CSSI Analysis: Red Wings 0 – Rangers 1

My chest-groin hurts after this game.

Detroit’s power play failed to score on the only two chances they got, same with the Rangers. Honestly, the standard was pretty good. The Wings probably deserved more uncalled penalties than the Rangers, but one of the Rangers’ power plays came on a dive, so that’s that. Shots were 48-38 in favor of New York.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Box score here

Goaltending

Jimmy Howard made enough saves to win two games and ended up with the loss because a deflected shot fluttered over him. Such is the way of the game sometimes. I’m sure that somewhere out there lies a pocket of fans who have deluded themselves into being angry with Howard over the way this game went. I hope that pocket of fans all lives in the same dank tenement and it gets torn down by a fuckdozer while Michael Bay is filming Transformers 69.

The Goals

Goal-Saved Adjustment: 2nd Period 17:08 – Jimmy Howard has to scramble as Callahan gets a great scoring chance in front of the net cutting across the crease. Callahan tries to slide it under Howard into the net, but misses the angle. Fortunately for him, his teammate Stepan is on the back door for the easy put away. Even more-fortunately for Detroit, Kyle Quincey has his stick in the lane too and he’s able to clear the puck away from what would certainly be a goal. Quincey will get a goal-saved plus.

3rd Period 14:02 – New York Goal: Mats Zuccarello (wrist shot) from Derick Brassard and Benoit Pouliot
The shutout ends on a deflected shot that flutters over Howard on another rush for the Rangers thanks to their speed through center. The Rangers get it out of the corner in their end as Sheahan gets pinned to the boards and Pouliot gets body position on Jurco which allows him to feed it to Zuccarello coming in as the third man to take the puck and head up ice with Brassard joining him and Pouliot up ice against Kindl and Lashoff in what is a partially-disguised 3-on-2 rush (Jurco and Sheahan are coming back, but Pouliot already has position in the level between the head of the rush and the backcheckers). Zucchini gets a bit of separation from Brassard through center as they both enter the zone on the left wing side about seven feet apart with Pouliot trailing in the center. The puck-carrier feeds it to Brassard after gaining the zone and continues his path down the interior left-wing side. As Kindl ranges over to threaten Brassard around the top of the circle, he’s beaten by a quick pass back to Zuccarello. This turns the play into a 2-on-1 with Lashoff remaining in the center lane between Zoot-suit-Oreo and Pouliot on the right. Howard tracks the puck to his post as the angle tightens and Lashoff goes down to prevent the pass. Right as Zuccarello gets to the goal line, he attempts to make the pass to Pouliot on the back door. Howard reacts to the pass attempt by sliding to the far post. Unfortunately, the pass deflects off Lashoff’s stick and goes into the net on the near-side. Todd Bertuzzi will be cleared of his minus, as he was playing net-front and isn’t expected to get back on this rush. Sheahan’s minus will be cleared, as he was held up and still hustled back on the play. Jurco will keep his minus, as he has to realize he’s the high winger on this play and not allow himself to get caught behind Pouliot unless he gets the puck by him (which he doesn’t). Lashoff will keep his minus but will get no extra punishment. It’s a bit unfortunate that it goes down like this, as Lashoff plays this the right way, but Ultimately, you can’t deflect this pass onto your own goal. Kindl makes a mistake in the coverage here. Brassard is no immediate threat to the net from the left wing boards. Kindl would be better served to back off and prevent the Brassard-to-Zuccarello pass. Kindl will get an extra minus.

Penalty Adjustments

1st Period 06:48 – Derek Stepan (hooking): Abdelkader and Nyquist combine to forecheck effectively, joined by Zetterberg. Hank feeds Nyquist with a chance to step into the middle and Stepan hooks him to prevent it. Nyquist, Abdelkader, and Zetterberg will each earn a plus.
1st Period 12:11 – Chris Kreider (tripping): The Rangers are trying to find room to get the puck off the boards in the Wings’ end when Kreider upends DeKeyser after losing positioning. DeKeyser will get a plus.

2nd Period 00:21 – Niklas Kronwall (hooking): Rick Nash threatens to walk around Kronwall coming into the Wings’ zone. Kronwall leans into him a little bit and Nash throws his edge away to draw the call. It’s a dive, but Kronwall lost body position on Nash. I’m going to give Kronner a half-minus.
2nd Period 14:43 – Danny DeKeyser (hooking): The Wings get pinned in their own end for a long stretch and end up taking a penalty as the Rangers consistently cycle around low looking for chances. DeKeyser goes for hooking and will get a minus. I’m also going to give Zetterberg a half-minus. If there’s any time to win a faceoff, it would have been off the previous icing which led to this play.

Bonus Ratings

+1 to Danny DeKeyser: 21 minutes played against tough competition in tough situations and DeKeyser did well for himself. On the offensive side, he had three shots on goal as well.
+1 to Cory Emmerton: He only played about 12 minutes, but he won more faceoffs than he lost and played effectively both offensively and defensively. Emmerton faced no Rangers forward more than Rick Nash and did well for himself possession-wise.
+0.5 to Todd Bertuzzi: At even strength and on the power play, Bertuzzi set up most of the Wings’ most-dangerous scoring chances. I liked his hustle in this game.

Honorable Mentions:

I thought the effort was there for the team, but mental mistakes caught up with them. The Rangers had a pretty easy time cycling the puck low and getting shots on net. There were numerous dominant shifts by many of the lines, but overall, the Wings faded late and weren’t able to solve Lundqvist. I don’t think anybody was particularly bad in this game. Dan Cleary might have gotten himself closest to a plus, but it seemed that every time he’d put together 90% of a good shift, he’d spend the last 10% screwing that up. Only two players got more offensive zone starts than defensive ones: Lashoff and Kindl. I feel that this more than solidifies their overall negative ratings, even though I thought Lashoff played better than Kindl.

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