Detroit Red Wings Game Analysis, After-Action Report for Tuesday Jan 6th: Detroit Red Wings 4 – Edmonton Oilers 2

The Wings flew into Edmonton looking to avoid their first back-to-back regulation losses of the season. They managed to pull it off with a 4-2 win that was a bit closer than it should have been.

Box Score Here

The reffing standard got off to a bad start with ticky-tack calls and then never really found its footing. It’s probably fair to say that Detroit deserved to have more power play chances than Edmonton, but I don’t know if they should have had twice as many (especially considering the most-egregious missed call in this game was a trip by Tomas Tatar). The Wings gave up a PP goal for the third straight game (1/3 for Edmonton), but won the special teams battle by going 3-for-6 with the man advantage. Shots were 41-23 in favor of the Wings.

Howard wasn’t severely tested, but he gave up two goals on what were two of the Oilers‘ best scoring chances. I think the first is one he’d like back, but he did make a number of good saves. Viktor Fasth had a pretty good night for Edmonton in his loss.

Guide to plus/minus adjustments

The Goals

1st Period 15:29 – Edmonton Goal (PP): Jordan Eberle (wrist shot) from Jeff Petry and Anton Lander
The Oilers strike first on a power play goal as Eberle finds room to walk to the near post and roof it over Howard. The Wings kill off the 5-on-3 portion of this advantage and then get a clear with 50 seconds left on the DeKeyser penalty, but Edmonton brings it back in and gets set up. Lander holds off Miller at the half-wall on a dumped-around puck, getting it to Petry at the point. Petry immediately fires it down low to Eberle who is wide open in the corner. Quincey chases down low and Smith takes up position at the top of the crease to block the passing lane to Yakupov on the back door and Eberle’s path across. Eberle walks to the side of the crease and just as Howard starts leaning to worry about the low shot to the far post, Eberle roofs it into the hole Howard makes in doing that move. This is a tough goal to give up and a hell of a snipe. I’m going to give Quincey a minus on this coverage though. He’s too far up the boards and too close to the boards here. He should be in position to keep Eberle off the doorstep and he wasn’t.

2nd Period 10:45 – Detroit Goal: Kyle Quincey (wrist shot) from Justin Abdelkader
Detroit ties it up as Kyle Quincey channels his inner Orr and snipes it top shelf on Fasth. The play starts as Smith dumps it high from his own zone across the Edmonton blue line for Abdelkader to chase in on. Schultz takes up good position to keep Abby away from it and take the puck, but Abdelkader relentlessly pursues him and forces Schultz to try to dump it off the boards to outlet. The bounce-pass idea is a dumb one and Abdelkader recovers at the half-wall. As Schultz angles Abby to the corner, the Piano-mover softly dumps it to the trapezoid, giving himself the space to get past Schultz (or draw an interference call). Klefbom lets Abby go behind the net in favor of watching the rear post for a wrap-around, giving Abdelkader space to come back out in the corner and skate all the way to the half-wall on the other side before doing a crossover drop-pass to Quincey jumping up in the play. Quincey cuts off the boards to the faceoff dot and tries a shot that Klefbom blocks. However, the puck bounces off Klefbom’s skate into the slot where Quincey’s momentum carries him right back onto the puck. Q gets to it and immediately fires over Fasth to tie it up. I’m going to give DeKeyser’s plus back to Smith on this play. Smith had an actual hand in how this developed, DK did not. Aside from that, Abdelkader will get a plus for being the one-man forecheck here. Good play by Abby.

2nd Period 18:29 – Detroit Goal (PP): Justin Abdelkader (tip in) from Niklas Kronwall and Pavel Datsyuk
Detroit takes the lead late in the 2nd on a quick Holmstromian power play goal. Datsyuk and Gordon stalemate on the opening draw of the power play, but Franzen gets a good jump and is able to get to the loose puck first, circling to the outside and dishing to Kronwall at the point. Kronner immediately goes across to Zetterberg at the top of the opposite-side circle to set up the umbrella as Abdelkader goes to the front of the net. Z goes right back to Kronwall, who immediately turns and feeds it to Datsyuk high above the original faceoff circle with lots of space. Datsyuk taps it right back to Kronwall now at the right point and with a lane to one-time the puck off the Datsyuk feed. Kronwall’s shot gets to the front of the net where Abdelkader tips it down and under Fasth for the goal. Franzen will get a half-plus for the excellent hustle to gain control on the faceoff.

3rd Period 15:55 – Edmonton Goal: Jordan Eberle (one-timer) from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall
Edmonton ties it late in the third on a pretty cross-ice pass for a one-timer for Eberle’s second of the night. The play starts with Edmonton winning a faceoff in the Detroit end after their second decent scoring chance in a span of 20 seconds. Glendening recovers a dumped-in puck and tries to bounce it up to Datsyuk, but has it picked off by Eberle who dumps it back below the net. Quincey picks off the puck and feeds it around the boards, but Nikitin pinches in and beats Datsyuk to the puck, throwing it to the front where it’s blocked off back to the corner. Nugent-Hopkins collects and plays give-and-go with Hall to make a bit of space down in the corner while Quincey, Glendening, and Dasyuk hold off that side. Nugent-Hopkins skates strongly to the near post from behind the icing line as Glendening races to cut him off and DeKeyser watches at the top of the crease, but nobody is able to stop the pass that Nugget-Bumpkin threads across the ice to Eberle swirling back around to the far side circle. Eberle one-times it as Howard slides across his crease and it’s a tie game. No minuses cleared on this play as every player had some level of responsibility. Glendening will get a half-minus for losing the faceoff cleanly. Other than that, Helm will get a minus for losing his coverage of Eberle. With Nikitin pinching on the left side, Eberle becomes the right-side point-man. This is Helm’s coverage responsibility. I don’t necessarily like the pass going through DeKeyser at the net-front, but DK has to watch the middle of the ice where Datsyuk is just starting to hand off coverage of Taylor Hall. DK has to have his stick in the slot lane, which gives Ted Nugent-Pumpkin the cross-ice lane.

3rd Period 19:26 – Detroit Goal (PP): Pavel Datsyuk (bouncy bouncy) from Justin Abdelkader and Henrik Zetterberg
The Wings retake the lead late in the third as Datsyuk has a centering pass knocked in by the OIlers. Zetterberg and Datsyuk combine to get the zone entry and setup with less than a minute to go in the third period. A Datsyuk centering pass from the low side gets blocked and Pavs retrieves in the corner, dumping it to Nyquist below the net under pressure. Nyquist feeds to Z on the outside of the circle on the opposite end. Z takes a step and then feeds it across the ice. Abdelkader tips the puck from the top of the crease to Datsyuk at the bottom of the other circle. Datsyuk reels it in on the backhand as Fasth moves over to square to him. Mark Fayne has to leave Zetterberg to get over on Datsyuk immediately, so Abby is able to turn facing the net with his stick on the ice at the back door. Fayne goes down to block the centering pass, but only deflects it a little as it heads to the crease. As the puck finds its way towards Abdelkader, Matt Hendricks collapses in on the play trying to cut it off. Unfortunately for the Oilers, Hendricks’ idea of cutting it off involves jamming it into his own net. Datsyuk gets the game-winner. This is a good setup by the Wings, but no adjustment here. Asking for luck like this is something the power play should be doing at all times.

3rd Period 19:57 – Detroit Goal (PP, EN): Luke Glendening (wrist shot) from Drew Miller
Luke Glendning scores the first power play goal of his career because hahahaha. The Oilers win a faceoff just outside the Detroit blue line with 13 seconds left to go and their goalie already pulled as they try to pull even. As Derek Roy tries to make a pass to Taylor Hall at the blue line for a crossover zone entry, Miller gets his stick in to block the pass and then bats it out of midair over his own shoulder to clear the zone where Glendening is already headed. Luke makes sure to gain the center stripe before making an attempt on net. Glenny hits the open net and it’s game over. Even though the goal is meaningless, I’m going to give Miller a half-plus for the excellent zone entry breakup which led to this one.

The Penalties

1st Period 10:12 – Teddy Purcell (hooking) against Kyle Quincey: The Wings get the first power play of the game as Quincey is battling in the corner to keep the puck away from Purcell and gets hooked off the puck. I don’t think this is a very strong call, but Quincey is doing good work along the boards here. Quincey will get a half-plus.

1st Period 12:51 – Luke Glendening (cross-checking) against Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: A bench-front scrum where a couple guys knock people over leads to a cross-checking penalty on Glendening for being the last guy caught doing it. It’s as weak as the first one, but it’s definitely a cross-check. Glendening will get a minus.

1st Period 13:58 – Danny DeKeyser (puck over glass): Edmonton gets a 53-second 5-on-3 thanks to DK clearing it out of his own zone and over the glass in the Edmonton zone. Minus for DeKeyser. Can’t do this shit.

2nd Period 01:23 – Nikita Nikitin (delay of game): Hey its a puck over glass penalty. No adjustment.

2nd Period 07:02 – Matt Hendricks (closing hand on puck): Hendricks pulls a puck out of the air and then picks it up as Ericsson barrels in on him. It’s a dumb play by Hendricks, but Ericsson will get a half-plus for forcing the play.

2nd Period 18:20 – Jordan Eberle (tripping) against Gustav Nyquist: Goose gets a break into the Edmonton zone and Eberle chops his leg out from under him to stop it. Nyquist will get a plus and Abdelkader a half-plus for making this happen.

3rd Period 02:25 – Johan Franzen (hooking) against Teddy Purcell: The Wings go shorthanded as an Oilers threat to get the puck in the middle of their zone causes him to reach out with his stick and take down his man. Franzen will get a minus.

3rd Period 17:21 – Benoit Pouliot (spearing double-minor) against Jonathan Ericsson: Pouliot loses his mind and jabs Ericsson in his little Riggy shifter behind the Wings’ net, earning himself a sit-down. No adjustment. I feel badly for Ericsson, but he didn’t exactly draw a dick-chop.

Total Adjustments

Full Season Chart Here

Possession Metrics

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

No negative Corsi players tells the story pretty well here. The pace differences were also pretty good for most of the team, who suppressed shot attempts well outside of the 4th line, who made up for it by providing a good number of attempts themselves. There was a bit of line juggling late as Jurco didn’t play in the third period due to back spasms. As far as puck control numbers, I think these do a pretty good job in matching the eye test. For dangerous players, I think Tatar might be a bit underserved considering how many good chances he got.

Just ten defensive zone starts for the Wings in this one and Kronwall saw a majority of them while stilll being over 50%. Glendening saw half of those defensive zone starts and… well he wasn’t over 50%.

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

Final Say

The result was deserved for the Wings, but they’ve got to do better at putting these kinds of games away quicker. This one very easily could have gone to OT or a shootout. I was happy to see a defenseman scoring after jumping into the zone. I want to see that more often.

Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca