In case you were wondering whether the Detroit Red Wings have finally learned their lesson about starting games on time, I’ll simply say that Detroit was outshot 16-2 in the first period of this game. Overalit was probably closer than it had any real business being after that and Detroit actually managed to make me disappointed they didn’t sneak out a victors they dropped the 3-1 decision to Ottawa on Tuesday night.
The refs called off a goal for the Senators because Jimmy Howard got bowled into by Brendan Smith. Despite all hte mitigating circumstances, I think this was actually the right call. Smith was helped in enough and I would have been pretty frurious if that had been allowed to stand after the bullshit against the Wings in the first 11 games. Ottawa went 1/4 on the PP while Detroit was 0/3. Shots were even at 32.
Craig Anderson had a good game. Jimmy Howard is owed a million steak dinners by his ungrateful teammates after he did all he could to keep their undeserving asses in this game.
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
The Goals
2nd Period 14:37 – Ottawa Goal (PP): Erik Karlsson (slap shot) from Kyle Turris and David Legwand
Ottawa gets on the board first with a power play blast from the point that finds its way through. The Wings win the opening draw and clear it down, but Ottawa gets the setup on an icing dump from behind Ottawa’s blue line that MacArthur gets to before anybody else. A few passes around the zone later and the Sens have the umbrella set up for a shot from Karlsson at the point that Howard is able to stop. Ericsson gets the puck at the bottom of the circle to Howard’s right and tries to lift it out of the zone, but he fails to get it over Karlsson at the point. Four quick passes move it down the boards and then across the ice to beat the pressure and reset the umbrella. This time, Karlsson has to hold it for a brief moment while he gets in position to shoot. Both Miller and Glendening are trying to get into his shooting lane when Karlsson releases a very quick half-slapper. This one gets through the traffic and beats Howard on the blocker side after having picked up the puck too late through the high screen. Ericsson is going to get a minus for the turnover which keeps the puck in for the Senators. Miller will draw a half-minus. He’s scrambling to try and stop a shot attempt, but the old rule stands that if you’re not going to block the shot, don’t screen your goalie on it.
3rd Period 02:34 – Detroit Goal: Henrik Zetterberg (backhand) from Johan Franzen and Danny DeKeyser
The Wings tie it up early in the third immediately after Babcock switches up the lines, as Zetterberg gets to a loose puck that he shovels over Anderson’s glove. The play starts on a faceoff in the Ottawa zone that Zetterberg wins cleanly back. Nyquist gets a shot attempt from the wall that Franzen tries to tip in. The puck heads behind the net where Franzen holds off Phillips, allowing Nyquist to come in and pick it up with a good move to keep Turris away from him as he skates up the boards. About halfway up the wall, Nyquist spins and throws the puck to the middle where it finds DeKeyser jumping in from up top with space. DK carries down the inside of the circle and tries to lift it over Anderson’s shoulder from in close. The puck bounces off the goalie and out the opposite side of the crease where Franzen comes out from behind the net to try and pick it up while both Karlsson and MacArthur reach for it. Instead of trying to curl it in, Franzen just pokes it past both of their sticks right onto the backhand of Henrik Zetterberg at the hash marks out front. Anderson has already slid over, but he’s already down on his knees when Hank lifts it past him. Zetterberg will get a half-plus for the faceoff win here which establishes control. DeKeyser and Nyquist will each get a bonus plus for their good puck movement to get the Ottawa defense running around. Franzen will get a plus for holding off Phillips and then poking it past two defenders’ sticks to Zetterberg.
3rd Period 14:37 – Ottawa Goal: Patrick Wiercioch from Mark Stone and Erik Karlsson
The Wings fail to get a clear and then get to fish the puck out of their own net. Joakim Andersson wins a hotly-contested faceoff to Howard’s left that Ericsson picks up moving forward up the zone. Riggy gets pressured as he tries to control it and ends up just trying to poke it out of the zone lightly from the top of the circles. Instead, Wiercioch reaches out at the blue line and swats it back into the zone where it bounces off a few players before being settled at the left wing point by Hoffman, who dumps it deep. On the far side half-wall, Andersson takes up position to defend against an Erik Karlsson pinch. Unfortunately, the puck gets there slowly, which gives Lazar a chance to pinch up from down low and knock the puck away from Andersson. Glendening follows Lazar, but Stone is there to pick it up behind those two at the point. Stone quickly throws it cross-ice to Wiercioch at the far point with a bit of space to walk it on the inside lane just above the top of the circle where he gets a shot off. Miller has his stick in to deflect it, but instead the puck ends up getting through and past Howard for the game-winner. Kronwall will be the only minus cleared as he’s playing good position all the way through this sequence. Ericsson and Andersson will each get a turnover minuses for their failures with the puck. Miller will get a minus for his coverage. He’s cheating a bit to the board-battle side because of a cut in by Hoffman that he would have had a chance to defend. It’s not a bad decision until he lets Wiercioch get too deep and then ends up helping change the shot that got past his goalie.
3rd Period 19:02 – Ottawa Goal (EN): Clarke MacArthur (wrist shot) from Cody Ceci
Ottawa salts it into the empty net from the wrong side of center after being given plenty of room to aim. The Wings get the zone and even get a pretty good pair of attempts, but that ends when Nyquist tries to bank a puck into the net from behind the net as Anderson is still down from a Zetterberg shot at the opposite post. Instead of in, the puck bounces to the top of the crease where Ceci picks it up with four Red Wings players behind him, and two Senators flanking him. Ceci goes to MacArthur on his left wing side as they approach the Senators blue line. Reading like a 3-on-2, both Wings’ defensemen back off and give plenty of room. MacArthur uses this to fire it into the open net from about halfway between the blue line and the center stripe. I’m not clearing any minuses here because that’s the price you pay for failing with an empty net, but I’m not adding any blame either. Nyquist has the right idea to get the puck to the front of the net where three of his teammates are swarming; it just doesn’t work. I’d like Jakub Kindl to be superhuman and break up the zone exit, but it really is a 3-on-2 rush and he plays it appropriately by standing his ground to the icing line. MacArthur hitting the net from the wrong side of center is good for him, but it was a gamble that could have turned him into a goat. Kindl gambling on a step up turns this from a long-distance shot to a guaranteed goal.
The Penalties
1st Period 13:48 – Jonathan Ericsson (holding) against Mike Hoffman: The Wings give up another good scoring chance in the first period as Ericsson loses his position and has to grab on to prevent a chance in front of the net. Minus for Ericsson.
1st Period 15:28 – Joakim Andersson (high sticking) against Mike Hoffman: Joker puts the Wings down by two while forechecking in the Ottawa zone shorthanded. A failed stick lift catches Hoffman high and Andersson sits, earns a minus.
2nd Period 03:31 – Erik Karlsson (interference) against Henrik Zetterberg: Hank fights through the neutral zone trying to get around two Senators. He’s able to push it past Karlsson, who steps into Z’s way to stop a potential break. Zetterberg will get a plus.
2nd Period 14:00 – Brendan Smith (hooking) against Kyle Turris: The Sens’ Turris makes a good move to get to a dangerous spot on the ice and catch Smith leaning the wrong way covering for a downed DeKeyser. Smith hooks his man and goes to the box for it. Smith will get a minus, but he won’t be alone. DeKeyser will pull a half-minus as well. His fall creates the room fro this.
2nd Period 18:30 – Chris Neil (tripping) against Riley Sheahan: Neil isn’t moving his feet when Sheahan is going after a loose puck in the neutral zone, choosing instead to chop at Sheahan’s feet. No adjustment. This is just a dumb play by Neil.
3rd Period 06:55 – Gustav Nyquist (high sticking) against Kyle Turris: Goose and Hank are backchecking along the boards as Turris exits the Ottawa zone. Nyquist gets his stick up and earns a minus as he heads to the box.
3rd Period 14:56 – Jared Cowen (holding) against Justin Abdelkader: Abby is fighting to keep body position and control of the puck after being chased out of the zone. He successfully makes the move, but Cowen spins him around with a hold and sits. Abdelkader will get a plus.
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 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1.5 | ||||||||||
| Pavel Datsyuk | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Johan Franzen | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Darren Helm | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Joakim Andersson | 1 | -1 | -3 | -1 | -1 | -2 | |||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | -1 | -2.5 | -1.5 | -1.5 | ||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | -1 | -4 | -2 | -1 | -3 | |||||||||
| Brendan Smith | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | |||||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 1 | -0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||
| Brian Lashoff | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Jakub Kindl | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 |
| Player | Screener’s Assists |
| Johan Franzen | 2 |
| Justin Abdelkader | 2.5 |
| Luke Glendening | 1 |
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 | 19.47 | 67.74 | 11 | 21 | 10 | 79.66 | 37.93 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | R | 17.01 | 67.86 | 10 | 19 | 9 | 103.95 | 49.24 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 55.06 | 9 | 49 | 40 | 62.33 | 50.88 | |
| Tomas.Jurco | L | 12.83 | 65 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 64.86 | 34.93 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 14.55 | 66.67 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 61.58 | 30.79 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 6.48 | 60.71 | 6 | 17 | 11 | 57.68 | 37.32 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | L | 7.44 | 61.54 | 6 | 16 | 10 | 69.78 | 43.61 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | R | 7.36 | 61.9 | 5 | 13 | 8 | 58.39 | 35.93 |
| Brian.Lashoff | D | -4.94 | 51.72 | 1 | 15 | 14 | 69.95 | 65.28 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | -5.19 | 52.38 | 1 | 11 | 10 | 42.02 | 38.2 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | C | -7.32 | 51.61 | 1 | 16 | 15 | 60.7 | 56.9 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | -7.63 | 50 | 0 | 15 | 15 | 56.63 | 56.63 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | -8.46 | 50 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 56.09 | 56.09 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | -8.18 | 50 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 64.73 | 64.73 |
| Johan.Franzen | R | -8.73 | 50 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 57.45 | 57.45 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | -9.77 | 47.37 | -1 | 9 | 10 | 60 | 66.67 |
| Joakim.Andersson | R | -9.77 | 47.37 | -1 | 9 | 10 | 62.01 | 68.9 |
| Darren.Helm | C | -15.17 | 44.83 | -3 | 13 | 16 | 57.88 | 71.24 |
| Drew.Miller | L | -18.11 | 40 | -3 | 6 | 9 | 39.96 | 59.94 |
Well there’s a good reason that Nyquist and Jurco looked like the most-dangerous forwards for the Red WIngs in this game. At least that makes sense. Helm didn’t look as bad as his numbers indicated, be didn’t really look much better than that either.
| Name | Pos | Faceoff % | Faceoffs Won | Faceoffs Lost | Off ZS % | OffZoneStart | NeuZoneStart | DefZoneStart |
| Johan.Franzen | R | 40 | 0 | 0 | 91.67 | 11 | 2 | 1 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | L | 60 | 3 | 2 | 81.82 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | R | 40 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 8 | 2 | 2 |
| Tomas.Jurco | L | 40 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 8 | 1 | 2 |
| Darren.Helm | C | 33.33 | 3 | 6 | 80 | 8 | 2 | 2 |
| Brian.Lashoff | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 77.78 | 7 | 7 | 2 |
| Jakub.Kindl | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 77.78 | 7 | 7 | 2 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 72.73 | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 72.73 | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | R | 40 | 0 | 0 | 71.43 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | C | 64.29 | 9 | 5 | 71.43 | 5 | 7 | 2 |
| Tomas.Tatar | L | 40 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 40 | 0 | 0 | 65.62 | 21 | 15 | 11 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 30 | 3 | 7 | 62.5 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 40 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 66.67 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Joakim.Andersson | R | 66.67 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Drew.Miller | L | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
I swear these zone starts charts are actually different every game. I promise. It just doesn’t look any different because this is the plan that Babcock has been sticking with all season. The Kids got a little less-sheltered than usual though.
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
It’s a credit to the Wings that they were able to recover from such a disastrous first period and actually win the possession battle (even without score effects factored in), but the eyeball test to this one feels like a deserved loss on the weakness of the power play, the inability to finish scoring chances, and some absolutely brutal turnovers that Howard would have been forgiven for allowing goals on.
Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca
