Detroit Red Wings Game Analysis, After-Action Report for Sunday Nov 9th: Detroit Red Wings 3 – Tampa Bay Lightning 4 (SO)

The Wings met a Tampa club who played Saturday night knowing that they wouldn’t be playing again until this Friday against Chicago. Detroit answered that challenge by being thoroughly outskated by the Lightning and losing in a shootout 4-3.

Box Score Here

I thought the refs were not as noticeably awful as usual, but their standard didn’t make sense through most of the game. For as bad as I thought one of the penalty calls was, I was absolutely shocked to see them let the Red Wings get away with some of the stuff they did. That’s why I’m not yanking on my hair about any missed calls that should have gone the Wings’ way. Tampa was 1-for-5 on power plays while Detroit went 2-for-4. Special teams is what got the Wings a point in this game because they were bad at even strength. Shots were 30-20 in favor of Tampa.

Jimmy Howard failed to score a goal in the shootout and gave up all three goals on shots from inside the dangerous home plate area. This was a disappointing result for him made even more disappointing by the absolutely huge saves that Ben Bishop made at the other end.

Guide to plus/minus adjustments

The Goals

1st Period 06:14 – Detroit Goal (PP): Johan Franzen (slap shot) from Niklas Kronwall and Gustav Nyquist
The Wings get the first just four seconds into the power play on a one-timer from the point by Johan Franzen. Zetterberg wins the faceoff at the dot to Bishop’s right, Nyquist comes in behind him to speed it along to Kronwall, Kronwall moves it immediately to Franzen across the ice and Franzen unloads. Simple easy goal. Zetterberg will get a half-plus for the faceoff win.

1st Period 12:53 – Tampa Bay Goal (PP): Steven Stamkos (slap shot) from Valtteri Filppula and Ryan Callahan
Stamkos ties it on a blast from the high slot during a 5-on-3. Shit happens. Tampa re-enters the zone after a clear by Glendening and slowly collapses the three PKers with passes around the perimeter which gets the shooters at the points ever closer to the net. Finally, Callahan goes around behind the net with the puck and hits Filppula in the low outside quadrant of the circle. Garrison drives to the front to pull back the defense and open a lane to Stamkos to walk into one from the high slot. Howard never has a chance. No adjustment. 5-on-3s suck and any move to do something different here just leads to a different shitty goal to give up.

2nd Period 02:19 – Tampa Bay Goal: Steven Stamkos (wrist shot) from Ryan Callahan
The best sniper in this game snipes it so well that the refs let play continue because they can’t see it hit the back post. 20 seconds prior, Stamkos gets a good chance as he walks in on the defense, but that’s stopped and the zone is cleared. The Wings go for a change here as Callahan picks it up just inside his own blue line and turns at the top of the circle in his own zone. As he turns, he sees Stamkos up ice and hits him crossing into the Wings’ zone. Ericsson comes over to challenge enough to make it so it isn’t a true breakaway while Smith comes in to pressure off the bench. Stamkos sees this and stops up short on Smith, causing him to fly by and give Stamkos a shooting lane from the high slot again. Stamkos doesn’t miss from here, even though the ref thinks he does. The line change is bad and is going to clear the minus for Miller here as he’s the only forward who was already on the ice and he was in the lane he was supposed to be in. Cleary and Helm will also be cleared, but I’m going to give Andersson back his minus on this line change for not getting the puck deep enough to warrant it. On the defensive side, Ericsson is watching FIlppula up the wing, which is the right position for most of this play. He’s a bit caught in that if he plays entirely up the middle, he risks Filppula burning around the outside on a completed pass. Ericsson has to play this like the defender will get back to help on Stamkos. Riggy will keep his minus, but there’s no extra blame for him. It’s a bit of a tough break for Smith playing catch-up on Stamkos the minute you step onto the ice, but skating past the puck on the stop-up is going to earn him an extra minus. Finally, Kronwall will pick up a minus on this play for an inappropriate line change. He needs to recognize he can’t come off here with the puck not getting deep.

2nd Period 06:02 – Tampa Bay Goal: Tyler Johnson (slap shot) from Ondrej Palat
Tampa opens up a two-goal lead on a one-timer from the dot. The Wings kill a penalty and get it up ice with Zetterberg gaining the zone with some speed. Here, his attempt to hit Kindl trailing in on the play fails as the puck goes off Kindl’s stick and turns over to the Lightning. Palat carries up ice joined by Brewer on his wing and Kucherov trailing. Quincey is the third Wings player back to help out Zetterberg and Nyquist covering back on defense as Palat pulls to the half-wall and tries to thread a pass to Kucherov which is blocked by Quincey. Palat recovers as Kucherov pushes the net-front and Brewer peels off to get back on defense. Quincey goes with Kucherov to the net while Nyquist watches Palat in the corner. Both Kindl and Zetterberg watch the area in front of the crease here, which is a bad thing. As Nyquist approaches on Palat, the Botls’ forward finds Johnson skating through the quiet area at the near dot. Johnson one-times it before Kindl can get out on him and it beats Howard high on the glove side. Johan Franzen will be the lone minus cleared, as he is never involved in this play. Nyquist and Quincey are less at fault, but they have a miscommunication on the Palat zone entry which could have caused this goal to happen sooner and will leave both with their minuses intact. Zetterberg will pick up an extra half-minus here as he’s partially responsible both for trying to pass it to Kindl in the offensive zone and for not recognizing Johnson wide open. Kindl is going to get double-whammied here though. The Zetterberg pass is one he needs to handle. This will become a turnover minus for where it happens on the ice. Next up, Kindl will get a minus for blowing the coverage on Johnson. He’s closer than Z to this play at every step. He should be higher on the coverage and isn’t.

2nd Period 11:37 – Detroit Goal (PP): Darren Helm (slap shot) from Johan Franzen and Niklas Kronwall
Helm cuts the lead to one with a blast-slapper over the glove from the top of the circle on a quick zone entry. A bad bounce at the point on the power play brings the puck behind Howard’s net and the 2nd PP unit on. Kronwall starts this play skating up the middle in his own zone and hitting Franzen in stride circling to the same center lane up in the neutral zone. The accuracy of the pass and the speed that Franzen is picking up catches both TB forwards too far up, which backs the defense off at the blue line. Franzen crosses into the Tampa zone with all three defenders back watching either the center or the right wing side. This works out well when Franzen dumps it to the left wing side just inside the blue line. Darren Helm picks the puck up in stride and is able to walk unimpeded to the top of the circle where he blasts a slapper inside the far post. Nice setup here helped by crisp passing and a bit too much aggression by the Tampa PK unit. No adjustment.

3rd Period 08:49 – Detroit Goal: Gustav Nyquist (snap shot) from Jonathan Ericsson
Gustav Nyquist ties the game for the Wings on a beautiful move across the zone, embarrassing three defenders on his way to a snipe to tie it. Jonathan Ericsson collects a dump in that he carries behind his own net while both teams change. Riggy comes out under zero pressure as the Bolts are content to stack all five guys behind the center stripe. As Ericsson crosses his own blue line, he’s got Kronwall parallel to his left and he has Andersson and Glendening circling both faceoff dots outside the Tampa blue line. Riggy passes it off to Nyquist coming off the Wings’ bench to enter the zone by dancing just in front of Andersson to make an outside-inside move to get past a flat-footed Ryan Callahan. As Nyquist continues moving across the zone inside the blue line, he next encounters Valtteri Filppula walking the opposite way. Flip is already playing against Nyquist cutting back forward, so he’s flat-footed when Nyquist moves it back a little to get farther across the zone, also keeping it away from a backchecking Stamkos in the middle. Glendening driving the center lane with Kronwall Andersson on the right side and Kronwall heading deeper to the left wing side which Nyquist is approaching drags both defensemen deeper into the zone. Nyquist takes advantage by turning up ice as soon as he’s past both Filppula and Stamkos. Brewer tries to step into Nyquist’s shooting lane as he hits the top of the circle, but Goose ends up firing it between Brewer’s legs and into the top corner. This is a gorgeous goal by Nyquist which will earn him a bonus plus.

The Penalties

1st Period 06:10 – Ryan Callahan (goaltender interference): The Wings get caught on a bad pinch and give up an odd-man rush that Howard stops. For his trouble, Howard gets bowled over by Callahan. No adjustment here.

1st Period 06:59 – Ben Bishop (interference) against Gustav Nyquist: After Goose bulls his way into the zone and helps create a good scoring chance, Ben Bishop reaches out and takes Nyquist down to try and keep him from getting to a loose rebound. Nyquist will get a plus for this hilarious penalty.

1st Period 11:16 – Kyle Quincey (interference) against Vladimir Namestnikov: The Wings can’t get a clear and then find themselves chasing in their own end while Howard is called upon to make a couple big saves. Out of a few potential calls, Quincey collects the most things that would earn a whistle and finally goes for interference. Quincey will get a minus.

1st Period 11:25 – Luke Glendening (delay of game): Glendening gets a clear early on the first Bolts’ power play as he clears it down the ice. Unfortunately, he clears it way too hard and puts it over the glass at the far end. This is against the rules. Glendening will get a minus.

1st Period 16:20 – Drew Miller (interference) against Cedric Paquette: Drew Miller gets tied up with a Tampa player at the Bolt’s blueline and goes off for interference. No adjustment here. Miller got skated into after establishing his position.

1st Period 19:02 – Radko Gudas (slashing) against Johan Franzen: Gudas goes for Franzen’s knees after a dump-in. Mule pushes Gudas in the back while he’s down to let him know the chickenshit move isn’t appreciated and Gudas slashes Franzen in the knee because he’s a living ball of dirt. Franzen will get a plus because there’s history here.

2nd Period 03:41 – Riley Sheahan (delay of game): The second puck over glass penalty bites the Wings. This time, it’s Sheahan putting it directly into the netting. Minus for Sheahan.

2nd Period 10:34 – Cedric Paquette (tripping) against Tomas Tatar: The Wings get another power play on a tripping by one of the third-years at Hufflepuff. Paquette dumps Tatar in front of the Tampa Net with a dangerous heel-stab. It’s a shit play, but Tatar will get a half-plus helping make this a dangerous play and going to the front.

2nd Period 12:48 – Kyle Quincey (high sticking) against Brenden Morrow: Quincey gets to go sit for not controlling his stick better in the corner against Morrow. Minus for Quincey. Dumb play.

Total Adjustments

Full Season Chart Here

Possession Metrics

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

Sending out a defensive sacrifice line only works when the other lines dominate the depth matchups. That didn’t happen again.

The Nestrasil-Helm-Cleary line being dominant really sucks when you look at it against that line being the only one where all three forwards saw fewer than ten minutes in ice time. Babcock lost the coaching matchup in this game.

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

Final Say

It’s time to start noticing more than just the Zetterberg line.

Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca