The Red Wings lost a shootout in a game they dominated. Sometimes games like this happen. Hats off to James Reimer for one hell of a performance.
I thought the refs were consistent in this game for the most part. The only problem I had was that using one’s hand to cover the puck wasn’t a penalty both times it happened. I’m not terribly broken up about that. The refs did their jobs for the most part and didn’t try to create a narrative for the game. That’s a good thing. Both teams had four PP opportunities and neither team scored on the man advantage. Shots were 42-19 in favor of Detroit.
James Reimer stopped an assload of shots. Jimmy Howard stopped a bunch himself. Then came the shootout. Blame Howard for not getting the second point if you want. Doesn’t matter.
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
The Goals
2nd Period 17:52 – Detroit Goal: Gustav Nyquist (backhand) from Tomas Jurco and Henrik Zetterberg
The Wings finally get the goal they’ve deserved all game on a pretty passing play that ends with Nyquist spinning one in around a downed James Reimer. Gardiner pinches in to the Wings’ zone, but loses the puck to DeKeyser behind the net. DK tries pushing it up the boards, but it deflects off a Toronto stick right out front. Here, Zetterberg makes a heady play to cut off the lone Leaf in front and let Quincey get the puck for an outlet to Nyquist gaining speed up the ice. Goose leads the way into the zone trailed by Zetterberg and Jurco in a 3-on-3 rush. A drop pass to Z leads to an immediate pass up to Jurco cutting to the net. Kadri forces Jurco wide where he has to chase the puck to the opposite corner. As he gets there, Joffrey Lupul decides to play the body and not the puck, allowing Jurco to push it up to the point before absorbing contact. DK goes cross-ice to Zetterberg, who is watched by two players as he backs to the point. This gives Jurco enough time to recover from the Lupul hit and head to the back door with a step on his man. Zetterberg finds him with a pass for a one-time attempt that Reimer gets over to stop. The rebound comes straight to Nyquist up front, who spins it into the net. Henrik Zetterberg makes two good plays on this sequence in the defensive cancellation in front of Howard and then the pass to Jurco. Z will get a plus and a half. Jurco’s hustle will also earn him a half-plus.
3rd Period 05:09 – Toronto Goal: Phil Kessel (tip-in) from James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak
Toronto ties it up early in the third as JVR finds Kessel flying to the back door for an easy tip-in. The play starts behind the Toronto net as Reilly makes a good play to keep Helm away from a tipped-in puck. At one point, Tatar comes over to take over, but Reilly maintains good positioning and is eventually able to block off Tatar enough to push it to Bozak up the corner. With Datsyuk coming in on him, Bozak just throws it up to the middle of the ice. van Riemsdyk tips it above the top of the circle and the change in direction moves the puck through Jonathan Ericsson’s skates as he tries to step up and keep the puck in. This allows JVR to pick it up and get all the way to the top of the circle in the WIngs’ zone as Ericsson backchecks on him. Phil Kessel jumps in on this rush as Danny DeKeyser watches the middle lane. Riggy plays JVR to the outside, but the Leafs’ forward fends him off long enough to get to the outside hash marks and throw the puck to the front. DK isn’t prepared for this pass and by the time it gets there, it’s too late for him to try and stop Kessel from poking it in. The only minus I”m going to clear on this play is Datsyuk, who played his position appropriately. I don’t like both Helm and Tatar losing their board battle against one guy here, so they’ll both keep minuses. Ericsson and DeKeyser will each pick up a coverage minus. This is a nothing play that turned into a goal because of mistakes by defensemen.
Goal-saved adjustment – Overtime 03:25: The Leafs get a rush into the Wings’ zone and try to feed Jake Gardiner jumping into the play. Datsyuk makes a good move to keep him to the outside as he weakly throws it to JVR on the doorstep. Instead of trying to control, van Riemsdyk redirects it on Howard. The puck bounces weirdly as Howard reaches down for it and eventually ends up behind him with momentum toward the empty net. Fortunately, Gustav Nyquist comes in and pushes it back under his goalie before it can slide in, saving a goal. Nyquist will get a goal-saved plus.
The Penalties
1st Period 15:49 – Dion Phaneuf (interference) against Tomas Jurco: The Wings get through center with good speed and create a shot on net with Jurco making traffic. Phaneuf takes him out of the play to limit the chance and sits for it. Jurco will earn a plus for this.
1st Period 16:30 – Tomas Tatar (slashing) against Daniel Winnik: Winnik gets a shorthanded break which forces Tatar to come back on him. Tats can’t catch him on time and takes a slash as he bats at Winnik’s glove. Minus for Tatar.
2nd Period 09:19 – Riley Sheahan (hooking) against David Booth: The Wings can’t get out of their own zone and -Sheahan gets caught flat-footed by Booth behind the Wings’ net as a result. Sheahan sits and gets a minus.
2nd Period 10:09 – Danny DeKeyser (closing hand on the puck) against the puck: DK toe-picks himself trying to get a clear while shorthanded and closes his hand on the puck to try and prevent a turnover. This isn’t allowed. DeKeyser will get a minus. Such a stupid penalty to take.
2nd Period 11:58 – Joffrey Lupul (boarding) against Kyle Quincey: The Leafs’ PP blows a big opportunity thanks to some heroic PK work by the Wings. Quincey gets a loose puck for the second time on the same shift and smartly wastes time before clearing it. Lupul blasts Quincey in the numbers for his trouble and gets a penalty for boarding. Quincey will earn a plus for his work here. The delay makes this happen.
3rd Period – Nazem Kadri (clipping) against Luke Glendening: The Wings get another power play as Kadri makes a dirty hit against Glendening, taking out his legs. No adjustment on this. Just a dirty dirty play.
3rd Period 12:22 – Dion Phaneuf (slashing) against Pavel Datsyuk: After a Leafs chance, Datsyuk takes it up ice and takes it up a gear to get behind Phaneuf, creating a slashing call on his way to a scoring chance. Datsyuk will get a plus.
Overtime 04:03 – Niklas Kronwall (goaltender interference): After a shot on net, Kronwall fails to not run the hell over Reimer and goes to the box. Minus for Kronwall. What a stupid penalty.
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 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | 1 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||||||||||
| Stephen Weiss | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Johan Franzen | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | -1 | -2 | -1 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | |||||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | 1 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1.5 | |||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Darren Helm | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Pavel Datsyuk | 1 | -1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | -1 | -2 | -1 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Brendan Smith | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | -2 | -1 | -1 | -2 | ||||||||||
| Kyle Quincey | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Jakub Kindl | 1 | 0 | 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 |
| 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.
| ame | Pos | Corsi Rel% | Corsi% | Corsi+/- | CorsiFor | CorsiAgn | CorsiFor60 | CorsiAgn60 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 76.32 | 40 | 58 | 18 | 72.07 | 22.37 | |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 6.09 | 80 | 18 | 24 | 6 | 81.47 | 20.37 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | RL | 19.57 | 90.48 | 17 | 19 | 2 | 88.49 | 9.31 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | -0.99 | 75.76 | 17 | 25 | 8 | 72.41 | 23.17 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 0.58 | 76.67 | 16 | 23 | 7 | 99.82 | 30.38 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 3.57 | 78.57 | 16 | 22 | 6 | 76.12 | 20.76 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 6.77 | 80.77 | 16 | 21 | 5 | 80.77 | 19.23 |
| Darren.Helm | CL | 2.27 | 77.78 | 15 | 21 | 6 | 103.92 | 29.69 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | -2.08 | 75 | 14 | 21 | 7 | 105.51 | 35.17 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 9.2 | 83.33 | 12 | 15 | 3 | 83.14 | 16.63 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 12.9 | 86.67 | 11 | 13 | 2 | 77.36 | 11.9 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | -0.17 | 76.19 | 11 | 16 | 5 | 55.71 | 17.41 |
| Johan.Franzen | L | -5.36 | 72.22 | 8 | 13 | 5 | 64.42 | 24.78 |
| Stephen.Weiss | C | 0.73 | 76.92 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 53.93 | 16.18 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | -15.36 | 65 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 52.29 | 28.16 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | -5.99 | 71.43 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 61.02 | 24.41 |
| Drew.Miller | LR | -11.46 | 66.67 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 45.53 | 22.77 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | -20.33 | 60 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 46.59 | 31.06 |
| Joakim.Andersson | CL | -14.83 | 63.64 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 38.01 | 21.72 |
LOL this chart.
| Name | Pos | Off ZS % | OffZoneStart | NeuZoneStart | DefZoneStart |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 100 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 88.89 | 8 | 5 | 1 |
| Johan.Franzen | L | 88.89 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 88.89 | 8 | 3 | 1 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 88.89 | 8 | 3 | 1 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 87.5 | 7 | 9 | 1 |
| Stephen.Weiss | C | 87.5 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | RL | 80 | 8 | 5 | 2 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 80 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 80 | 8 | 5 | 2 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 77.78 | 21 | 17 | 6 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 77.78 | 7 | 9 | 2 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 66.67 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 62.5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Darren.Helm | CL | 62.5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | 62.5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 60 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Drew.Miller | LR | 0 | 5 | 0 | |
| Joakim.Andersson | CL | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Detroit took six faceoffs in front of Jimmy Howard at even strength. Six.
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
Crumple this one up, folks. Puck luck doesn’t always work this way.
Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca
