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Detroit Red Wings Game Analysis, After-Action Report for Monday Dec 29th: Detroit Red Wings 2 – Boston Bruins 5

The Wings went into Monday on a two-game winning streak with a chance to extend their lead over Boston. They didn’t do that. They pooped inside a waterbed and then stabbed the waterbed so the poopwater spilled all over the room and into the hallway. What I’m saying is that it was 5-2 Bruins.

Box Score Here

The Red Wings got away with a lot of stuff and then gave up a power play goal on a chintzy call. 1/4 power play for the Wings and 1/1 for Boston (they also scored one on a delayed penalty). Shots were 45-30 for the Bruins.

When your goaltender has a bad night and your defense has a bad night, you’re going to have a bad night. Jimmy didn’t have it in this one. I’m not sure how much of “it” he would have needed to have to get a win, but he didn’t have enough.

Guide to plus/minus adjustments

The Goals

[Ed note: Doing short versions of goals today]

1st Period 02:44 – Boston Goal: Reilly Smith (slap shot) from Dougie Hamilton
Boston gets on the boards first as Reilly Smith blasts one past Howard’s ear through a screen. Datsyuk loses a faceoff in the D zone and the Bruins spend 21 seconds cycling around the boards until Smith gets it at the point and blasts it in. Abdelkader will be cleared as the only Wings player not directly involved here. Quincey will pick up a half-coverage minus for the screen. Datsyuk will get one and a half turnover minuses for losing the faceoff and for dumping the puck to an open corner just before the Hamilton pass to Smith.

1st Period 11:21 – Detroit Goal: Justin Abdelkader (backhand) from Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall
The Wings pull even on a great effort by Abdelkader to redirect a puck on the backhand while falling down in front of Rask. Ericsson dumps the puck over forecheckers for Kronwall, who brings it down and feeds Datsyuk heading up ice. The speed gets Datsyuk to the half-wall where he tries a timing slapper to the front. The puck is blocked by Chara and heads to Abdelkader, who sweeps it in on the backhand as he’s knocked over by Hamilton. Ericsson and Kronwall each will get a half-plus for the breakout.

1st Period 16:12 – Boston Goal: Gregory Campbell (wrist shot) from Torey Krug and Carl Soderberg
Boston retakes the lead on a delayed penalty as Campbell is the first man on a puck that hits off the post behind Howard. A Murphy dump gets the Bruins into the zone and also gets a delayed penalty called on Quincey as he takes down Soderberg. Boston uses the extra man to overload the zone and eventually get the goal as Campbell knocks in the rebound. Quincey, Jurco and Sheahan will all get coverage minuses on this play for a clusterfuck in front of the crease. DeKeyser keeps his minus, as does Tatar.DK gets knocked down by Quincey clearing the crease-front, which causes the confusion in front of the net. I’m also going to give Quincey a penalty minus for being the reason Boston has an extra skater out there.

1st Period 17:25 – Boston Goal: Carl Soderberg (wrist shot) from Loui Eriksson and Chris Kelly
Boston makes it 3-1 on a Soderberg goal from an easy pass out from behind the Detroit net. Lashoff ices it, Helm loses the faceoff, Miller has a point shot deflected just behind the net where Smith loses the battle to Eriksson. Loui feeds it out front o the back post where nobody picks up Soderberg and Howard is very slow getting to his back post. Nyquist will be cleared. Helm will get a half-minus for the faceoff. Smith will get a half-minus for the coverage. Lashoff will get a minus for failing to cover Soderberg in a shooting lane (Smith is at least trying to hold off Eriksson to force the pass).

2nd Period 15:10 – Detroit Goal (PP): Tomas Tatar (wrist shot) from Danny DeKeyser and Stephen Weiss
The Wings make it 3-2 with a power play marker through a solid Riley Sheahan screen. The Wings dig it out behind the net, Weiss feeds DK at the point, DK goes to Tatar and Tatar snipes it through both the legs of Bartkowski and the screen of Sheahan. The only adjustment here is a screener’s assist for Sheahan.

3rd Period 05:11 – Boston Goal (PP): Seth Griffith (wrist shot) from David Krejci
Boston goes up by two again with a power play goal as Griffith gets a shot off from a dangerous area which finds its way through.On a good cycle and shot, the Wings can’t get a clear despite a rebound bouncing straight to Helm and then being knocked off his stick straight to Quincey. Krejci draws Quincey too far to the corner and Abdelkader ignores Griffith in the slot to worry about a lane back to the point. Krejci finds Griffith who snipes it in. Quincey will get a coverage half-minus and a turnover half-minus. Helm will get a turnover half-minus. Abdelkader will get a coverage minus.

3rd Period 17:34 – Boston Goal (EN): Chris Kelly (wrist shot) from Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson
Detroit continues not doing things right as they allow an empty net goal. This one is good work by Soderberg and Kelly in the neutral zone. No adjustment. Nobody is getting cleared because just about everybody had a chance to get to the puck when it was loose in front of Rask and none of them did.

The Penalties

1st Period 08:03 – David Krejci (high sticking) against Henrik Zetterberg: Detroit is trying to break out of their zone as Zetterberg makes a play to move it up ice. Krejci comes in and hits him late, catching him with a high stick in the process. No adjustment. Just a mildly dirty bad decision by the Boston player.

2nd Period 13:36 – Brad Marchand (hooking) against Jonathan Ericsson: Detroit gets their second power play on a rare good shift in the offensive zone. Ericsson pinches along the wall to keep the puck in and wins the battle with Marchand, getting hooked for his trouble. Ericsson will earn a plus for this.

2nd Period 15:55 – Gustav Nyquist (tripping) against Gustav Nyquist: Kelly puts his stick in Nyquist’s skates in the offensive zone and corkscrews him to the ice. This is just bad stickwork by Kelly. No adjustment.

3rd Period 03:34 – Brian Lashoff (hooking) against Reilly Smith: The refs remember that Boston hasn’t had a power play to this point, so they take Lashoff to the box for what is technically a hook, but hasn’t really been to this point of the game. Oh well. Lashoff shouldn’t hook people, even if it’s chintzy. Minus for Lashoff.

3rd Period 14:58 – Dougie Hamilton (interference) against Pavel Datsyuk: The Wings get a chance that goes just wide as Hamilton plants Datsyuk on the ice at the back door. This is widely regarded as a bad thing for Hamilton to do as he sits. No adjustment. This is where Datsyuk is supposed to be. Hamilton just isn’t supposed to interfere with him.

Total Adjustments

Player GP Official +/- Adjusted +/- G+ Cov- Turn- Plty- Plty+ Chg+ Chg- PP+Lost PK-Clear GA-Clear GSaved+ Adj Diff
Stephen Weiss 1 0 0
Henrik Zetterberg 1 -1 -1 0
Johan Franzen 1 -2 -2 0
Justin Abdelkader 1 -1 -2 -1 -1
Tomas Tatar 1 -1 -1 0
Riley Sheahan 1 -1 -2 -1 -1
Tomas Jurco 1 -1 -2 -1 -1
Gustav Nyquist 1 -2 -1 1 1
Darren Helm 1 -1 -2 -1 -1
Pavel Datsyuk 1 -1 -2.5 -1.5 -1.5
Luke Glendening 1 0 0
Drew Miller 1 0 0
Niklas Kronwall 1 0.5 0.5 0.5
Jonathan Ericsson 1 1 2.5 0.5 1 1.5
Brendan Smith 1 -1 -1.5 -0.5 -0.5
Brian Lashoff 1 -1 -3 -1 -1 -2
Kyle Quincey 1 -2 -5.5 -2 -0.5 -1 -3.5
Danny DeKeyser 1 -2 -2 0

Player Screener’s Assists
Justin Abdelkader 6.5
Luke Glendening 2.5
Johan Franzen 2
Darren Helm 3.5
Drew Miller 1.5
Riley Sheahan 3
Tomas Jurco 1
Tomas Tatar 1
Stephen Weiss 1
Joakim Andersson 0.5
Pavel Datsyuk 0.5
Brendan Smith 0.5

Full Season Chart Here

Possession Metrics

Even-strength Corsi numbers provided thanks to NHL.com via War-On-Ice.com.

Name Pos iCF C+/- F+/- ZSO ZSD ZS% TOI CF60 CA60 CA
Riley.Sheahan C 2 9 7 2 4 33.33% 11.3 85.3 37.3 7
Tomas.Jurco RL 3 5 5 2 3 40.00% 11.6 61.8 36.1 7
Jonathan.Ericsson D 2 0 -1 6 10 37.50% 17.7 61.1 61.1 18
Drew.Miller LR 5 0 -1 1 10 9.09% 13.7 48.3 48.3 11
Luke.Glendening C 2 -1 -2 1 10 9.09% 14.2 46.3 50.5 12
Tomas.Tatar L 2 -3 -2 3 4 42.86% 11.1 43.3 59.5 11
Justin.Abdelkader RL 3 -3 -6 6 8 42.86% 12.7 47.1 61.2 13
Henrik.Zetterberg CL 0 -3 -6 6 7 46.15% 13.9 38.8 51.8 12
Johan.Franzen L 3 -4 -5 3 2 60.00% 12.4 53.3 72.7 15
Brian.Lashoff D 1 -5 -4 4 1 80.00% 7.2 41.4 82.9 10
Niklas.Kronwall D 2 -5 -5 6 9 40.00% 19.6 42.8 58 19
Stephen.Weiss C 1 -5 -5 1 10 9.09% 9.7 37.2 68.2 11
Danny.Dekeyser D 2 -6 -7 3 9 25.00% 14.6 45.3 70 17
Brendan.Smith D 4 -6 -8 4 8 33.33% 19.9 45.3 63.4 21
Kyle.Quincey D 1 -6 -9 3 10 23.08% 19.9 33.1 51.2 17
Gustav.Nyquist RL 2 -10 -10 6 4 60.00% 12.5 19.3 67.4 14
Pavel.Datsyuk CL 1 -12 -12 4 8 33.33% 13.3 36.1 90.2 20
Jimmy.Howard G 0 -14 -17 13 24 35.14% 49.7 44.7 61.6 51
Darren.Helm CL 1 -15 -14 4 3 57.14% 13.1 22.9 91.6 20

Sheahan’s line was the only one that adequately pulled its weight (against Paille-Campbell-Caron), but the line blender simply didn’t work for the Wings. Needing their best players to be their best players, Detroit ended up having to split Datsyuk and Zetterberg and then simply couldn’t build pressure in the offensive zone. No line could handle Carl Soderberg’s group (Helm was -13 against him with ZERO even-strength shot attempts on the ice while Soderberg was on). Krejci doubled up Datsyuk in their time together on the ice as well.

Name Pos iCF C+/- F+/- ZSO ZSD ZS% TOI CF60 CA60 CA
Brian.Lashoff D 1 -5 -4 4 1 80.00% 7.2 41.4 82.9 10
Johan.Franzen L 3 -4 -5 3 2 60.00% 12.4 53.3 72.7 15
Gustav.Nyquist RL 2 -10 -10 6 4 60.00% 12.5 19.3 67.4 14
Darren.Helm CL 1 -15 -14 4 3 57.14% 13.1 22.9 91.6 20
Henrik.Zetterberg CL 0 -3 -6 6 7 46.15% 13.9 38.8 51.8 12
Tomas.Tatar L 2 -3 -2 3 4 42.86% 11.1 43.3 59.5 11
Justin.Abdelkader RL 3 -3 -6 6 8 42.86% 12.7 47.1 61.2 13
Tomas.Jurco RL 3 5 5 2 3 40.00% 11.6 61.8 36.1 7
Niklas.Kronwall D 2 -5 -5 6 9 40.00% 19.6 42.8 58 19
Jonathan.Ericsson D 2 0 -1 6 10 37.50% 17.7 61.1 61.1 18
Jimmy.Howard G 0 -14 -17 13 24 35.14% 49.7 44.7 61.6 51
Riley.Sheahan C 2 9 7 2 4 33.33% 11.3 85.3 37.3 7
Brendan.Smith D 4 -6 -8 4 8 33.33% 19.9 45.3 63.4 21
Pavel.Datsyuk CL 1 -12 -12 4 8 33.33% 13.3 36.1 90.2 20
Danny.Dekeyser D 2 -6 -7 3 9 25.00% 14.6 45.3 70 17
Kyle.Quincey D 1 -6 -9 3 10 23.08% 19.9 33.1 51.2 17
Drew.Miller LR 5 0 -1 1 10 9.09% 13.7 48.3 48.3 11
Luke.Glendening C 2 -1 -2 1 10 9.09% 14.2 46.3 50.5 12
Stephen.Weiss C 1 -5 -5 1 10 9.09% 9.7 37.2 68.2 11

35% team zone starts is bad.

Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.

Final Say

The lack of a good outlet pass really hurt the Wings against a very aggressive Boston forecheck. It seemed there were always more Boston players up than Detroit players back, but the Wings’ defenders couldn’t make the up-ice passes to catch them doing it. I thought DeKeyser had an especially bad night with the puck.

Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca

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