Pre-game:
After losing a two goal lead last night in Pittsburgh, the Red Wings travel to Brooklyn to take on the New York Islanders at the Barclays Obstructed View Center.
While most Red Wings fans are not happy about the team’s offseason, it pales in comparison to NY GM Garth Snow’s free agency period that saw Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, and fan favorite Matt Martin leave the team, to be replaced by Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera.
This is an artist’s depiction of Snow in his office on July 2.
As mentioned above, Frans Nielsen is returning to play his former teammates for the first time since he left New York. In the warmup, he stopped in the corner and caught up with the SUV that has front row seats.
Based on warmups, it looks like Lashoff is in for Kron…no, wait. Sproul. Huh. OK.
Also, it looks like Sheahan is playing with Vanek and Nyquist and Larkin is playing with Ott and Miller. Wait, I need to check that again, that can’t be right.
Nope.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing…no, I did that whole running gag before. I got nothing. Maybe Jack Capuano and Jeff Blashill are having a contest to see who can make the worst lineup decisions without getting fired. We’ll find out if Tavares lines up with Clutterbuck and the national anthem singer. (BTW, I did the WIIM twitter account tonight, so if you follow us, you’ve seen some of these jokes before).
I’ve taken to calling the Tatar – Mantha – Zetterberg line the TMZ line because their assists are filthy. Let’s see if that catches on.
On to the game!
First Period:
Tatar in for a breakaway 45 seconds in, but he can’t put it by Halak. In the first couple minutes, the Islanders defensive coverage is looking very suspect. The Wings need to capitalize on that.
Three minutes in, and it’s all Red Wings. Mantha has a shot saved by Halak, but they are looking good so far.
Never mind.
Cal Clutterbuck lays a big hit on Kronwall, then the Islanders break out. Clutterbuck sets up Anders Lee for a wide open shot. We know that Lashoff watched last night’s game carefully, since he covered Lee like the team covered Kessel last night.
Jurco had a beautiful set up, but he missed the net. He’s getting in good positions to score, but he’s not doing the scoring part.
Drew Miller’s stick gets up high on John Tavares, so we have a delayed penalty. Ott follows in to take the body on Tavares. Travis Hamonic comes in to defend his captain and pretty much destroys Ott.
Drew Miller gets 2 minutes for high sticking, Ott gets 5 for fighting, Hamonic gets 2, five, and ten, since he was called for instigating. Ott’s sacrifice will pay off as the Islanders will be down their best defender for 17 minutes.
The Islanders end up with a 2 minute power play. The Red Wings give up four shots on the penalty, but no great chances. Still 1-0 with 8:30 left. The penalty minutes don’t add up, so there must have been another two to either Miller or Ott in there somewhere.
Brock Nelson is allowed to walk in from the corner and get two shots on Mrazek. I’m not liking this defensive strategy of not covering players.
Boom! Mike Green puts a one-timer by Halak off a perfect feed from Frans Nielsen. Perfectly weighted pass and a terrific shot. Now, if we can stop leaving players open, we might be in business.
Chimera breaks in alone, as Ericsson can’t keep up with him, but Mrazek stands strong.
The Islanders are down to five defensemen for almost a full period, so the Wings need to take advantage of that. Their track record in that regards lately is not great, so here’s hoping it’s better tonight.
The penalty situation from before is clarified. Ott received 2 for elbowing on top of the 5 for fighting, so that’s why NY got a power play.
Nielsen continues his great passing tonight, sending Ouellet in for a good chance, but Halak kept the puck out.
At the end of the first, our score is 1-1. The Wings are doing some good things offensively, but have way too many defensive breakdowns. Sound familiar?
2nd Period:
We are back underway. Mrazek opens the second period with a good save off of Tavares.
Leddy gives the puck away behind his own net, but the Wings can’t capitalize.
Nielsen made about three good defensive plays to keep his old teammate Tavares off the score sheet.
Mantha’s been a little quieter than recent games so far, but he whistles one just wide of the post.
Hamonic is back on the ice after serving the remainder of his ten minute misconduct. Steve Ott was heard at the scorer’s area asking “Are you sure it wasn’t a game misconduct?”
Zetterberg makes two Islanders look foolish, but his pass to Larkin ends up in Dylan’s skates. So far, the second period has been pretty even.
Gustav Nyquist nearly scores from a nearly impossible angle. Vanek found Nyquist in front, and Halak went down. Nyquist waited the goalie out but it looked like the puck went off Halak’s mask.
Mrazek absolutely robs Dylan Strome off a rebound from an Andrew Ladd shot. Mrazek needs better rebound control, Strome probably should have scored there.
Green makes two nice defensive plays on the same shift, keeping Nelson from gaining the zone, the stealing a pass in the offensive zone. Green is having a very solid game so far.
Mantha nearly scores a highlight reel goal. He wins a race to the puck, then makes Seidenberg look silly with a deke through the defenseman’s legs, but he can’t put the backhand by Halak.
Goal!! Mike Green makes it 2-1 Detroit. Nyquist puts pressure on the puck, Vanek takes it and finds a wide open Green who makes no mistake. Green is having a good game, even without the goals.
Detroit nearly makes it a two goal lead when Vanek tips a pass from Dekeyser, but it goes right into Halak’s pad.
The Red Wings dominate the rest of the period, but can’t get another goal, and it’s 2-1 going into the third.
Third Period:
Mrazek was forced to make a good save a few seconds into the period. Not a good start.
The bad start continued 2 minutes later, as Clutterbuck crashes the net. The Islander player then rolled out of the crease, while Boychuk blasted a shot by Mrazek. I wanted to complain, but Clutterbuck purposefully didn’t crash into Mrazek, then got out of the crease. Definitely not goaltender interference. 2-2.
Green nearly completed the hat trick a minute later, as we continue the see-saw battle.
Nielsen has had a very solid two-way game tonight. All that’s left is for him to score the game winning goal.
GOAL! Green with the hat trick! Wooooooo…….huh?
Never mind. The officials determined that Glendening interfered with Halak. So, we are still tied with 13 left in the third.
If the Red Wings lose this one, they can’t complain about not having enough chances. They have had plenty of good ones.
Mantha comes tantalizingly close to putting Detroit back in the lead, as he chips a backhand from a scrum in front that just goes wide.
GOAL! Mantha stole the puck, then Tatar to Ericsson. Point shot tipped by Zetterberg. 3-2, and this one is not coming back. I have to emphasize how good a play this was by all four of them, specifically the point shot/pass from Ericsson.
One commercial break to go and we’ll have the two points we needed going into tonight’s game. But, the Islanders will not go down quietly.
Ugh. I hate being right. A change up shot from the point is deflected and hits off Mrazek’s mask, and the Wings defense can’t get to the puck before Bailey puts it in. 3-3 with 4:23 left in the third period. Dekeyser had the puck in the corner earlier in the play, but he coughed it up, leading to the point shot.
Anders Lee almost steals the game when he beats Ouellet, leading to a near post stuff-in attempt. Mrazek holds the post and I keep some sense of sanity.
This is a game we should have won in regulation, but it goes to overtime tied 3-3.
Overtime:
Tavares breaks in alone in OT, but Nielsen helps to break up the chance.
GOAL! Dekeyser scores off a nice pass from Tatar. Good guys win 4-3. The TMZ line looked good all game, and Detroit did a lot of good things offensively. But, they really have to do something about the defensive breakdowns.
This should have been an easier two points, but it’s still two points. Take it and run.
A couple great stats from Prashanth:
Over the past 8 games, the Wings are +45 in 5v5 shot attempts when Mantha is on the ice. They are -72 when he’s off the ice
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) December 5, 2016
Since the Tatar-Zetterberg-Mantha line was put together on 11/25, that line has a 5v5 score-adjusted CF% of 64.6% in 72:56 TOI together
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) December 5, 2016
It’s almost like that Mantha guy is good at hockey.
