The Wings controlled play for much of the game against the Canucks, but couldn’t solve Cory Schneider and ended up losing in the shootout. The Wings outshot Vancouver 34-14.
CSSI Methodology Explanation here
Goalie Ratings
Jimmy Howard played well enough to get an even rating overall, but Cory Schneider was the star of this one, stopping 33 of 34 Wings shots to earn his team the win. Howard will lose the head-to-head goalie battle.
The Goals
1st Period 12:15 – Vancouver Goal (PP): Alex Edler (slap shot) from Dan Hamhuis and Derek Roy
The Canucks get on the board first with an offensive zone faceoff win in the dying seconds of their back-to-back power plays which finds its way to Alex Edler on the far point and then through Jimmy Howard on the screen. Valtteri Filppula will get a minus for losing the faceoff so cleanly.
1st Period 19:39 – Detroit Goal: Cory Emmerton (tip in) from Damien Brunner
The Wings pull even in the last minute of the first period as they get to a puck on the boards and a quick toss at the net turns into a great tip-in goal for Emmerton. Assists on this go to Kindl (non-touch) and Datsyuk (third). Pavel will also get a bonus plus on the neutral zone steal which gets the Wings into the zone. In fact, Johan Franzen will also get a half-plus because he gives Ebbett’s stick a bit of a tap before going off on the change. This prevents Ebbett from controlling it cleanly and leads to Datsyuk’s steal.
Penalty Adjustments (pluses and minuses only)
1st Period 09:14 – Niklas Kronwall (tripping): Kronwall earns a minus as he loses a board battle in the neutral zone and gets his stick caught up in Alex Burrows’ skates to bring him down.
1st Period 10:27 – Brendan Smith (high-sticking): Smith gets caught retaliating. Just can’t do that. Minus for Smith.
1st Period 15:27 – Alex Edler (hooking): This is a weak-as-hell call, but that’s what the refs owed the Wings from earlier in the period. Nyquist makes a great move to earn it, but it’s more an even-up/team call. Nyquist will get a half-plus.
2nd Period 03:30 – Keith Ballard (interference): This play ended with a fight between Ballard and Abdelkader, so they also took 5-minute majors for that. Abdelkader will come out of this with a plus. He did some brutally hard work keeping position in front while being absolutely abused.
2nd Period 08:01 – Johan Franzen (roughing/interference): Franzen gets tied up with the uglier Sedin and gives him about six cross-checks, which causes a scrum where Mule ultimately takes the extra penalty. Franzen will get a minus.
2nd Period 14:06 – Danny DeKeyser (high-sticking): DeKeyser will get a minus for getting his stick up on Mason Raymond and Abdelkader will get a half-minus for a lazy stupid icing play which led to this penalty thanks to a tired in-zone faceoff for the Wings.
Bonus Ratings
+1 to Cory Emmerton: His PK work in this game was stellar.
-1 to Valtteri Filppula: He needed to have a good game and didn’t. He was worse than invisible; he was visibly bad.
+1 to Jakub Kindl: I thought Kindl had a very smart game in this one and controlled the puck very well. He also used the body in his own zone effectively.
+0.5 to Gustav Nyquist: He started somewhat slow in this one but really picked up his game as the night went on.
+0.5 to Henrik Zetterberg: Tasked with taking on the Sedins most of the night, Z did a good defensive job against them.
+0.5 to Jonathan Ericsson and Niklas Kronwall: Solid defensive outing for this pair who worked transition very well. Both had a couple mistakes which took an otherwise bigger adjustment down to plus half. Still, the overall effect they had on the game was positive.
+1 to Danny DeKeyser: 19:21 of ice time where he looked very impressive.
+1 to Johan Franzen: This is an adjustment because I don’t think overall he deserves to be judged an overall minus due to the penalty. Franzen hustled well, backchecked well, and used the body.
Honorable Mentions:
Kyle Quincey had a quietly solid game. I want more than 0 shots on goal from him though.
