The Red Wings went into Saturday night looking to complete the home-and-home sweep of the Leafs, accomplishing their mission in a less-than-ideal but certainly exciting manner. Jonas Gustavsson pitched a shutout while Henrik Zetterberg prevented a shootout thanks to his last-minute goal.
Both teams got five power play opportunities and neither team succeeded with the man advantage. I think both fanbases aren’t necessarily happy with how that game was called. The standard changed as the game went on and several calls on both sides were chintzy. Shots were 32-30 in favor of Detroit.
Jonas Gustavsson shut out the Leafs, which will never not be funny to me. Overall, I will probably never get over how much his style scares me, but it got the job done. Bernier stopped a lot of shots, but the only extremely good save of the game was his stop on Justin Abdelkader in front of the net (although Gustavsson stopped more than one breakaway in the first).
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
The Goals
Overtime 04:50 – Detroit Goal: Henrik Zetterberg (beard-powered magic) from Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson
The Wings finally pull off the victory just 10 seconds before the shootout with some great outlet passing leading to a cross-ice feed for a beauty one-timer from Hank. Zetterberg ties up a defensive zone faceoff for Ericsson to come in and clear it back to Kronwall in the corner. This gives the Wings time to start a breakout as Z comes off the half-boards on the near side and pulls Bozak with him. The pass gets to him near the dot and Bozak steps up to cut him off. Z immediately goes to Ericsson coming out from the opposite corner. This leads Bozak to let Zetterberg go to watch Riggy. While this is happening, Kronwall is heading up the ice on the left wing side with Kessel in tow. Ericsson hits Kronner with a hard pass as he crosses out of his own zone. Kronner gains control just over the Toronto blue line with both defensemen backing off. Zettterberg stays almost even on the right wing side while Nyquist jumps off the bench for a Glendening change. The speed of Kronwall pushes the defense back farther as he gets to the half-wall before throwing a centering pass to the high slot where it meets Henrik Zetterberg for a one-timer that gets through before Bernier can square up to it. Game over. I’ll admit that this breakout scared me while I was watching it, but I love the result. Zetterberg, Ericsson, and Kronwall will each pick up a bonus half-plus. Also, I’m going to give Glendening a half-plus on this play. He’s barely involved as the faceoff win takes place, but he heads up ice immediately, which backs the defense up to allow the breakout to develop.
The Penalties
1st Period 05:54 – Andrej Nestrasil (interference) against Leo Komarov: Nestrasil posts up at the offensive blue line and is there for a full beat before Komarov skates into him and falls down. This is a bad call. No adjustment.
1st Period 06:38 – Dion Phaneuf and Jonathan Ericsson (roughing) against each other: Hey these guys don’t like each other very much. No adjustment.
1st Period 08:06 – Matt Frattin (holding) against Andrej Nestrasil: Nesty fights through a hold in the neutral zone and earns the even-up for the bad call call against him. This is good hustle by Nestrasil, who will get a plus.
1st Period 11:33 – Phil Kessel (cross checking) against Luke Glendening: Phil the Thrill gets an odd-man rush that gets broken up by Glendening, who finishes Lupul off after the play. Kessel gets mad and cross-checks Glendening, going to the box for it. Glendening will earn a plus for drawing this one.
1st Period 14:30 – Nazem Kadri (elbowing) against Brendan Smith: Smitty has the puck behind his own net and waits for Kadri to get close before making a pass. In finishing his check, Kadri gets his elbow up to finish his check and goes to the box. No adjustment.
1st Period 15:22 – Riley Sheahan (holding) against Leo Komarov: Sheahan is going after a loose puck, but loses the race. Instead of skating, he pulls Komarov down. Minus for Sheahan.
2nd Period 03:09 – Kyle Quincey (interference) against Nazem Kadri: Quincey is losing the position battle all over the zone against Kadri and finally gets called for interference after picking him away from the puck while he’s skating with DeKeyser. Minus for Quincey.
2nd Period 15:24 – James van Riemsdyk (cross checking) against Jonathan Ericsson: Riggy is protecting the puck against JVR at the top of the Wings’ zone. When he turns away from van Riemsdyk, he gets a cross-check to the back which knocks him over. This one is just JVR cheating a bit too much. No adjustment.
3rd Period 03:08 – Niklas Kronwall (slashing) against Phil Kessel: This one’s a 2-for-1 call on Kronwall, as he had gotten away with a slash earlier in the game. Minus for Kronwall.
3rd Period 06:52 – Toronto Bench (too many men): David Clarkson plays a puck too early after coming onto the ice. That’s not allowed. No adjustment.
3rd Period 07:25 – Henrik Zetterberg (hooking) against Daniel Winnik: The Wings power play unit can’t stop Daniel Winnik pushing it into their zone shorthanded and Zetterberg gets called for a hook that gets easier to call when one team is shorthanded. It’s a weak call, but Hank is responsible for the situation getting that bad. Minus for Zetterberg.
Total Adjustments
| Player | GP | Official +/- | Adjusted +/- | G+ | Cov- | Turn- | OV+ | OV- | Plty- | Plty+ | Chg+ | Chg- | PP+Lost | PK-Clear | GA-Clear | GSaved+ | Adj Diff |
| Justin Abdelkader | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | -1 | -0.5 | |||||||||||
| Stephen Weiss | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | |||||||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Darren Helm | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Andrej Nestrasil | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Joakim Andersson | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1.5 | ||||||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | -1 | -0.5 | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||||||||||
| Brendan Smith | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Kyle Quincey | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | |||||||||||||
| Jakub Kindl | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Player | Screener’s Assists |
| Johan Franzen | 2 |
| Justin Abdelkader | 1 |
Possession Metrics
Even-strength Corsi numbers provided thanks to NHL.com via War-On-Ice.com.
|
Name
|
Pos
|
Corsi Rel%
|
Corsi%
|
Corsi+/-
|
CorsiFor
|
CorsiAgn
|
CorsiFor60
|
CorsiAgn60
|
| Gustav.Nyquist | R | 20.38 | 55 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 58.67 | 48 |
| Tomas.Jurco | R | 7.17 | 46.15 | -1 | 6 | 7 | 43.95 | 51.27 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 7.45 | 45.45 | -2 | 10 | 12 | 47.68 | 57.22 |
| Joakim.Andersson | L | 6.54 | 45 | -2 | 9 | 11 | 52.9 | 64.65 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 5.56 | 44.44 | -2 | 8 | 10 | 41.32 | 51.65 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | L | 6.54 | 45 | -2 | 9 | 11 | 48.36 | 59.1 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | C | 8.33 | 45.83 | -2 | 11 | 13 | 43.73 | 51.68 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 1.18 | 41.18 | -3 | 7 | 10 | 39.72 | 56.74 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 2.48 | 42.11 | -3 | 8 | 11 | 38.17 | 52.49 |
| Drew.Miller | R | 4.7 | 43.48 | -3 | 10 | 13 | 49.35 | 64.15 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 0.91 | 40.91 | -4 | 9 | 13 | 42.3 | 61.1 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | -1.85 | 38.89 | -4 | 7 | 11 | 29.73 | 46.73 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 3.18 | 42.31 | -4 | 11 | 15 | 44.25 | 60.34 |
| Andrej.Nestrasil | R | -8.77 | 33.33 | -5 | 5 | 10 | 32.64 | 65.28 |
| Stephen.Weiss | L | -20.63 | 22.22 | -5 | 2 | 7 | 20.34 | 71.19 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | -4.17 | 37.5 | -6 | 9 | 15 | 37.67 | 62.79 |
| Darren.Helm | C | -29.63 | 17.65 | -11 | 3 | 14 | 15.91 | 74.23 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | -18.41 | 30.3 | -13 | 10 | 23 | 34.88 | 80.23 |
| Jonas.Gustavsson | G | 40.28 | -14 | 29 | 43 | 40.43 | 59.95 |
The shots may have favored Detroit, but that’s only because they got a higher percent of total attempts on net. Only Gustav Nyquist was able to get an overall positive Corsi rating at 5-on-5 and that was thanks in large part to his zone starts. The Leafs had 60% of all attempts on net in this game and they did it in large part by disrupting the Red Wings’ transition. Aside from total numbers, the pace numbers for most of the players were not good. The Wings had a lot of one-and-done rushes in this one.
|
Name
|
Pos
|
Faceoff %
|
Faceoffs Won
|
Faceoffs Lost
|
Off ZS %
|
OffZoneStart
|
NeuZoneStart
|
DefZoneStart
|
| Andrej.Nestrasil | R | 40 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Stephen.Weiss | L | 40 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | R | 40 | 0 | 0 | 88.89 | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 83.33 | 10 | 8 | 2 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 83.33 | 10 | 8 | 2 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | L | 0 | 0 | 1 | 80 | 8 | 8 | 2 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | C | 41.18 | 7 | 10 | 80 | 8 | 8 | 2 |
| Darren.Helm | C | 25 | 1 | 3 | 75 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 72.73 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
| Jonas.Gustavsson | G | 40 | 0 | 0 | 68.97 | 20 | 20 | 9 |
| Joakim.Andersson | L | 75 | 3 | 1 | 63.64 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Drew.Miller | R | 40 | 0 | 0 | 63.64 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 72.73 | 8 | 3 | 63.64 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 61.54 | 8 | 4 | 5 |
| Tomas.Jurco | R | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 58.33 | 7 | 5 | 40 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
Things that Stephen Weiss did not do in this game:
- Take a defensive zone faceoff at 5 on 5
- step on the ice after the 2:08 mark in the third period.
- Play well/
That’s a supremely disappointing night for Weiss, who sat a lot partially because he wasn’t impressive and partially because line matching was intense in this game and Randy Carlyle hardly used his 4th line (Panik and Frattin both played fewer than 3:15).
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
Good goaltending and defensemen making slightly fewer boneheaded mistakes than usual helped. The Wings played this game very carefully and were overall kind of lucky they didn’t get burned. The 4th line started playing well, but faded late. I think the best coaching decision of the game was by Babcock knowing to abandon that matchup in the third period as it became worse for the Wings. Tomas Tatar put six shots on net and was unlucky that he didn’t score. I thought Kronwall was excellent as well.
