CSSI Analysis: Red Wings 2 – Canucks 0

I don’t know why the Red Wings match up so well against the Canucks, but here we are putting up another CSSI after the Wings beat Vancouver. In all honesty, the game could have gone very differently in a few different ways. I thought the only period the Canucks looked particularly dangerous was the 2nd, but they had chances.

The reffing made zero sense in this game from either perspective. Usually there’s at least a narrative associated with refereeing this bad, but instead of favoring the trailing team, the refs just kind of favored chaos in this game. For what it’s worth, the most egregious missed call in the contest was on a penalty the Wings got away with. Only Detroit scored on the power play and they did that without a goalie in the net. Vancouver went 0-for-5 and the Wings 1/3. Shots were 30-24 in favor of the Wings.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Box score here

Goaltending

The Wings shut out the Canucks, so I think the goaltending was pretty good. Jonas Gustavsson had a good first period but had to leave with dizziness. Howard came in and shut the door for the remaining 40 minutes. Still, Eddie Lack was the story of this one. He really kept it close in the third when the game had no business being close anymore.

The Goals

2nd Period 01:08 – Detroit Goal: Justin Abdelkader (wrist shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist
Detroit breaks the stalemate early in the second on a good forecheck leading to a sneaky wrister from Abdelkader getting past Lack and going bar-down into the net. The play starts on a faceoff just outside the Wings’ zone on a bad offsides by Kassian after a lengthy shift. Z wins the draw and the Wings get it deep as Abdelkader tips a Nyquist pass deep. Lack plays it weakly to the corner where Zetterberg gets position on Stanton and immediately chucks it to the front. Abdelkader is still getting up after being knocked over by Burrows, so it gets to Ericsson at the point. Riggy is pressured so he dumps it back up the boards where Hank pokes it past Stanton again for Abdelkader to get in the corner. Burrows pins Abdelkader, but Nyquist beats David Booth to the loose puck and plays it back around behind the net to Zetterberg. Hank drags Stanton out to the corner while protecting the puck before throwing a backhand to the top of the left-side faceoff circle where Abdelkader receives the pass. With Daniel Sedin and Burrows closing in on him from lower in the circle, Abby chucks a wrister on net that Lack picks up late and misses as the puck gets over his shoulder and into the net. The great strong play by Zetterberg will earn him a plus, as he continuously makes room for himself to protect the puck without getting pinned to the boards.

Goal-Saved Adjustment – 2nd Period 04:47: Off a lost faceoff in the defensive zone immediately after the David Booth penalty shot, Kellan Lain gets a glorious opportunity to score on a rebound that bounces to him on the back door from the scrambled play. Fortunately for the Wings, Daniel Alfredsson is paying attention and he gets his stick down on the Lain attempt, deflecting it wide to the far side of the net. Howard actually gets over to get most of his leg pad and his blocker over, so this isn’t a guaranteed goal that Alfie stops, but I’m going to give a half-plus on this. There is a reasonable degree of danger that Lain finishes this scoring chance without Alfredsson’s help. The decision is made all the better by the fact that all Alfie is doing is aggressively covering a spot of the ice that his teammates should be watching instead of him.

3rd Period 19:44 – Detroit Goal (PP): Justin Abdelkader (wrist shot) from Niklas Kronwall
With Lack pulled for the extra skater, the Wings salt it away with a power play goal when Abdelkader gets it up ice and slaps his own missed shot into the open net. The Wings play soft on their power play, trying a low percentage net-front tip and then not chasing when Stanton gets it first behind the net and slaps a clear. DeKeyser picks it up at center and throws it back up ice to try and catch a couple guys pinching on him. Kesler picks it up, but DK is in good position and forces him to dump it in so the Canucks can get Lack off the ice. By the time this happens, Kronwall is already back to pick it up and skate behind his net with room to make an outlet pass up the ice against three forecheckers. Kronwall’s pass hits Abdelkader in stride behind Chris Higgins. The defense can’t get to Abelkader before he hits the center stripe and is able to throw the puck at the empty net. The puck misses wide and bounces back into the faceoff circle off the end boards. Stanton comes back to pick it up, but Abdelkader follows up his shot well and jabs at the puck before Stanton can control, knocking it in to finish the game. This is all too easy with a 5-on-5 and an open net, but Kronwall makes a great pass here aided by DeKeyser making a smart play to slow down the forecheck. I’m going to give both DK and Kronwall a half-plus for helping set this up. The score is kind of a moot point to how good the play here is to simply move the puck up ice.

Penalty Adjustments

1st Period 00:34 – Tomas Jurco (holding): After a few good chances on the forecheck, Jurco gets in on Garrison behind the Nucks’ net and puts a bit of a grab into him. Kind of a soft call, but Jurco will get a minus. It’s definitely a hold.
1st Period 14:37 – Daniel Alfredsson (cross checking): The Wings and Canucks are battling for a puck along the half-boards in the Vancouver zone when Alfredsson takes a bad angle and pushes his man into the boards awkwardly. Alfredsson will -get a minus. There’s not a ton of contact, but the timing of doing it is not smart.

2nd Period 04:41 – Jakub “Penalty” Kindl (holding on breakaway): Kindl earns David Booth a penalty shot (which Howard saves) by letting the speedster get behind him in center ice and then getting outraced as Booth skates in on his chance. Kindl will get a minus. This is a bad defensive play by the youngster.
2nd Period 08:19 – Justin Abdelkader (high sticking): Abby pops Dan Hamhuis in the chops while forechecking and goes to the box. Cut-and-dry on this one. Minus for Abdelkader.
2nd Period 11:18 – Zack Kassian (holding) and Jason Garrison (hooking): Detroit gets their first two power plays of the game on the same play thanks to a lengthy scrum around the Vancouver net, ending in penalties for Kassian (holding DeKeyser at the top of the zone) and Garrison (hooking Glendening behind the net). This play is at the end of 28 seconds of sustained zone time in which all five Red Wings skaters factor into creating what I’m counting as four scoring chances. I’m going to give a plus to the entire unit: Quincey, DeKeyser, Glendening, Eaves, and Miller will all get pluses.

3rd Period 05:31 – Tomas Tatar (tripping): Ryan Kesler is moving through center with Tatar going to challenge him. Kesler makes a move that Tatar can’t keep up with and he sticks a leg out to stop him. This will earn Tatar a minus. He’s pretty lucky here that this was just two.
3rd Period 15:09 – Red Wings Bench (too many men): With the puck on the opposite side wall from the Wings’ bench, the play is whistled dead for too many men on the Wings. This happens when Zetterberg and Tatar don’t communicate well near the bench and Hank comes on without Tats coming off. Zetterberg will get a full minus for not paying better attention to his man and Tatar will get a minus for feinting his own bench. NO reason for this.
3rd Period 16:46 – Jonathan Ericsson and Ryan Kesler (roughing): Kesler late-hits Kronwall after the Wings’ PK gets a clear and Riggy retaliates. Both players take a penalty and no adjustment happens.
3rd Period 19:21 – Alex Burrows (cross checking): Detroit gets another power play as Burrows slides in and buries Zetterberg behind the Wings’ net with a cross-check from behind. No adjustment. Everybody’s playing like they should, Burrows just makes a stupid play.

Bonus Ratings

+1 to Daniel Alfredsson & Darren Helm, -1 to Joakim Andersson: This line didn’t work very well tonight and this adjustment shows the reason why. Both Alfredsson and Helm played solid in all three ends, but they consistently got let down by Andersson, who had a terrible game in all facets. He was the antithesis to puck control and it hurt his line.
-1 to Jakub Kindl: On top of the penalty problem, Kindl had a brutal game getting the puck out of his own zone and was bad at possession even with twice as many offensive zone starts as defensive ones.
+1 to Justin Abdelkader, Henrik Zetterberg, and Gustav Nyquist: This line dominated their top-line competition in this one. Incredible performance by these three.
+1 to Riley Sheahan, Tomas Jurco, and Tomas Tatar: This one brings Sheahan up to +1 on the night as the most-consistent player on that trio, Jurco to even as too good to end up an overall minus, and Tatar up to -1, as a kid who battled, but also made more mistakes. Overall, the line brought fantastic energy to the game in their duties, outplaying their line matchup, but also getting the benefit of a pretty severe differential in offensive zone starts to non-sheltered faceoffs.
+1 to Kyle Quincey: He was part of the most-dominant shifts for the Wings and wasn’t entirely a passenger. He got away with a pretty obvious interference in the 2nd period and had one failed clear, but generally solid play and good PKing earns him a bonus here.

Honorable Mentions:

Other than Kindl and Quincey, the defensive ratings fell right where I thought they should. DeKeyser and Kronwall were the two best defensemen on the ice after Q while Ericsson lagged slightly behind due to a few mistakes. Lashoff wasn’t impressive, but he played quietly enough for his role to deserve an overall even rating.

[Editor’s note: The Season Totals Chart is behind, as the Analysis for the February 2nd game in Washington is not yet complete. I will update that chart as it goes. Official GP and P/M numbers are updated, but adjustments are missing that game.]

Current Game Chart

Season Totals Chart

Screener’s Assist Totals