The Wings lost their longest winning streak of the year with a lackluster performance against an inferior opponent. Dropping the decision 4-3.
The refereeing in this game was not good, but it was more beneficial to the Wings. Florida only got one power play chance in the entire game and didn’t score on it. Detroit got one goal on four tries. I have no idea how the hell the Wings managed to get 41 shots on net in a game that was this boring, but they did. Florida had 31.
Jimmy Howard started strong, but this was not a good night for him. His puckhandling, over-aggression, and rebound control were all weaknesses in this one. Luongo played pretty well, but a bulk of the shots he faced weren’t terribly dangerous. To his credit, he did a pretty good job making sure he wasn’t making extra hard work for himself.
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
[Editor’s Note: I got a late start on this, so I’m going to do short versions of the goal writeups. For additional context, check out the box score linked above. Each goal will have a link to a highlight showing it]
The Goals
1st Period 06:47 – Detroit Goal (PP): Tomas Tatar (tip in) from Pavel Datsyuk and Stephen Weiss
The Wings take advantage of Willie Mitchell’s stupidity as they score a power play goal on a beautiful tip out front. The Wings finally get in the zone and cycle around well until a near-miss by Kronwall discombobulates the defense. This opens up room for Datsyuk to work at the top of the circle on the reset. A wrister into traffic bounces in off Tatar in the slot with Jurco screening. Jurco will get a screener’s assist.
1st Period 15:11 – Florida Goal: Jimmy Hayes (wrist shot) from Vincent Trocheck and Dimtry Kulikov
The Panthers tie it up on another flurry of chances out front that the Wings can’t stop as Hayes pops it over a downed Jimmy Howard. The puck gets in 20 seconds before the goal and bounces off Howard three times without a Wings’ player regaining possession before Hayes knocks in a rebound. Kyle Quincey will be cleared on this play. He’s actually doing a solid job this entire time. Andersson loses a board battle and will get a half-minus. Miller gets caught way too low which allows the puck to come back high with too much room to work. Miller will get a minus. DeKeyser also gets a minus for his failure to cover Hayes. Howard’s rebound control here contributes as well.
2nd Period 12:21 – Florida Goal: Sean Bergenheim (wrist shot) from Jussi Jokinen and Brad Boyes
The Wings fall behind on another monkey circus shift in their own zone as Bergenheim finds a loose puck in front and slides it into the net. After bad passes from both D-Men in their own zone, Sheahan gets cute along the boards by turning the puck deeper to try and escape the forecheck. The puck is swept off his stick and a low 2-on-1 develops which is broken up just before Jokinen finds Bergenheim coming late for a pass out front. Howard is challenging aggressively to the side and has no chance to recover. Tatar will be cleared here. Nyquist gets a half-minus for coming back on Jokinen but not being in the right lane. Quincey and DeKeyser each get a half-minus for the bad passing in their own zone. Sheahan will get a turnover minus and a coverage minus for his failure to pick up Bergenheim.
3rd Period 00:27 – Florida Goal: Vincent Trocheck (wrist shot) from Jimmy Hayes
Florida gets an early goal int he third off a gift from Brendan Smith right out front. Smith flubs a scoring opportunity and gets it back skating into his own zone as Kronwall helps give him space. Smith is chased by Hayes and turns it over to him out front. Hayes goes to Trocheck, who dekes out Howard to score. Minuses cleared for Datsyuk, Jurco, Zetterberg, and Kronwall. Smith will get a turnover minus and a coverage minus. Cardinal mistake here.
3rd Period 08:00 – Florida goal: Aaron Ekblad (slapshot) from Jonathan Huberdeau and Vincent Trocheck
Florida pours it on with a puck-luck goal that just kind of happens when you’re living right. A desperation keep-in attempt by Helm gets picked off and the Panthers enter 3-on-3, giving them time and space to establish the zone. A cross-ice pass attempt up high bounces off Franzen’s skate straight to Ekblad in shooting position. He winds up and fires through traffic to see the puck deflect in off Nyquist’s stick. Ericsson and DeKeyser will be cleared. They’re watching their coverages, but get let down by the forwards. Nyquist will get a half-minus for deflecting it into his own net.
3rd Period 09:32 – Detroit Goal: Pavel Datsyuk (wrist shot) from Tomas Jurco and Jakub Kindl
The Wings try to make it respectable with a great shift by the top line that ends up in an ugly/pretty goal. An accidental self-clear comes back in quickly to Jurco, who plays give-and-go before driving to a shooting position and firing. Luongo can’t hold onto it and in the ensuing scrum, Sean Bergenheim plays it straight to Datsyuk to pot it over a downed goalie. Jurco will get a plus for good hustle, Datsyuk a half-plus.
3rd Period 19:01 – Detroit Goal: Gustav Nyquist (wrist shot) from Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg
The Wings pull within one on an empty-net chance that bounces out to Nyquist out front for an easy put-away. A scrambled faceoff gets to the point, but is put back in. A blocked shot attempt by Nyquist gets to the corner for Zetterberg to recover and shovel back in front on the backhand. Franzen tips it and Luongo kicks the rebound straight to Nyquist for the goal. No adjustment.
The Penalties
1st Period 01:32 – Kyle Quincey (hooking): The Wings can’t get out of their own zone on multiple turnovers, leading to a scrum of chances out front. Somebody has to go to the box for the defense when this happens and Quincey gets chosen despite not really having committed a penalty. Instead of Quincey, I’m going to give the minus to Kronwall for the turnover.
1st Period 04:25 – Willie Mitchell (high sticking and roughing) against Johan Franzen: The Wings get their first two power plays of the game as Willie Mitchell loses his shit on Franzen playing in front of the Florida net. Mule does a good job of keeping his cool through all this. Franzen will get a plus and a half.
2nd Period 16:36 – Tomas Fleischmann (goaltender interference): This is a bad call. Fleischmann gets ridden in by DeKeyser and the ref feels bad for the losing team. No adjustment.
3rd Period 05:28 – Jonathan Huberdeau (tripping) against Jonathan Ericsson: Both players chase back on a puck dumped out of the Florida zone and Huberdeau gets his stick caught up in Ericsson’s feet. No adjustment.
Total Adjustments
| Player | GP | Official +/- | Adjusted +/- | G+ | Cov- | Turn- | Plty- | Plty+ | Chg+ | Chg- | PP+Lost | PK-Clear | GA-Clear | GSaved+ | Adj Diff |
| Joakim Andersson | 1 | -1 | -1.5 | -0.5 | -0.5 | ||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Stephen Weiss | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Johan Franzen | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | |||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | -1 | -3 | -1 | -1 | -2 | |||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | -1 | -2 | -1 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Darren Helm | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Pavel Datsyuk | 1 | 1 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1.5 | |||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | -1 | -2 | -1 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Brendan Smith | 1 | -1 | -3 | -1 | -1 | -2 | |||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | -2 | -2.5 | -1 | -0.5 | 1 | -0.5 | ||||||||
| Kyle Quincey | 1 | -2 | -1.5 | -0.5 | 1 | 0.5 | |||||||||
| Jakub Kindl | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Player | Screener’s Assists |
| Justin Abdelkader | 5 |
| Luke Glendening | 2.5 |
| Johan Franzen | 2 |
| Darren Helm | 1.5 |
| Drew Miller | 1.5 |
| Riley Sheahan | 1 |
| Tomas Jurco | 1 |
| Joakim Andersson | 0.5 |
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 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 17.96 | 62.96 | 7 | 17 | 10 | 64.8 | 38.12 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 18.73 | 65 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 61.54 | 33.14 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 15.64 | 61.54 | 6 | 16 | 10 | 60.5 | 37.82 |
| Stephen.Weiss | C | 20.29 | 66.67 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 54.68 | 27.34 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 17.56 | 64.71 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 53.15 | 28.99 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | 12.07 | 58.62 | 5 | 17 | 12 | 65.42 | 46.18 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 10.15 | 57.69 | 4 | 15 | 11 | 61.33 | 44.97 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 10.25 | 58.82 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 60.3 | 42.21 |
| Johan.Franzen | L | 7.22 | 55.56 | 3 | 15 | 12 | 63.53 | 50.82 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 6.4 | 54.55 | 3 | 18 | 15 | 58.33 | 48.6 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 2.17 | 52.17 | 1 | 12 | 11 | 60.55 | 55.5 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 50.57 | 1 | 44 | 43 | 54.99 | 53.74 | |
| Darren.Helm | CL | -0.72 | 50 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 47.54 | 47.54 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | RL | -15.56 | 39.13 | -5 | 9 | 14 | 49.28 | 76.65 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | -20.22 | 35 | -6 | 7 | 13 | 41.14 | 76.41 |
| Drew.Miller | LR | -24.3 | 31.58 | -7 | 6 | 13 | 37.53 | 81.32 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | -19.93 | 38.89 | -8 | 14 | 22 | 44.62 | 70.12 |
| Joakim.Andersson | CL | -26.72 | 30 | -8 | 6 | 14 | 40.26 | 93.94 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | -24.67 | 36.11 | -10 | 13 | 23 | 50.32 | 89.03 |
This game was largely a score effects derby in favor of the Wings, so this only really matches the eye test in how bad the 4th line looked.
| Name | Pos | Off ZS % | OffZoneStart | NeuZoneStart | DefZoneStart |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 77.78 | 7 | 8 | 2 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | 77.78 | 7 | 8 | 2 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 75 | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| Stephen.Weiss | C | 72.73 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 70 | 7 | 9 | 3 |
| Darren.Helm | CL | 64.29 | 9 | 3 | 5 |
| Johan.Franzen | L | 63.64 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 61.11 | 11 | 9 | 7 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 54.05 | 20 | 19 | 17 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 53.33 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 50 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 42.86 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 41.67 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 40 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 37.5 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | RL | 36.36 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Drew.Miller | LR | 16.67 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Joakim.Andersson | CL | 16.67 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 14.29 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
Too many passengers getting good starts here.
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
Every pairing had a dogshit defenseman on it. Kronwall, Smith, Quincey, and Kindl were all very bad. Ericsson and DeKeyser weren’t actually good either. I can’t believe that Justin Abdelkader has this big of an effect on the lines. At least Jurco looked very good.
Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca
