CSSI Analysis: Red Wings 3 – Kings 2 (SO)

Well that was stupid. Guess I’m not allowed to complain about unlucky bounces again for a while.

While we’re at it, I also thought the Wings got away with quite a bit that went uncalled. Again: don’t care. Los Angeles went 2/4 on the power play and Detroit technically went 1/3. The Kings outshot Detroit through regulation, but thanks to a 5-0 advantage in extra time, Detroit ended up winning the shot battle 35-32.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Box score here

Goaltending

Jimmy Howard put up a .938 save percentage in stopping 30 of 32 shots (including six out of six slapshots!) He also put up a bit of a fight when Kyle Clifford ran him, aggressively humping the crease-interloper into submission before asking Jonathan Quick about his plans for the Sochi games next month.

The Goals

2nd Period 09:06 – Los Angeles Goal (PP): Mike Richards (wrist shot) from Slava Voynov
L.A. gets on the scoreboard first on the power play as Mike Richards rips it off Howard’s face and into the goal. The Wings get a couple of clears before Muzzin brings the puck in on the left wing side while the Forwards change. He has room to establish the point before being pressured and ends up lobbing it cross-corner to finish the set-up. Quincey initially swings and misses the dump-in before getting to it and trying to clear up the boards. Voynov holds the puck in and the trouble starts. Emmerton races to pressure Voynov, but the D-man wrists it back up the boards where it’s taken by Richards at the half-wall and turned in on the room made when Brown finishes his check on Quincey in the corner. With Q having to respect both the interior move and the pass to Brown down low on the near side (while Lashoff plays the net-front and Miller watches the cross-ice to Williams at the opposite dot), Richards is able to get the puck into the faceoff dot before ripping a wrister that hits Howard’s mask and deflects into the net. It’s a bit of a bad break for Quincey on the good keep-in and head’s up play by Voynov, but I think he puts himself into the situation with the swing-and-miss of the dump-in. The time it takes for him to turn after missing is the time Brown needs to get close enough to hit him and take him out of position for the Richards shot. Quincey will get a minus for the coverage.

2nd Period 09:47 – Detroit Goal: Henrik Zetterberg (wrist shot) from Gustav Nyquist and Brendan Smith
41 seconds later, the Wings pull even with some good hustle in front. leading to a great scoring feed from Nyquist to the front for an easy goal for Zetterberg. The immediate shift beforehand, the Bertuzzi-Sheahan-Jurco line moves the puck well and forces an offensive zone faceoff. Zetterberg wins the draw to Nyquist, who feeds it back to Kronwall at the point. Kronner dumps it below the net for Abdelkader to battle with Muzzin. Abby does a good job tying up his man and allowing Nyquist to sweep through and grab the puck to move out to the side of the net with it. Nyquist is tracked by Carter, but is able to feed it out front where Brendan Smith is pinching in between Doughty and Brown. Before Smith can bury it, Doughty swings his stick and knocks it wide of the net back to the same corner Nyquist came from. Abdelkader makes a move to it but immediately recognizes that Nyquist is in great position to get to it first so he instead takes up position on the doorstep while Muzzin and Doughty try to regain positioning. Nyquist doesn’t waste any time after getting to the loose puck in throwing a backhander to the front of the net. The pass goes through the defense and through Abdelkader’s legs before landing on Henrik Zetterberg’s stick alone in front. Z collects it and finishes the goal Great work here by the forward unit to move it around. Nyquist, Zetterberg and Abdelkader will each get a full plus for their work while Smith will get a half. The pinch in deep creates havoc with the coverage and ends up making the room that Z finds to score here.

3rd Period 17:45 – Los Angeles Goal (PP): Jeff Carter (wrist shot) from Mike Richards and Drew Doughty
The Kings look to have a game-winner on their second power play goal of the night late in the third period on a Jeff Carter snipe. The Kings get a faceoff deep 34 seconds into the power play and Darryl Sutter makes a good call using his timeout to keep his top unit out there late in the game. Kopitar wins the draw, allowing Doughty to move the puck around the top of the zone to get the Kings’ set and the Wings moving. Doughty feeds Carter for a shot from the top of the circle which goes wide and ends up back on Muzzin’s stick at the top of the zone off a failed Dan Cleary shot up ice. Muzzin walks it across the point to make time for a pass across to Doughty running into a one-timer with Richards screening in front. The puck actually hits off Richards in front and kicks right to Carter in the slot, who slides it past Howard before he can react to the play. This one is going to share some blame among the PKers. Glendening will get a minus for losing the faceoff while Cleary will get a minus for the failed clear. Quincey will earn a half-minus for not tying up Carter’s stick. Q’s minus is only a half because he’s also got to be mindful of Richards alone behind Lashoff, so that rightfully slows him down a half-tick on the coverage. Carter is always his primary responsibility, but the secondary coverage here is a dangerous player as well. Lashoff will get a half-minus for being out of position on the Doughty one-timer. If he’s not going to block this shot, he needs to be in better position to allow Quincey to immediately tie up Carter in front.

3rd Period 19:33 – Detroit Goal (PP): Niklas Kronwall (knuckle puck) from Henrik Zetterberg, Patrick Eaves, and whatever company makes the netting above the boards at the Joe.
Kronwall pulls the Wings even by magically dropping a puck onto Jonathan Quick’s back and into the net. True leadership goal here by Kronner. Babcock uses the Wings’ timeout with 51 seconds left pending an offensive zone faceoff which the Wings will start without Howard in net. Zetterberg wins this draw, allowing the Wings to get set up. After a net-front scramble created by a Hank pass, the Wings re-set again on a retrieval in the corner by Tatar, who skates to the half-boards and throws it back to Z across the ice. The pass is behind Zetterberg, so he can’t go to the net. Instead, he goes back to Kronwall at the point on something of an overloaded umbrella. Kronner can’t handle it cleanly, so he has to pass it to Eaves to make a bit of space. Eaves goes back to Kronner in the middle, who one-touch passes it to Zetterberg on the left wing side just above the corner boards. This gives the defense time to spread a bit while Kronwall gets into shooting position for the return pass. Hank goes back to Kronner just above the top of the circle for a seeing-eye one-timer aimed at creating a deflection/tip off the Bertuzzi screen in front. Instead, Jarrett Stoll deflects the puck out of play into the netting. Fortunately for the Wings, none of the officials see the puck hit the netting so they erroneously call it a good goal when the puck comes down back into play and deflects off Jonathan Quick’s back into the net. This is a fluke play and the Wings got lucky, but Henrik Zetterberg deserves a plus for getting the Wings into this position in the first place.

Penalty Adjustments

1st Period 13:47 – Jake Muzzin (hooking): Muzzin takes a hooking call for bringing Abdelkader down in front of the LA net on a series of good chances for the Wings. This is a good zone entry and battle for the Wings, who do get a lucky bounce in here, but mostly earn this penalty through hard work. Abdelkader, Nyquist, Zetterberg, and Smith will each get a plus. Smith fights to create the entry which almost results in a goal for Z. Nyquist recovers the puck on a board battle and feeds it to Z for a good shot just before the hook. Abby draws the hook directly, and Zetterberg is all over this play.
1st Period 15:22 – Detroit Bench (too many men): The Wings lose their first period power play opportunity when too many people come on for not enough coming off after the Kings get a clear. This one is on Tomas Jurco, who has no reason to step on without somebody else looking to change. Jurco will get a minus.

2nd Period 02:55 – Jakub Kindl (boarding): Kindl and Trevor Lewis are fighting for position on a board battle for a puck that’s coming their way. Kindl makes contact too early and pushes Lewis awkwardly into the boards. Kindl will get a minus. He’s lucky Lewis wasn’t hurt.
2nd Period 08:17 – Brendan Smith (cross checking): Smith gets chopped in the head by Brown in front of the Detroit net and retaliates with a high cross-check. Smith will get a minus. Brown cheated too, but you have to know not to retaliate.
2nd Period 11:44 – Jimmy Howard and Mike Richards (roughing): Howard and Richards get mad at each other because Kyle Clifford looks like Cleopatra and he tried to tackle the Red Wings‘ goalie. Then some other stuff happens and long story short there’s no adjustment because there’s not really a point to adjusting this.

3rd Period 09:13 – Jakub Kindl and Colin Fraser (roughing): In another net-front scrum, Kindl and Fraser say mean things to each other’s faces with their fists and then go sit down and think about it for a while. No adjustment.
3rd Period 09:58 – Justin Williams (slashing): Williams chases DeKeyser in the Wings’ zone, trying to turn the puck over, he slashes at DK’s stick hard, which comes out of his hands. This one’s a good call, but it’s not worth an adjustment. This one’s on Williams.
3rd Period 16:52 – Niklas Kronwall (holding): Kronwall gets walked by Jordan Nolan and responds by grabbing onto an arm to arrest his progress to the net. Kronwall will get a minus.
3rd Period 18:15 – Dwight King (closing hand on the puck): With the pressure on late, the Wings get a power play chance thanks to Dwight King grabbing a loose puck and making a football move before letting go of it. King is spooked here by Brendan Smith stepping up on him. Smith will earn a plus for this play.

Bonus Ratings

+1.5 to Luke Glendening: I thought he had a really strong game once again playing as the zone start whipping boy for the Wings. Other than the lost faceoff on the goal, he had a strong PKing game.
+1 to Riley Sheahan and Tomas Tatar: One plus each for the two forwards I thought were the best of the forecheckers.
+2 to Danny DeKeyser +1 to Niklas Kronwall: The two hardest-working D-Men for the Wings, they played incredibly well. Kronwall had slightly harder line matchups, but Dekeyser did more from the defensive zone. Both were quietly dominant.

Honorable Mentions:

Todd Bertuzzi was flat out lucky he didn’t take a penalty in this game. I feel that Nyquist is ready to break out of his scoring slump soon.

Current Game Chart

Season Totals Chart

Screener’s Assist Totals