The Red Wings got thoroughly outplayed in their opening matchup of round 2 versus the Blackhawks. Detroit hung with Chicago until the third period when things just kind of fell apart for them. They’ll work on making adjustments to avoid the 4-1 result they deserved on Wednesday.
It was nice that Detroit got three power play opportunities. The reffing standard wasn’t offensive or anything. I thought Detroit got away with a little bit more, but I also thought two of their penalties were fairly soft. The Wings didn’t manage to score in their three chances while Chicago went 1-for-3. Overall, Chicago outshot Detroit 42-21.
CSSI Methodology Explanation here
Goalie Ratings
It’s hard to say the goalie who allowed three goals beat the one who only allowed one in the head-to-head. It’s so hard to do in fact that I’m not going to try. Jimmy Howard played better than his team, but wasn’t really a factor in this loss any more than anybody. Overall, Howard will get an even rating. Head-to-head, I’m also going to call it even.
The Goals
1st Period 09:03 – Chicago Goal (PP): Marian Hossa (slap shot) from Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp
The Wings can’t get an expected clear on the penalty kill and end up paying for it as Toews feeds Hossa high in the slot for a one-timer. This one’s on Smith, who will get a turnover minus. He helps create a loose puck that Quincey gets to, but then doesn’t return to his position and kind of gets in the way of a pass to Emmerton. Sharp attacks the puck and forces the turnover, but Smith has no business playing this badly here.
1st Period 10:57 – Detroit Goal: Damien Brunner (wrist shot) from Gustav Nyquist and Jonathan Ericsson
Detroit pulls even on a quick transition which leads Brunner into the zone with speed. Brunner’s initial shot is stopped, but he gets his own rebound and puts it home. No adjustment here. I think the scoring fits what happened pretty well.
3rd Period 08:02 – Chicago Goal: Johnny Oduya (wrist shot) from Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane
Chicago pulls ahead thanks to their constant and aggressive forecheck which leads to possession in the zone and eventually a pass to Oduya sneaking in from the point for a wrister fired off the post and in. The main coverage error here is on Cleary, who will get a coverage minus. Oduya is his man and he lets him go. Ericsson plays this sequence soft enough to get an additional half-minus. Filppula is a bit slow to react to events as well. Half-minus for Flip. I’m not clearing any other minus. Both Franzen and Kronwall had chances to prevent this play from developing like it did and neither did.
3rd Period 11:23 – Chicago Goal: Marcus Kruger (backhand) from Daniel Carcillo and Nick Leddy
Chicago gets one here off an odd play. A dump-in lands on the back of the net, which causes all sorts of havoc as the Wings scramble to recover. Kruger gets a loose puck in front and lifts it over Howard. Andersson will be the only minus cleared as he came on for a change late on the play and had no chance at it. Colaiacovo will pick up a minus even though he changed. The possession went back to Chicago because he threw Eaves a suicide pass that Eaves was smart enough not to touch. Everybody else had a chance to eliminate a player or a stick and didn’t. The puck’s bounce makes it hard to adjust on positioning, but when Kruger gets it all alone in front, there are three people tying up Frolik and none on Kruger. Blame here will be shared between Kronwall and Kindl, who will each pick up an extra half-minus.
3rd Period 19:11 – Chicago Goal (EN): Patrick Sharp (wrist shot) from Niklas Hjalmarsson
The Hawks salt it away with an empty-netter off Sharp’s stick. I don’t care enough about Colaiacovo catching a rut and falling down to punish him extra on an empty-netter. No adjustment.
Penalty Adjustments (pluses and minuses only)
1st Period 08:01 – Gustav Nyquist (hooking): This one is pretty soft, but Nyquist gets his stick parallel. Minus for Nyquist
1st Period 12:18 – Andrew Shaw (tripping): Kindl earns a plus with some good footwork to force a penalty by Shaw as he gets a stick in on Kindl’s feet to take him down.
2nd Period 04:57 – Kyle Quincey (holding): Quincey earns a minus as he wraps a free hand around Sharp to keep him from completing a wrap-around move.
Bonus Ratings
+1 to Gustav Nyquist and Damien Brunner: This one is to bring Brunner to even and Nyquist just to a -1 thanks to his penalty. Along with Andersson, this was Detroit’s best line and they don’t deserve to be rated as badly as they were.
-1 to Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg: These two were dominated handily on possession in this one. They created a few good chances, but not enough.
+1 to Daniel Cleary: He will remain an overall minus in this one, but I adjusted him up one because I thought his forechecking was very good in this game.
-2 to Brendan Smith: I’m not sure he completed a pass cleanly in this entire game. Absolutely unacceptably bad performance by Smith.
-1 to Jonathan Ericsson: I’m evening out Ericsson”s and Kronwall’s total adjustments here. I thought they were both equally bad against the Chicago forecheck.
+1 to Justin Abdelkader: Bringing him even on the night. I thought Abby did his job well to make space and wasn’t part of the problem
Honorable Mentions:
Franzen played well in spurts and Filppula had his motor running, but neither created much in the way of chances. When the gameplan gets reviewed for Game 2, the Wings’ third line should be credited with being the only one that consistently got the puck through center with both speed and possession.
