The Red Wings headed into Newark for a post-Thanksgiving game in which they’d try to earn their first three-game winning streak of the season. After going down 4-1, the Wings pulled it off in a shootout to put it together 5-4.
I did not like the refs in this game. I usually don’t, but I didn’t here either. Both teams went 2/4 on the power play and the Wings outshot the Devils 32-25.
Petr Mrazek was the kind of adventure you can only get by drinking out of bottles you dig out of your backyard. He was absolutely terrifying, especially on a floaty wrister in overtime that he almost let through him. However, once the shootout came around, he was all business, so that’s nice.
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
The Goals
1st Period 02:18 – New Jersey Goal: Jaromir Jagr (wrist shot) from Andy Greene and Damon Severson
The Devils get a 4-on-4 goal on a shot that breaks Mrazek’s mask, creating an opportunity for Jagr to jam the rebound in. Zetterberg gets tossed from the circle in the offensive zone and Nyquist loses the faceoff for the Devils to skate around to the opposite corner and set up the breakout. This comes as Z pinches Severson off at the half-wall, forcing a cross-ice pass to Greene crossing his own blue line on the left wing side. Nyquist is watching the middle lane, so Greene gets by him at center and all the way to the top of the faceoff circle before Ouellet gets over to challenge. Greene fires from just above the dot and the puck hits Mrazek in the mask above the crease before bouncing down just to his left. As Mrazek shakes off his broken mask, Jagr beats all other traffic to the puck and pokes it home. No minuses cleared here on the 4-on-4 play. The problem plays belong to the forwards here. The offensive zone faceoff loss is a problem here and I’m going to give a half-minus to both Zetterberg and Nyquist. Goose came up as a center so he shouldn’t be losing draws this cleanly, but he was put into a very bad position by Zetterberg. Nyquist is also going to earn another minus on the bad backcheck on Jagr. That’s his man this entire play and he lets him get unimpeded to the loose puck. Can’t happen.
1st Period 03:50 – Detroit Goal (PP): Riley Sheahan (tip in) from Niklas Kronwall and Henrik Zetterberg
The Wings pull even on the 4-on-3 power play as Kronwall blasts one through traffic that Sheahan tips in. On the second faceoff during this power play, Datsyuk loses the draw, but Sheahan hustles behind the net to prevent an immediate clear. This pays dividends as Datsyuk intercepts a hurried pass and recovers possession in the corner. Pavs goes to Z at the point, who plays catch with Kronwall on the opposite end. Zetterberg drags it from the umbrella point to the half-wall and then the corner as Kronwall crosses over to take the point. Z goes back up top for a one-timer by Kronwall. Sheahan is there as he jumps over the puck and deflects it just enough to get through Schneider for the goal. I’m going to give Sheahan a half-plus for the hustle to recover the lost faceoff.
1st Period 13:52 – New Jersey Goal (PP): Michael Cammalleri (snap shot) from Marek Zidlicky
The Devils take a lead as Cammalleri snipes one through a screen after extended zone time gets him open. The first failed clear comes about a minute before the goal as Quincey pinches up the wall to help Glendening, but neither can get it across the blue line, leading to a cross-ice pass that keeps the zone time alive and turns into about 30 seconds of the Devils’ cycling. Finally the Wings are able to end it as DeKeyser partially tips a pass through his area and then pinches hard to shove it up ice where Glendening gets a chance to pinch. Severson just gets to it by jamming at the puck to get it deeper but it goes over everybody’s head and lands on Quincey’s stick behind the net. Quincey has plenty of time, but wastes it letting the Devils get set. He tries to slap it out of the zone, but Cammalleri gets a stick on it to kill it enough for a keep in by Severson. This leads to a point shot by Zidlicky that goes high over the net. DeKeyser gets a chop at it in the low corner, but hits it right off Cammalleri’s feet. Camaodairy picks it up behind the net and uses a Henrique pick to make space for a pass back to Zidlicky at the point which re-sets the umbrella. Zidlicky goes to the middle while Candlelarry circles off the boards to get the pass back and walk it to the top of the circle where he fires it through a Henrique screen and in. I’m going to give Glendening a half-minus on the earlier failed clear and I’m going to give Quincey a turnover minus and a half-coverage minus for how this minute’s worth of PK time goes for him. Too much time with the puck to fail to get it out here.
1st Period 15:18 – New Jersey Goal: Peter Harrold (wrist shot) from Jaromir Jagr and Adam Henrique
An odd-man rush makes it 3-1 Devils as Peter Harrold snipes one top corner on the near side. Helm wins an offensive zone faceoff that leads to a point shot going just wide of Schneider. Zidlicky ties up with Datsyuk down low to free the puck for Henrique to move it up ice to Jagr on the inside lane (Zubrus is along the boards getting stepped into by Ericsson as the puck leaves the zone). Kronwall is back covering Jagr with Weiss also coming back on him. Jagr pulls up as center to let Henrique take the middle lane while Harrold jumps up on the right. Weiss is turning to face up ice just as Jagr saucers a pass through him over to Harrold on the far side. Helm is too far behind Harrold, Weiss is in the middle, and Kronwall is cheating to the wrong side as Harrold picks it up in full stride, walking it to the dot before sniping it over Mrazek’s glove. Datsyuk will be cleared here. He essentially gets doubled almost 200 feet away from his own goal. The coverage breakdown here is not on him. Ericsson will keep his minus, but the pinch on this play is not a bad one. This doesn’t turn into an odd-man rush until later mistakes make it one. The specific mistake is on Weiss, who needs to be covering up by going to the far side already. Weiss will get a coverage minus. I don’t like Helm losing a footrace to Harrold either, so Helm will get a half-minus. Finally, Kronwall keeps his minus, but doesn’t get extra because nobody takes Henrique up the middle after the pass to Harrold.
2nd Period 00:28 – New Jersey Goal (PP): Michael Cammalleri (slap shot) from Damon Severson and Adam Henrique
New Jersey makes it 4-1 less than a minute into the 2nd as Cammalleri blasts in a one-timer from a sharp angle. The Wings chase Jersey back on the opening faceoff, but not past their own circles. Cammalleri takes a pass at center and immediately has Kronwall stepping up on him. Canceldairy gets around Kronner and enters the zone on the right side, leaving it for Severson on the point. Severson dumps it back deep for Kindahairy and the Devils get set up on the cycle around the boards. Zidlicky sets the umbrella before going to Henrique on the left side. Henrique walks it down the ice before threading a cross-ice pass over to Severson at the top of the circle. Severson squares up for a shot to freeze everybody before going to Canadascary low in the circle for a one-timer past Mrazek. The breakdown on the play here happens on the cross-ice pass from Henrique to Severson. This is caused by Glendening not handing off coverage of Ryder in the slot and getting in the lane. This is partially caused by Ericsson on the near-side having his stick in the outside lane where there are exactly zero Devils players. I’m going to give both Ericsson and Glendening a half-minus for this screwup.
2nd Period 01:55 – Detroit Goal: Xavier Ouellet (snap shot) from Darren Helm and Stephen Weiss
Quickly after the Devils made it 4-1, the Red Wings answer on a good cycle play which finds Ouellet with room in front of the net for a cross-crease pass. After a good scoring opportunity by Ruutu, Kindl ties up Zajac to let Datsyuk get to the puck and turn up ice with it. Datsyuk saucers it over a pinch by Ryder to Ouellet joining the rush, turning it into a 3-on-2 with Helm and Weiss flanking him. Ouellet goes to Weiss just inside the blue line and Weiss softly dumps it back on him as the defense shifts for this. The puck gets to Schneider who can’t hold it at the side of the net as both Weiss and Ouellet crash in on him. As they jam away at it, the puck comes behind the net where Weiss takes up good body position on Harrold. Weiss gets pushed outside the trapezoid, but holds steady on the puck, eventually bouncing it off the end boards to Helm perfectly as Helm backs up to the bottom of the circle in good shooting position. This panics the defense, who all rush to Helm, leaving him an opportunity to hit Ouellet all alone in front. Helm makes the pass and Ouellet puts it home for his first NHL goal. I like the work of Weiss here, but I can’t in good conscience give him a bonus plus for essentially getting extremely lucky that Ruutu didn’t score on a mistake from him about 20 seconds earlier. Ouellet’s smart jump will earn him a half-plus.
GOAL-SAVED ADJUSTMENT – 2nd Period 08:47 (Drew Miller): While killing the 5-on-3, the Wings almost get the dagger goal scored against them, but for Drew Miller’s sense at getting into lanes. The Glendening-Miller-Ericsson trio had already killed more than a minute of 5-on-3 time when a pass from Zajac at the side of the net barely misses creating a goal for Michael Cammalleri. Calamari can’t handle the pass cleanly as Glendening gets back on him quickly, so he pushes the puck back over to Zajac at the side of the net. Mrazek had already slid away from that post, so he’s dead to rights here, except the split second it takes Zajac to control the puck is the time Miller needs to jam his stick into the lane and deflect the shot over the net. Miller will get a goal-saved plus for this play.
2nd Period 12:52 – Detroit Goal (PP): Justin Abdelkader (wrist shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen
Detroit pulls within one on a power play setup to find Abdelkader with space for a quick zap into the net from the doorstep. Detroit gets into the zone with only 19 seconds left on a man advantage as Z hits Nyquist on the left wing side. Goose stops up and feathers a puck forward for Zetterberg to skate into and make a backhand to Franzen wide open in front. The pass is partially deflected and Franzen misses just wide before his momentum takes him behind the net where he picks up his own missed shot and keeps his speed up coming back around the other end of the net. Mule keeps it wide to make Josefson respect the pass to the point before quickly turning at the top of the circle and making a pass to Zetterberg behind the net. Z immediately passes it to the front of the net where Abdelkader is open for a quick snapper that finds its way past Schneider. I like this power play setup, but no adjustment. This is how it should work.
3rd Period 10:07 – Detroit Goal: Drew Miller (wrist shot) from Niklas Kronwall and Tomas Jurco
The Wings finally pull even as the fourth line decides to pull some fourth line magic. Glendening comes on for Zetterberg after a dump-in and immediately makes a couple of plays which disrupt the Devils’ trip up ice. This eventually leads to Ericsson recovering in his own zone with lots of space to work with. The Wings complete the change as Riggy goes behind his own net. A pass to Glendening up the boards starts the rush, but Glendening is pinched off by a forechecker, pushing the puck to center ice for Jurco. Harrold steps up on him, so Jurco bounces the puck by him and takes Harrold away from it. Elias is the fist man on the puck, but Glendening keeps skating up through center, which pressures Elias into trying to slam it by him. Glendening blocks this and enters the Devils’ zone one-on-one with Zidlicky. Glendening takes it to the corner before sending it up to Kronwall at the point while the Wings set up in the zone. Ryder skates in on Kronwall to pressure him as Cammalleri ties up Jurco at the top of the near circle. Jurco twerks a mighty-ass into Camerajerry and receives a pass from Kronwall, who immediately steps around Ryder down the boards. Jurco makes a great play to spin it around his man to make a backhanded return pass to Kronwall. While Glendening battles in front as the screen and Miller backs to the slot, Kronwall walks it in low, using Glendening to shield himself from Zidlicky. Kronner tries to drag it to his backhand across the crease, but has the puck blocked off his stick by Harrold. As everybody drags the same way as Kronwall, Miller is already crashing straight down where he finds the puck and slams it into the open net to tie it. This is a great shift by Glendening, who will earn a plus and a half on the combination of all the plays he does right to help this one develop. Kronwall and Jurco will each earn a half-plus for their great work on the give-and-go pass.
The Penalties
1st Period 02:05 – Tomas Jurco and (roughing) and Marek Zidlicky (roughing) against each other: Net-front scrum stuff gets both guys tossed into the calm-down caddy. No adjustment.
1st Period 03:20 – Martin Havlat (hooking) against Danny DeKeyser: DeKeyser brings it out from behind his net as Havlat chases. As DK uses the net to scrape the chaser off him, Havlat reaches out with one hand to slow him down, taking a hooking call in the process. This is mostly Havlat’s mistake, but DeKeyser will get a half-plus.
1st Period 12:22 – Jakub Kindl (tripping) against Tuomo Ruutu: The Devils get it out of their zone as Ruutu spins away from Kindl at the wall and Kindl gets his stick in Ruutu’s feet. This is a bad penalty to take. Kindl will get a minus.
1st Period 18:42 – Johan Franzen (hooking) against Marek Zidlicky: Mule sits for two minutes after taking a lazy one-handed hook in the offensive zone. Minus for Franzen.
2nd Period 02:40 – Damon Severson (holding) against Gustav Nyquist: Goose dispossesses Severson in the corner and starts heading behind the net when Severson reaches out to slow him down. Nyquist will earn a plus.
2nd Period 07:35 – Kyle Quincey (slashing) against Travis Zajac: A weak-as-hell stick slash earns Quincey a sit. No adjustment. This one is brutal bad luck.
2nd Period 07:39 – Niklas Kronwall (slashing) against Travis Zajac: Kronwall gets the same penalty as Quincey and it’s 5-on-3. No adjustment again. Need to call Zajac for embellishment for dropping his stick so often.
2nd Period 10:59 – Stephen Gionta (slashing) against Gustav Nyquist: Natural hat trick for the refs calling stick slashes. At least this time it’s an actual broken stick and not a wimpy drop. No adjustment.
2nd Period 14:27 – Adam Larsson (holding) against Johan Franzen: Detroit gets another power play as New Jersey continues to step into lanes to slow people down. Franzen will get a plus.
3rd Period 00:20 – Andy Greene (interference) and Gustav Nyquist (embellishment): Eh this is an ok call. Goose gets taken to the boards away from the puck and makes sure the ref sees it. No adjustment.
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 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | -1 | -1.5 | -0.5 | -0.5 | ||||||||||
| Stephen Weiss | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | |||||||||||
| Johan Franzen | 1 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | -1 | -1.5 | -1 | -0.5 | 1 | -0.5 | ||||||||
| Darren Helm | 1 | -0.5 | -0.5 | -0.5 | |||||||||||
| Pavel Datsyuk | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 | -1 | 0.5 | |||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | -1 | -0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | -0.5 | -0.5 | -0.5 | |||||||||||
| Xavier Ouellet | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Kyle Quincey | 1 | -1.5 | -0.5 | -1 | -1.5 | ||||||||||
| Jakub Kindl | 1 | 1 | 0 | -1 | -1 |
| 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 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 14.54 | 61.9 | 5 | 13 | 8 | 53.67 | 33.03 |
| Xavier.Ouellet | D | 17.73 | 66.67 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 47.14 | 23.57 |
| Tomas.Jurco | R | 16.67 | 66.67 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 61.02 | 30.51 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 13.64 | 63.64 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 66.4 | 37.94 |
| Petr.Mrazek | G | 52.54 | 3 | 31 | 28 | 42.34 | 38.25 | |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 13.64 | 63.64 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 42.04 | 24.02 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | R | 7.27 | 58.33 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 30.94 | 22.1 |
| Drew.Miller | R | 8.98 | 60 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 60.08 | 40.06 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | C | 6.03 | 57.14 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 30.61 | 22.95 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | L | 2.46 | 54.55 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 26.95 | 22.46 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | -0.6 | 52.17 | 1 | 12 | 11 | 38.95 | 35.71 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | -1.27 | 51.85 | 1 | 14 | 13 | 54.16 | 50.3 |
| Johan.Franzen | R | 2.46 | 54.55 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 38.57 | 32.14 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | -3.06 | 50 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 28.15 | 28.15 |
| Stephen.Weiss | R | -4.05 | 50 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 55.42 | 55.42 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | -12.7 | 42.86 | -2 | 6 | 8 | 30.21 | 40.28 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | C | -11.42 | 46.15 | -2 | 12 | 14 | 55.46 | 64.7 |
| Darren.Helm | L | -14.82 | 44 | -3 | 11 | 14 | 48.98 | 62.34 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | -25.17 | 38.46 | -6 | 10 | 16 | 30.28 | 48.44 |
The Wings actually won the first two periods in even-strength Corsi, which is another case of how small samples don’t have to match up very well with results. When the third rolled aound, the Devils really took it to Detroit. Matchup-wise, Jaromir Jagr saw the most of Quincey, Kronwall, Ericsson, Tatar, and Datsyuk. He was clearly the most-dominant Devils’ player in this game too. Zetterberg faced off with Gionta’s line. Sheahan got to face Elias, and Glendening also saw more Jagr than anybody else (centers he faced most were Elias and Zubrus)
| Name | Pos | Faceoff % | Off ZS % | OffZoneStart | NeuZoneStart | DefZoneStart |
| Justin.Abdelkader | R | 100 | 100 | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | C | 100 | 100 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | L | 40 | 100 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| Xavier.Ouellet | D | 40 | 80 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 40 | 76.92 | 10 | 6 | 3 |
| Johan.Franzen | R | 100 | 75 | 6 | 5 | 2 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 40 | 73.33 | 11 | 6 | 4 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 40 | 71.43 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Petr.Mrazek | G | 40 | 70.59 | 24 | 14 | 10 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 40 | 66.67 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| Stephen.Weiss | R | 40 | 66.67 | 10 | 3 | 5 |
| Darren.Helm | L | 100 | 66.67 | 10 | 3 | 5 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 40 | 66.67 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 100 | 62.5 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | C | 100 | 62.5 | 10 | 3 | 6 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 40 | 60 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Tomas.Jurco | R | 40 | 50 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Drew.Miller | R | 40 | 50 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 100 | 40 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
Luke Glendening getting the only negative zone start differential is funny yet fitting. That’s pretty incredible, considering the Wings had 24 offensive zone starts at even-strength to New Jersey’s 10.
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
The fourth line was absolutely the star of this game. Miller and Glendening killed off a big chunk of the Devils’ 5-on-3 and then they scored the game-tying goal. Datsyuk and Zetterberg didn’t look terribly dominant and I thought Tatar got too cute too often. Nyquist had an absolutely brutal first period in his own end. Weiss continues to look more confident and aggressive in the offensive zone, but kind of unsure of himself backchecking. Still, his point streak extended and he almost had another goal.
Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca
