The Red Wings came into Sunday’s game against an Avalanche team that had played the night before, but was able to coast to a victory. Detroit controlled the play all game, but couldnt’ solve Calvin Pickard and ended up losing yet another shootout for their 5th straight loss.
Refereeing wasn’t much of a story here, which was kind of a pleasant surprise after a fear early chintzy calls. Both teams scored their goals on the power play (Detroit had four chances to Colorado’s 2). Shots were 35-23 by the end of this one.
Both goalies played incredibly well. Mrazek wasn’t as busy as Pickard, but he made some great saves to make sure the Wings got at least one point.
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
The Goals
3rd Period 04:52 – Detroit Goal (PP): Pavel Datsyuk (wrist shot) from Riley Sheahan and Henrik Zetterberg
The Wings finally break the goose-egg on the power play as Sheahan finds Pavel wide open in front for a snipe. The Wings lose the opening faceoff on the power play, but Abdelkader and Sheahan are able to pressure and give Zetterberg space to keep it in at the point. Z gets the first shot 17 seconds in on a wrister from the outside of the dot that Pickard blocks off and Datsyuk picks up on the far wall. After resetting to the point, Kronwall walks to a lane to fire just wide of the net. Johnson keeps it from getting out to Abdelkader on the doorstep, but Hank gets in to recover along the boards. After walking to the corner, Hank has a pass attempt to the point blocked by Cliche down low. Z recovers and gets it to Sheahan cycling down to the same corner side with a bit of room to operate. As everybdoy turns to look at Sheahan, he turns to look across the ice where he sees Datsyuk in the far circle. Sheahan threads the pass to him and he collects it, waits long enough for Pickard to overcommit, and then snaps it back far post on him. Sheahan does some great work on this play and will earn a plus. Zetterberg and Abdelkader also do hard work to make it happen and each will earn a half-plus.
3rd Period 15:45 – Colorado Goal (PP): Erik Johnson (slap shot) from Tyson Barrie and Gabriel Landeskog
Colorado pulls even ten seconds into a power play as a cross-ice setup finds a one-timer that gets underneath the traffic into the net. Helm loses the faceoff cleanly to O’Reilly, who gets it back to Johnson for a move over to Barrie. This slows Helm down on his way out to cover the point. Barrie goes to Landeskog at the half-wall to complete the umbrella setup. Landeskog gets chased down the wall by Helm before bouncing it back to Barrie at the point. As Glendening goes out to challenge Barrie up top, Johnson takes up position at the top of the faceoff circle. Barrie feeds him for a one-timer and Mrazek doesn’t get his pad all the way down on time to stop it. I’m going to give Helm a minus on this PK for the clean faceoff loss and the chase which draws the diamond too far to one side (half-coverage and half-turnover).
The Penalties
1st Period 01:11 – Niklas Kronwall (high sticking) against Nathan MacKinnon: Kronwall gets careless with his stick as MacKinnon chases in on him, bringing the lumber up to neck-level and taking a high-sticking call. Minus for Kronwall.
1st Period 03:25 – John Mitchell (slashing) against Pavel Datsyuk: Pavs enters the zone just after the penalty kill and Mitchell gives him a chop on the glove as he gets a shot off. It’s a good rush by Datsyuk to leave Mitchell behind. I’m going to give Datsyuk a half-plus. I don’t think this is a great call and I think Mitchell is just being dumb slashing him while he has defensive help in front of Datsyuk.
1st Period 16:34 – Max Talbot (high sticking) against Niklas Kronwall: Talbot is going after a puck down low when he cracks Kronwall in the grill, taking a four-minute penalty. Kronwall is a victim of bad stick-work here, but he does good board work to be in control of this puck in the first place. Kronwall will earn a plus.
3rd Period 04:10 – Nate Guenin (tripping) against Johan Franzen: Guenin misplays a puck and Franzen cuts between him and the puck. Guenin tries to chop back at the puck and takes Franzen down instead. Franzen will get a plus.
3rd Period 15:25 – Tomas Jurco (interference) against Daniel Briere: The Wings win an offensive zone penalty, but Jurco wipes out his man heading to the middle helping to make it just a bit cleaner of a win. Jurco will get a minus. The call is helped by Briere going down easy, but Jurco leans on him pretty hard.
Total Adjustments
| Player | GP | Official +/- | Adjusted +/- | G+ | Cov- | Turn- | Plty- | Plty+ | Chg+ | Chg- | PP+Lost | PK-Clear | GA-Clear | GSaved+ | Adj Diff |
| Dan Cleary | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Johan Franzen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Justin Abdelkader | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | |||||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Darren Helm | 1 | -1 | -0.5 | -0.5 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Pavel Datsyuk | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Brendan Smith | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Jakub Kindl | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Kyle Quincey | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Player | Screener’s Assists |
| Justin Abdelkader | 5 |
| Luke Glendening | 2.5 |
| Johan Franzen | 2 |
| Darren Helm | 2.5 |
| Drew Miller | 1.5 |
| Riley Sheahan | 1 |
| Tomas Jurco | 1 |
| Tomas Tatar | 1 |
| Stephen Weiss | 1 |
| Joakim Andersson | 0.5 |
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 |
| Petr.Mrazek | G | 0 | 22 | 14 | 24 | 13 | 64.86% | 51.2 | 57.5 | 31.7 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 4 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 69.23% | 20.7 | 66.7 | 20.3 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | 7 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 53.33% | 17.6 | 68.3 | 20.5 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 2 | 10 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 69.23% | 18.2 | 56.1 | 23.1 |
| Johan.Franzen | L | 2 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 66.67% | 13.2 | 68.4 | 22.8 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 4 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 57.14% | 15.2 | 63.1 | 27.6 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | RL | 2 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 66.67% | 11.9 | 70.3 | 30.1 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | RL | 1 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 50.00% | 14.2 | 63.2 | 29.5 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 2 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 61.54% | 17 | 60.1 | 31.8 |
| Darren.Helm | CL | 4 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 60.00% | 12.4 | 67.7 | 33.8 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 83.33% | 15.4 | 62.2 | 38.9 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 15.3 | 58.9 | 39.3 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 63.64% | 16 | 56.2 | 41.2 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 4 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 63.64% | 16 | 56.2 | 41.2 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 15.3 | 51 | 39.3 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 61.54% | 14.4 | 45.7 | 37.4 |
| Daniel.Cleary | LR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 85.71% | 6.6 | 27.2 | 27.2 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 1 | -2 | -2 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 8.3 | 21.6 | 36.1 |
| Drew.Miller | LR | 0 | -2 | -2 | 5 | 1 | 83.33% | 8 | 22.4 | 37.3 |
Only two players seeing more than 40 events against/60 is a pretty good defensive effort. The Wings really shut down the Avalanche well and just about every line/pairing save for the fourth did that. Line matchups were top-down again, although the fourth line did play a bit more balanced minutes. Datsyuk played against MacKinnon’s line, Sheahan Got Landeskog, O’Reilly and Briere most often. Helm was tasked against the Iginla and Tanguay line.
| Name | Pos | iCF | C+/- | F+/- | ZSO | ZSD | ZS% | TOI | CF60 | CA60 |
| Daniel.Cleary | LR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 85.71% | 6.6 | 27.2 | 27.2 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 83.33% | 15.4 | 62.2 | 38.9 |
| Drew.Miller | LR | 0 | -2 | -2 | 5 | 1 | 83.33% | 8 | 22.4 | 37.3 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 15.3 | 58.9 | 39.3 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 15.3 | 51 | 39.3 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 1 | -2 | -2 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 8.3 | 21.6 | 36.1 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 4 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 69.23% | 20.7 | 66.7 | 20.3 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 2 | 10 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 69.23% | 18.2 | 56.1 | 23.1 |
| Johan.Franzen | L | 2 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 66.67% | 13.2 | 68.4 | 22.8 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | RL | 2 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 66.67% | 11.9 | 70.3 | 30.1 |
| Petr.Mrazek | G | 0 | 22 | 14 | 24 | 13 | 64.86% | 51.2 | 57.5 | 31.7 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 63.64% | 16 | 56.2 | 41.2 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 4 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 63.64% | 16 | 56.2 | 41.2 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 2 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 61.54% | 17 | 60.1 | 31.8 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 61.54% | 14.4 | 45.7 | 37.4 |
| Darren.Helm | CL | 4 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 60.00% | 12.4 | 67.7 | 33.8 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 4 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 57.14% | 15.2 | 63.1 | 27.6 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | 7 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 53.33% | 17.6 | 68.3 | 20.5 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | RL | 1 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 50.00% | 14.2 | 63.2 | 29.5 |
Looking at Mrazek’s numbers, you can see that the team didn’t have enough defensive zone draws to go around to give anybody less than 50%. It adds a bit of context in how the fourth line got outplayed while pulling fairly easy draws.
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
I’m hoping this one makes a nice bookend to the start of this losing streak wherein the Red Wings dummy a team for three periods and then lose in a shootout thanks to a hot goalie and bad shooting luck. The Kid line was very impressive in this one and I think Kyle Quincey had a really solid game, his big mistake of the game ending up becoming only a mid-rate chance. Datsyuk and Zetterberg had two periods’ worht of trouble connecting on passes, but really put it together late. Hell even Kindl played well.
Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca
