The Red Wings beat the Flyers in Detroit 5-2 thanks to a good recovery from a slow start. Datsyuk helped in his return and Weiss stayed hot. This was a fun game.
The refs also had a rough start to this game and they let a lot of stuff go over the course of the game. There was a fair amount of interference on both sides. Philly went 1-for-4 on the power play with Detroit going 1-for-3. Third period score effects brought the final shot count to 25-24 in favor of the Wings.
Howard had a solid game in this one, playing strong when the team needed him. The deflection on the first goal against makes it a bit more understandable, although I still wish he had stopped it.
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
The Goals
1st Period 10:12 – Detroit Goal: Stephen Weiss (tip in) from Darren Helm and Jakub Kindl
The Wings get outplayed for the first ten minutes and then get on the scoreboard first with a simple play off an offensive zone faceoff win. Datsyuk wins this puck two times, as the initial faceoff is picked up by Helm, but then left for Pavel to go to Kindl at the point to set up the zone. Read challenges Kindl while Pavel & Couturier remain tied up to the top of the circle. Kindl goes off the boards to Helm who pulls it to the dot and then fires it on net. Weiss is already there in established position and he tips the puck under Mason for the goal. Datsyuk, Helm, and Kindl will all get a half-plus for smart plays to create a scoring chance.
2nd Period 02:31 – Philadelphia Goal: Claude Giroux (snap shot) unassisted
Philly ties it on a snipe of a shot by a guy who shouldn’t be given room to walk to the top of the circles. The play happens as the forwards forecheck aggressively to keep Philly from creating transition up ice. Eventually, they’re forced to dump it out of the zone where DeKeyser picks it up. Trying to immediately restart the forecheck, DK throws it cross-ice from the center stripe where Giroux blocks it in stride and heads into the zone. Caught a bit flat-footed by the turnover, Quincey is forced to let Giroux into the zone with space to walk to the top of the circle. Q keeps his stick near the lane as he angles to make sure Giroux doesn’t turn the corner, but isn’t in perfect position as the Philly captain snaps a shot off Quincey’s foot that beats Howard. I’m going to clear the forwards here: Sheahan, Tatar, and Franzen. Quincey will keep his minus for not defusing this play, but the big error here is on DeKeyser, who will get a turnover minus for making a bad pass when he had other options.
2nd Period 10:18 – Detroit Goal: Tomas Jurco (wrist shot) from Danny DeKeyser and Kyle Quincey
The fourth line puts the Wings back in the lead as Jurco grabs his own rebound and puts it through traffic. The Flyers are moving out of their zone with the puck as Glendening disrupts a pass to Read. The puck still gets there, but this slows down transition enough to get Jurco on the ice on the last of a line change and to get the defense back. Read is forced to dump it in because of this, but he doesn’t get it all the way deep. Quincey gets it on the half-wall and passes to DeKeyser to get around Lecavalier forechecking. DK comes out from behind his own net to fire a pass up ice to Jurco at the center stripe, made open by a Flyers line change. Jurco enters on the left wing side with Miller taking the center lane. Jurco is turned away by MacDonald before he gets to the corner while Glendening also skates down low through the center lane. As Jurco spins back up ice, Rinaldo pinches on him, giving room to go to DeKeyser at the point. DK walks it one step in to create a lane and fires it on net. The rebound comes out into the low circle and Jurco wins the race to the puck, slamming it into the open net. This is a really well-constructed play from the start. Glendening will get a half-plus for disrupting transition in the neutral zone. Quincey will get a half-plus for disrupting the dump-in. DeKeyser will get a half-plus for the excellent outlet pass. Drew Miller will get the screener’s assist. Both he and Glendening are taking up space at the net-front, but Miller is the only one in the sight lines.
2nd Period 11:47 – Detroit Goal (PP): Pavel Datsyuk (wrist shot) from Jakub Kindl
Datsyuk puts a power play goal through that ends Mason’s night off a good faceoff win. Datsyuk slides it cleanly back to Kindl, who takes it to the middle of the ice to set up the umbrella while Weiss hands out in the high slot and Sheahan goes to the net front. Kindl goes back to Datsyuk circling around halfway between the blue line and the top of the circle. Pavs finishes his swoop and snipes it through a Sheahan screen. Datsyuk will get a half-plus for the great faceoff win. Sheahan will get a screener’s assist.
2nd Period 18:39 – Detroit Goal: Pavel Datsyuk (bunt) from Darren Helm and Stephen Weiss
Pavs gives the Wings a three-goal cushion on a rebound off the post that bounces straight to him for a mid-air bunt into the net. Datsyuk gets this started with another clean faceoff win that Weiss pushes back to the point for the zone setup. Ericsson moves toward the middle and then goes back to Weiss, who tries throwing it down low only to have that blocked. The puck bounces back to Riggy who just resets it right back to Weiss. With Helm still battling at the net-front and Datsyuk circling around behind the cage, Weiss again fires a purposeful shot to the traffic in front. The biscuit doesn’t get to the net, but it kicks off to the side where Helm gets to it first for a quick shot attempt that hits off the post and bounces up in the air. The puck lands just outside of the crease on the far side as Datsyuk arrives. Emery tries to get over, but he’s not quick enough to stop Datsyuk from bunting it in. There’s another half-plus here for Datsyuk on the faceoff win.
3rd Period 12:25 – Philadelphia Goal (PP): Jakub Voracek (wrist shot) from Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux
The Flyers get a quick goal on the power play as a backdoor pass finds Voracek all alone against a scrambling PK. The puck comes to the outside of the circle off the faceoff and Simmonds beats DeKeyser to it to get it to the point and set up the power play. Voracek goes point-to-point for Streit, who feeds it down to Giroux at the half-wall. Giroux walks it toward the dot to freeze up the PKers before passing it to Simmonds alone in front. Simmonds turns and throws blindly to the back door where Voracek waits. With the empty net, Voracek puts it home. I‘m going to give DeKeyser a minus for a combination of losing the race to the loose puck on the faceoff and not stopping the play to Voracek on the back door.
3rd Period 18:38 – Detroit Goal (EN): Henrik Zetterberg (wrist shot) from Gustav Nyquist and Jonathan Ericsson
The Wings salt it away with an empty-netter by the hungriest scorer on the team. Philly gains the zone and has one shot attempt blocked high before they recover and get another. This time, the shot from Giroux gets on net and Howard blocks it wide with the pad. Voracek gets it at the extremely sharp angle and throws it back toward the front of the net. The puck gets through Schenn’s skates and Zetterberg settles it. Schenn gets on him immediately as he skates to the wall, so Zetterberg passes back to Ericsson coming toward the corner with space. Riggy throws it up off the glass trying to get a clear, but it’s knocked down by Giroux. The Philly Captain can’t control it though and it bounces out to Nyquist leaving the zone with Abdelkader already up at center and Zetterberg joining along the boards. Nyquist passes to Zetterberg, who skates it into the Flyers’ zone with Abdelkader joining for a 2-on-1 before he throws it into the empty net. Good play here by both Zetterberg and Ericsson. Each will get a half-plus.
The Penalties
1st Period 01:28 – Jonathan Ericsson (tripping) against Wayne Simmonds: The Wings give up a good scoring opportunity and take a penalty as Ericsson takes his man down at the side of the net to prevent a second chance. Minus for Ericsson.
1st Period 13:08 – Henrik Zetterberg (holding) against Jakub Voracek: Voracek uses his big body to hold off Zetterberg and create a wraparound chance for himself. Hank holds on a bit and gets to sit for it. Zetterberg will get a minus.
1st Period 15:35 – Michael Raffl (cross checking) against Xavier Ouellet: Simmonds is battling Sheahan behind the Detroit net when Ouellet and Raffl come in to support their teammates. Raffl supports his man by crosschecking Sheahan’s. No adjustment. Not a drawn call.
2nd Period 04:59 – Claude Giroux (interference) against Pavel Datsyuk: The Wings threaten to get an odd-man breakout as Giroux gets caught tired and steps into Datsyuk’s way to prevent it. Pavel will get a plus.
2nd Period 11:42 – Jakub Voracek (holding) against Gustav Nyquist: Detroit gets a good rush behind the Philly net that gets cut off when Voracek slows Nyquist with a grab. Plus for Nyquist.
2nd Period 12:23 – Danny DeKeyser (holding) against Wayne Simmonds: Philly almost scores immediately after the Datsyuk PP goal as DeKeyser takes Simmonds down at the far post on an odd-man rush. DeKeyser will get a minus for taking down Simmonds, but I’m going to give Quincey a minus as well. He makes a bad pinch which leads to the odd-man rush which leads to this penalty.
2nd Period 14:53 – Kyle Quincey and Sean Couturier (fighting): Hahaha this is a dumb boring fight. No adjustment.
3rd Period 12:13 – Niklas Kronwall (holding) against Jakub Voracek: Kronner fails to get a puck out of the zone and immediately recognizes how troublesome that is, so he tackles Voracek on his way to the net-front. Kronwall will get a minus. It’s not a bad decision here, but it’s a decision created by a bad play by Kronwall.
Total Adjustments
| Player | GP | Official +/- | Adjusted +/- | G+ | Cov- | Turn- | Plty- | Plty+ | Chg+ | Chg- | PP+Lost | PK-Clear | GA-Clear | GSaved+ | Adj Diff |
| Justin Abdelkader | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | -1 | -0.5 | |||||||||
| Stephen Weiss | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Johan Franzen | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Darren Helm | 1 | 2 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||||||||
| Pavel Datsyuk | 1 | 2 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 1 | 2.5 | |||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | 2 | 1 | -1 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | 2 | 1.5 | 0.5 | -1 | -0.5 | |||||||||
| Xavier Ouellet | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | -2.5 | 0.5 | -1 | -1 | -1 | -2.5 | ||||||||
| Kyle Quincey | 1 | -0.5 | 0.5 | -1 | -0.5 | ||||||||||
| Jakub Kindl | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 20.64 | 57.89 | 3 | 11 | 8 | 46.7 | 33.96 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 20.67 | 55.56 | 3 | 15 | 12 | 56.37 | 45.09 |
| Drew.Miller | L | 17.09 | 55.56 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 42.91 | 34.33 |
| Tomas.Jurco | R | 13.32 | 52.94 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 44.57 | 39.61 |
| Stephen.Weiss | R | 13.87 | 54.55 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 45.38 | 37.82 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 10.87 | 50 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 44.67 | 44.67 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 0 | 42.86 | -2 | 6 | 8 | 29.53 | 39.37 |
| Johan.Franzen | R | 0 | 42.86 | -2 | 6 | 8 | 41.54 | 55.38 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | C | 0 | 42.86 | -2 | 6 | 8 | 30.84 | 41.11 |
| Darren.Helm | L | -3.64 | 40 | -3 | 6 | 9 | 33.44 | 50.15 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | -8.93 | 35.71 | -4 | 5 | 9 | 34.38 | 61.89 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | L | -2.84 | 40.91 | -4 | 9 | 13 | 36.24 | 52.35 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | -6.94 | 37.5 | -4 | 6 | 10 | 37.66 | 62.77 |
| Xavier.Ouellet | D | -11 | 35 | -6 | 7 | 13 | 26.2 | 48.65 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | R | -9.47 | 36.36 | -6 | 8 | 14 | 31.75 | 55.57 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | -13.11 | 34.62 | -8 | 9 | 17 | 28.51 | 53.85 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | -10.83 | 36.67 | -8 | 11 | 19 | 37.18 | 64.23 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 42.86 | -10 | 30 | 40 | 37.24 | 49.66 | |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | C | -21.53 | 29.63 | -11 | 8 | 19 | 28.08 | 66.7 |
Aside from the Zetterberg line, I’m not terribly concerned about the majority of the team being negative here thanks to the score effects. Detroit was actually carrying play through the first two periods. Matchup-wise, Zetterberg got killed by Giroux in this one. The Sheahan line faced off mostly against Raffl-Laughton-Simmonds. Datsyuk’s line saw a bit more mixing than the other lines, as they also saw more of Giroux than anybody else. Finally, the shutdown fourth just got to take it kind of easy against easier Flyers competition.
| Name | Pos | Off ZS % | OffZoneStart | NeuZoneStart | DefZoneStart |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 55.56 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Stephen.Weiss | R | 50 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 50 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
| Johan.Franzen | R | 50 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | C | 50 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Darren.Helm | L | 50 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 50 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Xavier.Ouellet | D | 46.15 | 6 | 9 | 7 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 42.86 | 3 | 9 | 4 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 36.67 | 11 | 23 | 19 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 33.33 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
| Drew.Miller | L | 28.57 | 2 | 6 | 5 |
| Tomas.Jurco | R | 28.57 | 2 | 6 | 5 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 25 | 2 | 7 | 6 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 22.22 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 20 | 2 | 5 | 8 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | L | 16.67 | 1 | 8 | 5 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | R | 14.29 | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | C | 14.29 | 1 | 8 | 6 |
The chart once again showed that nobody won any faceoffs for the Wings, so I just cut those columns out.
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
Opposing teams are going to have trouble if they have to focus on the Zetterberg line and the Wings will still have Datsyuk, Tatar, and Jurco all on unique lines.
Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca
