CSSI (Mini) Analysis: Red Wings 4 – Predators 6

I’m in Detroit for the Winter Classic. I did get to watch all of this game from the Hockeytown Cafe after catching most of the Griffins/Marlies game from Comerica. Honestly, I didn’t take notes for this game and don’t have the replay readily available on my DVR. Based on my travels, it will likely be late in the week before I can fully re-watch this game.

However, one of the strengths of CSSI is the feedback, and I don’t expect all of you to keep this shit-show on your DVRs any longer than you have to or keep a lot of this stuff as fresh in your mind as it is now.

With that in mind, I’m going to write up the goals and penalties. I’ll write a short blurb, but will not be making any adjustments at this time. What I’d like is for you to use the comments to discuss what adjustments you think should be as a guideline for when the full analysis gets done. Later in the week when I get to this game, I’ll use those as guidelines.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Box score here

Goaltending

I can say with certainty that goaltending was a weak point in this game and that a better performance in net probably would have led to a different result in the standings.

The Goals

1st Period 01:54 – Nashville Goal: Colin Wilson (wrist shot) from Seth Jones and Mike Fisher
Nashville’s first goal comes on a harmless-looking wrister fro above the top of the circles which beats Howard glove side above the leg pad. This one looked like a bad goal.

1st Period 03:00 – Detroit Goal: Justin Abdelkader (backhand) from Drew Miller
Some very good board battling by Abdelkader and Miller followed by a brilliant move to recognize and use space to come out from behind the net, finished on a wonderful falling backhand roofer. Great effort here.

1st Period 09:50 – Nashville Goal: Craig Smith (snap shot) from Paul Gaustad
A clean defensive zone faceoff win after an icing by Nashville results in a 3-on-2 rush the other way. The defenders take away the passing lane leaving the shooter to Howard. Smith gets to the faceoff dot and snaps it through the goalie on the short side. Howard is cheating off his post on this goal and i feel this one is also soft.

Goal-Saved Adjustment: 1st Period (Kyle Quincey) – I don’t remember the specific time, but Quincey pulls one off the goal line behind Howard on the Predators power play

2nd Period 04:24 – Nashville Goal: Nick Spaling (snap shot) from Craig Smith
Another odd-man rush for the Predators ends in a goal snapped short side past Howard. This time, it’s Spaling from the top of the circle. Again, this is from within the goal-scoring box, but it’s another one where there seems to be too much room on the short side.

3rd period 00:35 – Detroit Goal: Pavel Datsyuk (slapshot) from Niklas Kronwall
A good start to the third, as the Red Wings pressure in the zone and Kronwall takes advantage of a Shea Weber turnover to feed it to Datsyuk for a one-timer through Mazanec.

3rd Period 05:50 – Nashville Goal: Mike Fisher (wrist shot) from Colin Wilson and Patric Hornqvist
A whole host of mistakes including two turnovers by Brendan Smith and a refusal to freeze the puck by Howard leads to a goal where Wilson gets room to feed it out in front where Fisher sweeps it into the net.

3rd Period 11:30 – Detroit Goal: Kyle Quincey (wrist shot) from Darren Helm and Henrik Zetterberg
Helm feeds Quincey from behind the net and after two whacks at the puck, the Predators put it into their own net to keep Drew Miller from getting a goal that Kyle Quincey needed more.

3rd Period 12:07 – Nashville Goal: Colin Wilson (backhand) from Seth Jones and Mike Fisher
37 seconds later, the Preds get what will be the game-winner on another 3-on-2 rush where Jones finds Wilson as the trailing rusher with a step on Cleary. Howard tries to get acrobatic instead of squaring to the shot and lets the puck in off his glove for what I think is his fourth regrettable goal of the night.

3rd Period 14:52 – Detroit Goal (PP): Patrick Eaves (snap shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall
Eaves first takes away Mazanec’s stick as he stays strong on a sweep check attempt while he pushes out from behind the Nashville net, then makes good on what he’s done by one-timing a cross-ice pass from Zetterberg into the net.

3rd Period 19:41 – Nashville Goal (PP)(EN): Roman Josi (snap shot) from Matt Cullen
While shorthanded, the Wings pull their goalie to skate 5-on-5, but turn the puck over in the neutral zone trying to get back in and establish a cycle. Josi fights his way to the center stripe and mails the puck in from long distance, making sure that it would not have been icing even if he had missed.

Penalty Adjustments

1st Period 12:20 – Drew Miller (high sticking): A double-minor for Miller as he’s fighting to lift Eric Nystrom’s stick and instead gets his nose.

2nd Period 04:52 – Kyle Quincey (tripping): Quincey goes for bringing down Colin Wilson in front of the Detroit net.
2nd Period 11:48 – Matt Cullen (tripping): Cullen takes down Tatar in the corner of the Predators’ zone, heading to the penalty box.
2nd Period 17:39 – Justin Abdelkader & Mike Fisher (fighting): Abdelkader tries to punch Mike Fisher a bunch while Mike Fisher tries to take Justin Abdelkader’s clothes off for a little while just prior to taking him down.

3rd Period 12:29 – Gustav Nyquist (tripping): Nyquist gets his stick in on Ryan Ellis, bringing him down.
3rd Period 14:25 – Mike Fisher (hooking): Brendan Smith jumps up on a play to create a short-handed scoring chance, which is prevented by Fisher hooking him on the backcheck.
3rd Period 17:54 – Todd Bertuzzi (tripping): In a play that is very Todd Bertuzzi, he takes an offensive zone penalty at just about the worst possible time with some bad stick-work when he trips Shea Weber just after a faceoff. I’m not making adjustments on this until I re-watch the game, but my gut feeling is to give Todd Bertuzzi one thousand billion minuses for this penalty.

Bonus Ratings

Coming later, although off the top of my head, it felt like Bertuzzi had a very bad game and Tatar was good again, along with Helm. I liked Abdelkader and was underwhelmed with Jurco.

Honorable Mentions:

Coming Later

Current Game Chart

Will be updated later

Season Totals Chart

Screener’s Assist Totals