just inside the other faceoff dot for essentially a wrist-redirect to the far side top corner. I think that Vanek should have receive an interference penalty for this, but I also don’t like Kronwall being unable to handle a simple pass and I don’t like Legwand letting Desharnais get this shot off. Kronwall will get a turnover minus and Legwand a coverage minus. Smith, Franzen, and Nyquist will be cleared.

3rd Period 01:24 – Detroit Goal: Tomas Tatar (wrist shot) unassisted
The Wings again pull within one on a turnover by the Habs up the middle of their own zone that Tatar stuffs in their faces. After forechecking work by Tatar and Jurco creates a bad outlet that turns the puck back over to the Wings at center, they try to regain the zone with a long pass from DeKeyser to Jurco at the Montreal blue line. The puck gets past him and onto the stick of Subban, who backs into the corner with both Sheahan and Jurco collapsing in on him. Subban plays this far too calmly as he turns and tries to airmail a puck from the low corner of his own zone to the opposite point at his blue line. Tomas Tatar is there to cut off the pass and now has speed through the middle of the ice to the net, stepping around Gallagher to get to the slot before ripping it low to the stick side. I’m going to give Tatar a plus and Sheahan a half-plus.

3rd Period 04:30 – Detroit Goal: Tomas Tatar (wrist shot) from Tomas Jurco and Riley Sheahan
Tatar ties it at 3 when a good forecheck frees up a puck for Jurco to find Tatar out front for the slick wrister. The Wings regather behind their own net after an ugly neutral zone battle while both teams change. DeKeyser goes to Quincey, who throws it up the middle for Tatar to tip deep into the zone so Jurco and Sheahan can get in on the forecheck. Jurco gets in on Bouillon in the corner as soon as he touches it, forcing him to cycle it back to the corner where Subban is going to pick it up under pressure up the boards from Sheahan. The young center blocks Subban’s attempt at chipping it around him and the puck bounces high in the air, landing behind the two of them and right at the feet of Jurco, who immediately passes to Tatar low in the circle. Tats gathers it in and snaps it inside the far side post to tie it. This is a great bit of forechecking by Jurco and Sheahan, who will each get a plus. Kindl and Lashoff will lose their pluses to Quincey and DeKeyser, who change behind the play.

3rd Period 05:47 – Montreal Goal: Max Pacioretty (wrist shot) from David Desharnais and Tomas Vanek
Montreal regains the lead getting away with an offsides play as Pacioretty puts it in on a deflection through Kronwall. Montreal gets the puck as Legwand throws it to the net-front and has it bounce off the defense to Vanek in front. Vanek feeds it to Desharnais moving quickly up through the middle of the ice, catching Smith a bit off guard and forcing him to turn at center. as Desharnais approaches the blue line, he makes a lateral pass to Pacioretty joining him on the right side and then crosses the blue line before the puck does. This offsides isn’t caught by the linesman as Desharnais drives to the front of the net with Smith now fully behind him. Kronwall raises his hand to try and get the linesman to make the right call while also ranging over to watch Pacioretty, but he gives too much space in the process, as Pacioretty is able to walk just above the dot before releasing a wrister that gets through Kronwall and deflects enough to sneak through a screened Howard. The three forwards, Legwand, Alfredsson, and Miller will be cleared. Although the puck is turned over, this was a nothing 2-on-2 rush (with the Wings’ backcheckers in better position than the Habs’ trailers). Smith will get an extra minus on this play, as his positioning creates trouble for Kronwall, who has to treat the zone entry almost like a 2-on-1 knowing that Desharnais has beaten Smith across the blue line. However, Kronwall backs off much too far as well and he’ll receive an extra minus for his mistake in giving space for this shot and in not blocking it.

3rd Period 11:15 – Montreal Goal: Tomas Vanek (tip in) from Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin
Montreal gets the dagger on a faceoff win that quickly turns into a goal. Legwand loses it cleanly to Vanek as Emelin comes in and picks it up with plenty of room to move (Glendening ties up with Desharnais in front of the net while Alfredsso helps him do that. Quincey backs to the inside on the far end to block off Pacioretty and DeKeyser stays put at the net-front). Emelin goes to Markov at the opposite point as Glendening and Alfredsson separate from down low to actually challenge up high. Markov doesn’t waste much time throwing the puck to the middle of the ice where Vanek has gotten enough separation from Legwand to tip it in past Howard from the slot. This time, the defensemen will be cleared, as Quincey and Dekeyser are doing their jobs away from where this play develops. Glendening and Alfredsson will each get a half-minus for not getting out to the points quickly enough to prevent this. However, they’re all put in a bad spot by David Legwand’s faceoff loss. Legwand will get a minus for losing the faceoff and another one for allowing Vanek to escape this cleanly for the tip. This is brutally bad play by Legwand.

3rd Period 11:36 – Detroit Goal: Johan Franzen (wrist shot) from Gustav Nyquist and Darren Helm
20 seconds later, it’s 5-4 as Franzen snipes it top corner off a great pass from Nyquist. Kronwall recovers a dump-in and moves it to Franzen at the half-wall. Under pressure by Plekanec, Franzen quickly backhands it to Helm just to his interior and moving up ice quickly. Helm takes the left wing with Nyquist on the right and Smith joining up the middle just behind the two in order to push the numerical advantage. From the center stripe, Helm cuts to the middle lane to draw the defense closer. As he gets to the blue line, Helm feeds Nyquist so he and Smith and both take the center lane going in and tie up defensemen who are also collapsing. Nyquist makes a little move to make space for a cut into the middle that draws Plekanec over to him and opens a passing lane to the late-charging Franzen. Mule takes the pass in stride and glides to the hash marks before snapping it in. This is a good set up by Franzen on the outlet and will earn Mule a half-plus. Helm will get a plus for the speed and intelligence from his own end into the Wild’s.

Penalty Adjustments

1st Period 07:49 – Tomas Plekanec (tripping): The Wings get the first power play of the game as DeKeyser has his skates taken out racing for a puck in the corner. No adjustment on this one. Just bad stick control by the offensive forechecker.
1st Period 13:27 – Luke Glendening (hooking) and Michael Bournival (diving): The refs take two people as the Habs get a rush up ice that’s ended when Glendening hooks Bournival. The Montreal player flops to sell it and also goes. I’m still going to give Glendening a minus. This penalty was an eventuality based on the play from the previous five minutes.

2nd Period 05:15 – David Legwand (interference): Legwand gets caught without his feet moving and he moves into Danny Briere’s path to keep from losing the puck in the offensive zone. Minus for Legwand. Just a lazy play.
2nd Period 06:46 – Kyle Quincey (slashing): Quincey puts the Wings down two slashing a stick off the faceoff. This is a case of Quincey getting extremely unlucky about a stick coming apart far too easily. No adjustment.
2nd Period 13:48 – Brendan Gallagher (goaltender interference): On a decent scoring chance, Gallagher runs to the front of the net and crashes into Howard. No adjustment. Gallagher is helped in a bit, but not nearly enough to make crashing into Howard like he did ok.

3rd Period 17:59 – Brendan Smith (holding): Smith misplays a puck at center and gets beaten to the wrong side, having to hold up his man to prevent a break. Smith will get a minus.

Bonus Ratings

-1.5 to Johan Franzen: Mule had an up-and-down game where the downs were too plentiful for him to finish up in the adjusted standings.
-1 to Brendan Smith: I could’t leave Kronwall as the worst-adjusted defenseman in this game and I couldn’t adjust Kronwall up because he was pretty bad. Smith was worse.

Honorable Mentions:

Fuck this game

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Season Totals Chart

Screener’s Assist Totals