Well, on a night where Detroit was comprehensively dominated in 2 of 3 periods, I’ll take a stolen point. Detroit got one point in the standings tonight, and they owe almost all of it to a standout performance by Jimmy Howard. This game was essentially a straight reversal of the season opener, except it took a shootout to decide this one. On to the recap.
First Period
The Wings came out a little disjointed and finally got punished for it when Helm turned the puck over in the neutral zone while Kindl and Quincey were both skating forward recklessly. As of the end of the first period, the Red Wings have now given up 5 goals on the season, and this is the 5th one that comes directly from a turnover. Immediately following the goal, the Red Wings suddenly got a nice burst of a few shifts in a row, applying real pressure for the first time all game. The Kid Line finally broke through on some good forechecking and a typically excellent finish by Tatar. Boston proceeded to hand Detroit’s lunch to them throughout the rest of the period.
Second Period
Well, in terms of not looking totally outclassed, this period went better, but a messy shift results in a second goal for Boston. The Kid Line was excellent during this period as was Helm’s, but Zetterberg’s line was largely ineffective. Through two periods, Bergeron was on the ice for 8 of 12 Zetterberg shifts, and Bergeron’s line has handily won that matchup thus far.
Third Period
Special teams was the story of this period, with Nyquist connecting on a power play goal, and two crucial PKs in a short span kept the game tied. The Wings came apart pretty badly after the Nyquist goal, but Jimmy Howard single-handedly stole the free OT point here with a series of incredible saves.
Stray Observations
- Luke Glendening leads the league in lost helmets/60 (LH/60). Brad Marchand leads the known universe in kicked puppies/60 (KP/60).
- Henrik Zetterberg’s line was very ineffective. A big part of this was Bergeron being out there for 2/3rds of Zetterberg’s shifts, but all around it was not a great night for these guys. Zetterberg had a team-worst 19% corsi tonight. Woof.
- I thought Nyquist looked not so great for long stretches of the game, but he still managed to come through again on the PP. Nice to see him produce even on a night where his A-game seemed to be lacking.
- Jimmy Howard was phenomenal tonight. Obviously.
- Eddie Olcyzk was his usual terrible Red Wing hating self tonight. Obviously.
- The only forwards to end up with positive possession tonight were Tomas Jurco, Darren Helm, and Andrej Nestrasil. Well, Jurco was 50% exactly, but we’ll count it.
