Detroit Red Wings Game Analysis, After-Action Report for Saturday Nov 22nd: Detroit Red Wings 4 – Toronto Maple Leafs 1

I wrote a gamethread about how the Maple Leafs tend to beat themselves a lot and it backfired into the Wings doing exactly that. 4-1 Leafs.

Box Score Here

I’d be worked up over inconsistent refereeing if the Wings hadn’t given up the game-winning goal on a shorthanded breakaway. Neither team scored on seven power play opportunities. Toronto had four of those. Shots were 28-27 in favor of Detroit.

Howard had about as bad of a game as the rest of the team did. The game-winner was on a breakaway which you always want to see stopped but shouldn’t regularly fault the goalie on. The 3-1 marker was a bad effort though. On the other side, Bernier kept pucks and rebounds in front of him very well to earn his victory.

Guide to plus/minus adjustments

The Goals

1st Period 11:49 – Toronto Goal: Leo Komarov (Jonathan Ericsson) from Mike Santorelli
The Leafs create a rush at their own blue line that leads to a defensive breakdown that Komarov capitalizes on with a double-bounce. The Wings are forechecking in the Toronto zone with their fourth line on the ice when a puck is dumped to the point where Kronwall tries to dump it back deep. The puck doesn’t get past Santorelli as Kadri glides in and wipes Kronwall out at the point. This frees up Santorelli to push the puck forward through the neutral zone with a step on Glendening and Komarov joining to force Ericsson to respect the cross-ice pass. Glendening catches Santorelli at the blue line, but as he puts his stick in to let Santorelli know he won’t be able to push the net front, the Leafs’ forward takes a dive. As Santorelli and Glendening slide to the end boards, the puck slows behind them where Komarov comes across at the bottom of the circle to pick it up. Ericsson stays at the back post while Andersson chases Komarov right before backing off to watch the point. Kronwall backs in on the play watching Kadri trail in to the middle of the ice. With all the room here down low, Komarov walks to the side of the net and tries jamming the puck in. Howard stops it, but Ericsson steps into the play too late to do anything but have it bounce off his leg and into the net. I’m going to clear Drew Miller here as he’s not involved in the play. Andersson will keep his minus for being involved here. He’s probably ok to gamble on attacking Komarov here, but he’s got to watch the lane back to the point, which he does. Glendening will get an extra minus on this play for not jumping out of the zone sooner. Even if Kronwall succeeds in getting the dump-in past Santorelli, he can afford to have assumed a clear. What he can’t afford is to let Santorelli by him after Kronwall gets wiped out. Kronner will keep his minus, but he made the play he should have made here. A dump attempt at the point was the safe play and he got let down by his teammates. Ericsson will get a full coverage minus for sticking with the coverage on a back post that didn’t need to be covered nearly as much as the near post did. His hesitation cost them.

2nd Period 10:28 – Detroit Goal: Tomas Tatar (one-timer) from Xavier Ouellet and Brian Lashoff
The Wings tie it up on a great cross-ice pass from Ouellet to find Tatar at the back door for the pretty finish.The Leafs ice it after a failed power play, giving the Wings’ an offensive zone draw. The draw is scrambled, but Detroit keeps it in as Ouellet finds the puck and dumps it along the boards for Tatar. Tats skates below the net but is forced to turn back by Gardiner. As he skates back to the corner from where he came, Polak steps into him just after he gets the puck up to Lashoff at the point. Polak decides to finish Tatar off in the corner, but fails to do so as Lashoff goes cross-ice to Ouellet at the other point. Tatar steps off the boards away from his man as Ouellet walks down the outside to create a lane straight to Tatar at the back door for the quick put away. There are a couple subtle good plays by Ouellet which will earn him a half-plus on this play. Tatar will also get a half-plus. It’s nice that Roman Polak would rather lie down in the corner than cover his man, but that doesn’t take away from the good hard work by Tatar.

3rd Period 03:44 – Toronto Goal (SH): Tyler Bozak (backhand) unassisted
Detroit finally gets a power play and they answer by giving up a shorthanded breakaway to Tyler Bozak leading to a goal. Zetterberg wins the offensive zone draw to start the power play as Nyquist chases back to pick it up near the point. Bozak chases down Nyquist who makes a very short outlet to Kronwall to avoid the same Bozak who doesn’t have to change his line of attack at all to adjust to this pass. Bozak reaches his stick out as Kronwall tries to pull it to the inside to step around him. Instead of completing the move, Kronwall sees the puck get knocked off his stick to Bozak already heading the right direction. The PKer reaches the loose puck at the Detroit blue line and it’s a proper breakaway. A quick draw to the backhand gets Howard to start sliding across his crease before Bozak simply lifts it on the near side for the game-winner. I’m going to clear Abdelkader, Zetterberg and Franzen here. Nyquist makes a really bad pass to Kronwall and Kronwall makes a really bad read. Both Nyquist and Kronwall will pick up a turnover minus for how this goes down.

3rd Period 15:38 – Toronto Goal: Peter Holland (wrist shot) from Gustav Nyquist
The Wings get into the zone and collapse the Toronto defense just before Gustav Nyquist turns the puck over and allows an odd-man rush to Holland that makes it 3-1 Leafs. A good saucer pass from Franzen springs Zetterberg to center where he makes a cross-ice pass to Nyquist just inside the Toronto blue line to make space. Quincey jumps up on the play and drives the center lane to pull the defense back while Zetterberg crosses over to make a lane for Nyquist to walk it from the point toward the high slot. Here, Nyquist passes up his second shooting opportunity for an attempt to hold a half-second longer while Franzen joins late on the left wing side. Nyquist’s pass never gets there as the outstretched stick of Holland blocks it. Holland kicks the puck into the neutral zone and takes off for the races with David Clarkson joining. Danny DeKeyser is just circling back from also having jumped on the rush so he has to play it like a developing 2-on-1, staying mindful of Clarkson while Nyquist chases down Holland. At the top of the circle in the Wings’ zone, Nyquist has actually caught up to Holland, but doesn’t want to take a penalty, so he plays it soft and Holland gets away from him undeterred. Howard is at the top of his crease, but doesn’t track to his own post as fast as Holland moves there. As soon as the space opens up, Holland fires it near post. I’m going to clear Quincey, Franzen, and Zetterberg on this play. DeKeyser will keep his minus because I don’t think he should have jumped this rush like he did. Holding back probably means he can attack Holland before he gets control, leaving Nyquist to get back on Clarkson. Nyquist is going to get both a turnover minus and a coverage minus. The half-hearted backcheck on Holland is not acceptable. I don’t like Howard’s coverage on this goal either.

3rd Period 18:13 – Toronto Goal (EN): Tyler Bozak (stick stuff) from Daniel Winnik and Leo Komarov
The Wings give up the empty net goal they deserve to and the comeback wheezes its death rattle. Zetterberg loses a faceoff in the offensive zone that Phaneuf rings around the boards where Komarov steps up on DeKeyser pinching in. The puck bounces to the top of the circle where Zetterberg is fighting Bozak and Franzen is hesitant to step up on the play. This allows Winnik to get it and clear the zone with a bounce off the boards. Bozak has the first step to it as he picks it up at the Wings’ blue line. Kronwall is skating back to try and cover, but he doesn’t have the juice for it. Instead of spearing Bozak in the nuts from behind like some big baby, Kronwall accepts his fate here and lets Bozak get his second of the night into the empty net. Abdelkader and Nyquist will be the two players cleared here. DK and Kronwall mess up opportunities which will keep them their minuses. Zetterberg will get a minus for the combo of losing the big faceoff and for letting the puck right by him at the top of the circle. Franzen will get a full minus for being hesitant to attack the puck here.

The Penalties

1st Period 00:36 – Johan Franzen (hooking) against Peter Holland: Mule loses the puck in his own zone on the first shift and hooks Holland to prevent the Leafs from keeping the puck in the zone. Minus for Franzen. Shit play.

1st Period 05:21 – Luke Glendening (high sticking) against Dion Phaneuf: Glendening battles at the net front with Phaneuf, who pushes the guy around a bit before Glendening retaliates with a chop in the chin. Ref sees this and Glendening earns a minus.

1st Period 12:38 – Peter Holland (tripping)against Henrik Zetterberg: Hank is helping get a puck out from behind his own net when Holland reaches out and takes him down. No adjustment here. Ordinary course of doing his job and HOlland being irresponsible with his stick causes this.

1st Period 17:03 – Johan Franzen (holding) against Tyler Bozak: Right off a neutral zone faceoff, Franzen takes a hand off the stick to slow Bozak down. This is a really stupid penalty to take against a guy who’s pretty well covered. Franzen will get a minus.

2nd Period 08:03 – Gustav Nyquist (hooking) against Dion Phaneuf: Nyquist works hard to get the puck around Dion Phaneuf, who does all he can to interfere with the guy. Seeing that nothing is illegal in the second period, Nyquist hooks Phaneuf and the ref makes a call. This is an awful penalty call all things considered. I’m not going to give Nyquist a minus for being interfered with three times and then being the only guy to go to the box.

3rd Period 03:34 – Stephane Robidas (boarding) against Justin Abdelkader: The Wings get a good rush as Tomas Jurco gets sprung behind the defense for a good scoring opportunity. As he shoots it over the net, Abdelkader follows up to get the rebound chased by Robidas. Abby gets to it first, but Robidas crushes him into the boards and sits for it. No adjustment here. Robidas just makes a bad decision.

3rd Period 10:09: Stephane Robidas (holding) against Tomas Tatar: Detroit is threatening in the Leafs’ zone with their most-consistently dangerous line of the game. Tatar pulls it off the boards to the middle and Robidas grabs on to keep him from getting a good scoring opportunity. Tatar will get a plus, but Abdelkader will also earn a half-plus. He does good board work here to help make this play happen.

Total Adjustments

Full Season Chart Here

Possession Metrics

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

The even-strength Corsi in this game pretty well matches the eye test, exept in not adequately showing the boneheaded mistakes made by the top line.

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

Final Say

Kronwall sucked in this game.

Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca