CSSI Analysis: Red Wings 6 – Senators 1

The Red Wings started out their second game in as many nights looking like they were going to get their sex organs rearranged, but because hockey is a funny sport and, as Ottawa learned, sometimes failing to kill a team in the first 10 minutes can come back to bite you in the form of a 4-0 deficit by the end of the first period. Bobby Ryan puppy-stomped the deserved shutout in the second period as he put the puck into the net for the second time (first time legally), but the Wings already had all the goals they needed for this one.

I don’t have anything nice to say about how this game was reffed.

Power plays were 1/4 for Detroit and 0/6 for Ottawa. Shots were 38-26 for the Sens thanks to score effects.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Box score here

Goaltending

Jonas Gustavsson runs on magic. This works and I’m not complaining.

The Goals

1st Period 10:59 – Detroit Goal: Riley Sheahan (wrist shot) from Cody Ceci
After getting out of the box, Riley Sheahan heads into the zone on a forecheck and is given an absolute gift that he neatly wraps in netting to open the scoring. Seriously, Cody Ceci hands him the puck; it’s insane. After the penalty expires, the Sens lose possession on a shortside shot that goes to a corner with nobody there. Instead of pinch in, Ceci backs off and gives Kyle Quincey time to get it. Q pushes it up ice to Abdelkader at center, but he’s stepped into and is only able to tip the puck weakly into the zone. Ceci skates back to retrieve it as Sheahan skates in to start the forecheck. This is where the absentminded turnover happens and Sheahan snaps it through Lehner. Sheahan is the luckiest guy in the world for getting this pass. The only adjustment I’m going to make is to correct the pluses given, as literally every person other than Sheahan changed behind this play before the goal. Abdelkader, Andersson, Quincey, and Lashoff will get the pluses that get awarded to Smith, Datsyuk, Franzen, and DeKeyser.

1st Period 11:28 – Detroit Goal: Johan Franzen (snap shot) from Gustav Nyquist
30 seconds later, the Wings are up 2-0 on a great hustle play by Johan Franzen to free up the puck for an in-zone passing play which gives Franzen an easy put-away. Colin Greening retrieves a loose puck after a missed shot and skates to the corner under the watch of Datsyuk down low. As he approaches the half-wall, he throws a pass designed for Cowen which gets by the big dummy. Franzen already has his momentum heading toward the point and as he sees the loose puck slide by Cowen, he turns on the jets. Mule is able to get around Cowen, who is trying to run a pick to let Greening get to it first. This allows Franzen to lift Greening’s stick before he can play the loose puck just inside the Ottawa blue line. Cowen is able to tie up Franzen to keep him from getting the puck at the top of the circle, but the two of them are tied up enough that a late-coming Nyquist is able to sweep in from the left wing side and take it to the half-wall as Datsyuk also joins in from the right wing side to cut straight at the net. While the defense is scrambling to square up to Nyquist and watch Pavel Datsyuk, nobody picks up Franzen sneaking to the back door. Nyquist skates low in the circle and threads the pass across the ice where Franzen snaps it into the open net. This is a great hustle play by Mule to create the havoc which leads to this goal. Franzen will get a bonus plus.

1st Period 13:27 – Detroit Goal (PP): Johan Franzen (wrist shot) from Daniel Alfredsson and Niklas Kronwall
The Wings’ unstoppable power play strikes again as a trick cross-ice pass finds Franzen in a great shooting lane and he catches the goalie sliding while Helm bothers Lehner. After the Wings’ PP ices the puck, they finally get their shit together and get set up in the zone on a carry in by Franzen. Excellent north/south puck movement keeps the Ottawa PK moving as all five players on the ice get involved in the play. Eventually, Kronwall gets a pass to Alfredsson low in the zone on a cycle that ends up positioning Franzen at the far side point next to Kronner. Alfie holds it as the PKers start transitioning to pressure over at him and push him to the half-wall. From here, Franzen slides down to set up a 1-3-1 across the top of the circles. Datsyuk takes up plenty of attention in the middle of the ice, which works out perfectly as Alfredsson throws a pass that Pavel lets go directly through him. Everybody is so focused on Pavel that nobody picks up Franzen on the back door to receive it. Lehner slides over, but Mule picks the far post and scores. I think Datsyuk makes two good plays here to make space for his teammates (one on the pass going through him and another ealier on the play when he draws the PKers up top before moving it down low). I’m going to give Datsyuk a half-plus for the PP work. Helm will also pick up a screener’s assist as Lehner is leaning around Helm when he slides over and leans too far to stop the shot.

1st Period 18:00 – Detroit Goal: Tomas Jurco (snap shot) from Niklas Kronwall and Tomas Tatar
Aaaaaaand now it’s 4-0. This is amazing. Tomas Tatar does strong work on a puck turned over deep in the Detroit zone, moving it up ice and threatening to find a wide open Sheahan at the front of the net. This draws two Ottawa players to simply throw the puck out of the zone where Ericsson collects and regains the zone with a wrister from the blue line that’s punched off to the corner for Sheahan to get to first. Gryba keeps Sheahan in the corner by grabbing onto him, but Jurco is allowed to skate in unimpeded and pick up the loose puck behind the net, passing it out to Tatar in the corner to Lehner’s left. Tatar goes to Kronwall at the opposite side point while Sheahan sets up at the net front and Jurco circles around the top of the circle. Condra heads to the point to pressure Kronner and gets beaten on a great deke by the defenseman. This gives Kronner space to walk to the top of the circles and fire a slapper. Kyle Turris is able to get a stick on this and deflect it out of harm’s way, but that just delays the inevitable as he deflects it right to Jurco (who is the guy he was covering before he had to abandon that position because of the Kronwall deke). Jurco is at the bottom of the circle when the puck gets to him and Lehner is still in his butterfly position from the Kronwall shot. Ottawa’s goalie has no chance as Jurco shoves it home. The move by Kronwall will earn him a plus as he turns this into an odd-man situation in the zone. Tatar’s hustle and work on this play will earn him a bonus plus as well. Sheahan will get a penalty plus as the hustle to get around Gryba draws what would have been a holding call if the refs hadn’t blown it dead. Unfortunately, Alfredsson will lose his plus. He was coming on for Gustavsson on the delayed call, but didn’t effect the play.

2nd Period 3:49 – Detroit Goal: Johan Franzen (wrist shot) from Gustav Nyquist and Danny DeKeyser
Hey this Nyquist-to-Franzen thing just might work out ok as Goose helps set up the hat trick for Mule. Datsyuk wins a defensive zone faceoff and the Wings reverse behind the net to start the play up ice, which happens as DeKeyser fires a 90-foot saucer pass to Franzen at center ice in stride. Mule is able to gain the blue line and push it up the boards before he’s held up by Chris Phillips. Fortunately, Nyquist is hustling to follow it up and he’s able to tie up Cody Ceci’s stick in the corner while gaining body position to protect the puck. While this is happening, Franzen and Phillips separate with the defender backing off to the front of his net and the Mule skating toward Nyquist about ten feet from the boards. Turris ignores Franzen to help out Ceci and is burned when Nyquist feeds him the puck with room to pressure right to the front of the net. Phillips is frozen to the middle of the ice because Datsyuk is hanging out in the slot and Quincey is sneaking to the back door. Franzen slowly approaches the near post and simply waits for Lehner to get nervous about the back door pass. Once this happens, the goalie’s glove drops and the scorer’s stick lifts. Franzen roofs it short side and tells Danno to book him as he makes it (Hawaii) 5-0. This is another strong play by Franzen, who will get a half-plus. Nyquist’s hustle and board-battling will earn him a full plus. DeKeyser’s great outlet will also get him a half-plus as he cuts the ice neatly in half with one great pass. Datsyuk’s faceoff win will earn him the last of the half-pluses given out here.

2nd Period 04:19 – Ottawa Goal: Bobby Ryan (wrist shot) from Mika Zibanejad and Marc Methot
Ottawa breaks the shutout with a screened wrister that finds its way through just 30 seconds after the Franzen hatty. Some good pressure by Mike Hoffman to chase down the puck behind the Wings’ net pays off as he’s able to take it away from Lashoff and escape up the boards where he finds Ryan at the top of the zone for a one timer that goes high and wide. Miller chases over, but Methot pinches in first and is able to get to the puck first. As Methot gets to the corner, he drops it off for a cross-over by Zibanejad which picks both Miller and Smith off the puck. This gives Zibanejad space up the boards while Method pushes his way to the net front. Glendening pinches over on Zablahblahblah, but all five Wings are now below the circles. Bobby Ryan is covering the point and receives a pass with enough room to move to the middle and wait for a screen to develop through the traffic. Gustavsson has no chance of seeing the shot as it gets through him low to put Ottawa on the boards. Andersson will be the only minus cleared here as the play doesn’t get through him. Miller allows Methot to push him into the screen while Glendening fails twice to keep the puck off Ryan’s stick in a good scoring area. The play moves very fast, but Glendening is going to get a half-minus. The reason it’s not a full is because Glendening has to adjust to his d-men making mistakes here. Lashoff’s turnover will earn him a minus and Smith makes two coverage mistakes which lead to his center having to chase a bit more than he should have to (first on the forecheck by Hoffman and second on the pick by Methot.) This will earn Smith a minus.

2nd Period 05:04 – Detroit Goal: Tomas Tatar (snap shot) from Tomas Jurco and Niklas Kronwall
The Wings finally chase Lehner on their sixth goal of the game thanks to some great forechecking work to free up Tatar for a quick snapper. After a zone clear, neutral zone defense by Ericsson, Tatar, and Sheahan prevents a clean entry and turns the puck back over for the Wings to regroup. Kronwall gets moving in his own zone and gets a pass to Tatar up the right wing as the Sens change. Tatar doesn’t gather it cleanly and instead sees the puck go off his stick and deep into the zone. Undeterred, Tats hustles into the zone on Cowen, who goes for a hit on Tatar instead of a play at the puck. This backfires as the crafty Slovak pokes it deeper behind the net and then pulls back to avoid contact. This leaves Jurco free to pick up the puck behind the net and Tatar free to get to the front of the net without Cowen being in the way. Spezza tries to pressure Jurco as he coasts from one side to the other, but isn’t there quickly enough. Jurco reverses it back to Tatar with a backhanded pass between Spezza’s legs and Tatar snaps the puck into the net off Lehner as he peeks around the wrong side. By the time the goalie realizes what’s up, the puck is already in his net. Quincey and DeKeyser will lose their pluses to Kronwall and Ericsson on this play, as they came on late. Tatar will get another plus for the combo work of the neutral zone defense and the forechecking. Jurco and Sheahan will also each get a half-plus. Sheahan did essentially the same neutral zone work as Tatar and Jurco did essentially the same good forechecking work, so that works itself out pretty perfectly.

Penalty Adjustments

1st Period 08:49 – Riley Sheahan (holding): Sheahan and Turris race for a puck dumped into the Wings zone with Sheahan clearly losing. As a result, Riley skates into Turris and kinda grabs him. Turris flops like usual, but not bad enough to deserve a matching call. Minus for Sheahan.
1st Period 12:16 – Marc Methot (interference): Sheahan earns his way back to even as he chases a dump into the Ottawa zone and is blocked off by Methot stepping into his path. Plus for Sheahan on the good hustle.
1st Period 14:32 – Luke Glendening (roughing): Net-front bullshit happens around Lehner after a whistle thanks to the Sens being mad at Luke Glendening not dying like they want him to. Somehow despite ending up on the bottom of a three-man scrum and getting punched several times, Glendening is the only one who goes to the box. No adjustment. This call is entirely driven by the scoreboard.

2nd Period 16:51 – Danny DeKeyser (interference): Off a faceoff, DeKeyser moves up on Hoffman, who does a good job to make a move to avoid the bump. DeKeyser hits the guy away from the puck and goes to the box. This isn’t a super-strong call, but it’s one that’s incredibly easy to make. DeKeyser will get a minus.

3rd Period 04:26 – Jonathan Ericsson (interference): Ottawa gets a power play as Ericsson holds his ground skating back to the front of his own net against Condra. Honestly this one is a pity call combined with an embellishment. I can see how they make it, but that’s not a consistent call anywhere but a 6-1 game. No adjustment.
3rd Period 07:54 – Brendan Smith (interference): This is pretty much a carbon copy of the Ericsson call in that it’s a guy standing his ground while another guy skates into him and falls down to draw a penalty. The only difference is that this one happens in the neutral zone. No adjustment. Smith does not move into the player’s path here and he’s not supposed to be expected to get out of a guy’s way if he’s skating at him. Bad call; no adjustment.
3rd Period 09:50 – Erik Karlsson (slashing): Near the end of the Smith penalty, Luke Glendening draws one as he hits Erik Karlsson after a pass and draws a retaliatory slash. Plus for Glendening. He was pissing people off all game.
3rd Period 10:37 – Zack Smith (slashing) and Johan Franzen (roughing): The Wings are about to go up on a 5-on-3 as Smith takes a cheap shot at Kronwall, but that gets negated because Franzen says something to Methot to make him chase the Mule halfway across the ice and somehow Franzen is the only one who gets in trouble. No adjustment.
3rd Period 10:41 – Tomas Tatar (tripping): On the ensuing faceoff, Tatar gets tripped by Gryba and retaliates with one of his own. Only Tatar goes. I don’t care about this penalty. It has no effect and it’s dumb that the refs call the game this poorly. No adjustment.
3rd Period 14:05 – Chris Neil (a bunch of asshattery) and Johan Franzen (getting attacked): As the third winds down, Neil decides that he hasn’t been a big enough waste of useful DNA and he tries to goad Franzen into a fight. When Franzen refuses, Neill yanks the Mule’s helmet off and throws a punch before trying to glide his head into the glass. Somehow, Franzen gets tossed in all of this. No adjustment. This is a dumb play all around.

Bonus Ratings

+1 to Luke Glendening, Joakim Andersson, Drew Miller, Darren Helm, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Kyle Quincey, and Brian Lashoff: Big PK time for this entire group of guys and I thought they all did excellent work. Glendening had the lowest PKTOI among them at 3:59. The Wings spent 10:47 killing penalties in this game and allowed only seven shots on goal. I think this made a remarkable difference in how this game turned out.
+1 to Brendan Smith: Not as dominant defensively, but the offensive instincts in this one were very good. He gets a bit unlucky for creating offense, but I’ve like what I’ve seen from him in the last two games.

Honorable Mentions:

Daniel Alfredsson and Justin Abdelkader were fairly quiet in this one. Alfie recorded no shots on net and Abby fell down a lot. Still, that’s the worst thing I have to say about any of the Red Wings on this night. That’s a good showing.

Current Game Chart

Season Totals Chart

Screener’s Assist Totals