I don’t want to write about anything that happened after the first 10 minutes of this game.
The Wings didn’t play well enough for complaints about reffing to be worthwhile, but eventually I’ll get to say that the return to the 2003 standard is bad for the game. Calgary went 1/3 on the power play and Detroit 1/2. Shots were 35-24 in favor of Detroit.
Jonas Hiller didn’t really steal the game, but he played well enough to win. None of his saves wowed me, but he made a lot of them. Jimmy Howard did not make a lot of them. We saw what happens when Howard and his defense are both off and it’s pretty ugly.
Guide to plus/minus adjustments
The Goals
1st Period 03:05 – Detroit Goal: Justin Abdelkader (wrist shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Erik Cole
Detroit gets the first goal on an Abdelkader breakaway earned from an absolutely fantastic outlet pass. The Flames start a forecheck in the Wings’ zone that ends on a weak backhander sent so far wide it ends up in the corner. Cole wins the race to it and pulls it away from Colborne, bouncing it off the boards to Zetterberg in the opposite corner. Hank immediately fires it up ice to Abdelkader streaking to the far blue line behind the defense. Abby buries in on the breakaway. Cole will get a half-plus for a good job breaking the pressure, Abdelkader will get a half-plus for pushing up ice at the opportunity, and Zetterberg will get a full plus for the amazing up-ice vision and pass.
1st Period 08:12 – Detroit Goal (PP): Justin Abdelkader (tip-in) from Henrik Zetterberg and Erik Cole
Another fantastic pass gets another goal with the exact same line on the box score as Abby’s there to tip in a net-front feed. Detroit wins the faceoff, but Calgary gets a clear off a rebound in front. The Wings re-enter the zone as Hank passes to Cole on the right wing for an entry down the boards to the corner. Weiss is in the middle lane and Abdelkader on the back door while Cole turns back to pass it to Zetterberg following him up the right side boards. Cole circles to the low near-post side while Abby takes up direct net-front and Weiss stands at the back door hash marks while Zetterberg speeds below the PKing forward watching him. As Hank pulls it off the boards, Cole pulls up to the near side hash marks while Abby backs off a bit to the far post. The defense can’t adjust to these moving pieces fast enough and Hank finds a lane to Abby’s stick on the back door for the easy tip-in. Beautiful play to move everybody around but no adjustment on the PP doing things like it should.
1st Period 10:27 – Calgary Goal (PP): Sean Monahan (wrist shot) from Kris Russell and Dennis Wideman
Calgary gets on the board as Monahan picks up a rebound and gets infinite time to take it around Howard before chucking it by two defenders trying to play goalie. Detroit wins the PP faceoff and clears up ice, but Calgary dumps it back in. Kronwall gets to it and tries clearing up the glass, but gets a bit of an unlucky bounce as it goes off a stanchion, then hits Wideman and deflects over to Russell at the top middle of the zone completely uncovered. Russell waits for traffic to develop before chucking a low wrister on net timed to get there just as Gaudreau crosses the front of the crease. The addition of Gaudreau to the play forces Howard to simply block the shot instead of trying to catch it. This is disastrous as the puck bounces off Howard’s pad straight to Monahan in the right circle. Howard is already trying to recover from going down on the Russell shot as Monahan has all day to drag the puck all the way across the slot and to the low left circle before throwing it in past both Kronwall and Ericsson trying to play goaltender behind Howard. This is kind of bad luck here on the bounce that led to the keep-in, but leaving Monahan that kind of space is unacceptable. The coverage problem here is that Kronwall is never in good position on Gaudreau and he’s playing to poke the puck instead of helping his goalie and that there’s not coverage on Monahan in the middle. Those responsibilities fall on Kronwall and Miller, who will earn minuses for their bad coverage mistakes.
2nd Period 06:05 – Calgary Goal: Matt Stajan (slap shot) from Brandon Bollig
Calgary ties it on a nothing dump-in that kicks out and nobody stops Stajan from blasting home. The play starts when Datsyuk steps up to keep a puck in the Calgary zone that gets out anyway. Bollig gets it in the middle of the ice as Stajan and Gaudreau join him in a rush up ice against Kronwall and Ericsson. Jurco is catching up as Bollig crosses center with it and the Calgary forward wrists a dump in wide of the Detroit net to Ericsson’s side, recognizing that he has two players to one on that side of the ice. The puck comes all the way out to the top of the left circle off the end boards as Stajan gets there to one-time it. Howard is still adjusting to the changing angle of the puck and Ericsson never has any clue where the puck is. Stajan perfectly places his one-timer above the pad and below the glove in off the far post. It’s a hell of a shot, but one I would rather Howard have stopped. I’m going to clear Tatar, Jurco, and Kronwall here. Datsyuk keeps his minus for giving up the puck where he does and Ericsson will earn an extra half-minus for being completely unaware of an impending shot from a guy he’s watching skate in. I want Howard to stop it anyway, but at least put your stick out, Riggy.
2nd Period 13:10 – Calgary Goal: Jiri Hudler (wrist shot) from Sean Monahan and Dennis Wideman
Hudler does Hudler stuff against the Red Wings and gives Calgary a lead. Detroit’s fourth line gets a shot on net, but Calgary is able to win the board battle on the rebound and get it up ice as Russell passes to Wideman across the middle on the weak side to push it up ice to Monahan on the right wing zone entry. Kronwall and Ericsson back off as Gaudreau crosses over to give Monahan a little bit of room to move away from Andersson coming in to pressure him. This is just enough space to pass it off to Hudler who skates below Andersson to the right faceoff dot. Kronwall continues to back off to keep Gaudreau from the net-front while Ericsson also backs off to the slot area. Andersson covers Monahan to this same area as Ericsson finally picks up Gaudreau going to the back door, leaving Kronwall to cover Hudler. Kronner is never close enough to stop Hudler as he gets almost to the hash marks before throwing it inside the far post on a screen. Miller and Glendening will keep their minuses here. This was a forecheck that was all too easy for the Flames to beat and turn into a 3-on-3 zone entry. On that entry, Andersson is doing things right enough that he won’t earn extra punishment, but he definitely deserves the minus on letting Monahan make the pass. Ericsson and Kronwall each earn an extra minus. They decide to switch coverage of Gaudreau far too late and end up giving Hudler all the time he needs to push to a dangerous area. One of them needs to attack the puck-carrier before now.
3rd Period 01:50 – Calgary Goal: Mason Raymond (wrist shot) from Drew Shore and Josh Jooris
Calgary opens a two-goal lead early in the third as Raymond gets a shot off from the middle and it sneaks through. The play stars as Hudler dumps it in while everybody goes for a change (including Hudler). Ericsson is the first man back under just about no pressure as he goes to pick it up at the side of the net but for some reason doesn’t actually put his stick on the puck. Mason Raymond gets in and pushes the puck up to the wall where Diaz shoves it back deep to start a board battle where Raymond and Shore beat Ericsson for the puck and then Shore muscles through Weiss to go behind the net. Smith comes in to help and Shore loses the puck to Weiss, but Jooris gets on him immediately and locks him up. Weiss loses it around Smith where Shore gets to it and throws it to the faceoff dot where Raymond stands uncovered. Raymond throws a wrister that flutters through Howard and extends the lead. I’m only clearing Sheahan here as he’s covering his spots well. Jurco will get a minus for letting Raymond get that open. He’s technically covering the middle and the lane to Diaz at the far point, but with Ericsson covering nobody at the far post while this is going on and Weiss too deep thanks to having lost his board battle, Jurco needs to read this play better. Weiss and Smith will each pick up a minus for losing the board battle to let this get open. Ericsson will get a turnover minus for fucking up an easy dump-in and giving the Flames the puck and then he’ll earn a coverage minus for standing at the far post like a big dope while the scoring play is developing. Finally, Ericsson is going to earn a THIRD extra minus for screening Jimmy Howard the minute he decides that maybe covering an inanimate object on the opposite side of the play is a bad fucking idea.
3rd Period 18:54 – Calgary Goal (EN): Jiri Hudler (wrist shot) from Johnny Gaudreau and Mikael Backlund
Detroit plays badly with an extra skater and everybody keeps their minuses because the Wings’ net had been empty for two minutes prior to this with no results. Even the guys who weren’t directly in on this play were responsible for the Wings net needing to be empty. No adjustment.
The Penalties
1st Period 07:36 – Mason Raymond (tripping) against Brendan Smith: Raymond gets sent to the box for tripping Smith up in the Wings’ zone. Smith will get a plus for establishing good position in creating this penalty.
1st Period 09:57 – Brendan Smith (interference) against Drew Shore: Smith steps into a guy leaving the Calgary zone and takes a sit. Smith will get a minus.
2nd Period 02:09 – Red Wings Bench (too many men): The bench bosses fall asleep on an offensive-zone pressure shift and Detroit ends up with six men on for an extended time. No adjustment. I’d give Babcock a minus if it mattered.
3rd Period 02:30 – Danny DeKeyser (closing hand on the puck): The refs decide to call penalties again as DeKeyser gets his hand over the puck behind his own net. Minus for DeKeyser. It’s not much, but it absolutely is a penalty.
3rd Period 14:25 – Kris Russell (hooking) against Justin Abdelkader: Abby does good board battling low in the Calgary zone and draws a penalty as Russell gets lazy behind him. 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 |
| Stephen Weiss | 1 | -1 | -2 | -1 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Joakim Andersson | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Tomas Jurco | 1 | -2 | -2 | -1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||
| Justin Abdelkader | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1.5 | ||||||||||
| Tomas Tatar | 1 | -2 | -1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Riley Sheahan | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Henrik Zetterberg | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Gustav Nyquist | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Erik Cole | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| Pavel Datsyuk | 1 | -2 | -2 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Luke Glendening | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Drew Miller | 1 | -1 | -2 | -1 | -1 | ||||||||||
| Niklas Kronwall | 1 | -3 | -4 | -2 | 1 | -1 | |||||||||
| Jonathan Ericsson | 1 | -3 | -7.5 | -3.5 | -1 | -4.5 | |||||||||
| Brendan Smith | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | 1 | -1 | |||||||||
| Marek Zidlicky | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Kyle Quincey | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Danny DeKeyser | 1 | -1 | -1 | -1 |
| Player | Screener’s Assists |
| Justin Abdelkader | 10 |
| Darren Helm | 5 |
| Riley Sheahan | 4 |
| Luke Glendening | 4 |
| Johan Franzen | 2 |
| Tomas Tatar | 3 |
| Drew Miller | 2.5 |
| Tomas Jurco | 1 |
| Stephen Weiss | 1 |
| Joakim Andersson | 0.5 |
| Pavel Datsyuk | 0.5 |
| Brendan Smith | 0.5 |
Possession Metrics
Even-strength Corsi numbers provided thanks to NHL.com via War-On-Ice.com.
| Name | Pos | iCF | C+/- | ZSO | ZSD | ZS% | TOI | CF60 | CA60 | CP60 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 0 | 30 | 21 | 6 | 77.78% | 50.9 | 68.4 | 33 | 101.4 |
| Tomas.Tatar | LR | 9 | 17 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 17.7 | 84.8 | 27.1 | 111.9 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 0 | 16 | 10 | 3 | 76.92% | 19.2 | 78 | 28.1 | 106.1 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 2 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 75.00% | 17.6 | 71.5 | 27.2 | 98.7 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | 5 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 16.4 | 77 | 29.3 | 106.3 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | RL | 8 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 88.89% | 13.9 | 69 | 17.2 | 86.2 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 1 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 88.89% | 14.1 | 59.7 | 21.3 | 81 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | LR | 6 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 62.50% | 16.5 | 72.8 | 40.1 | 112.9 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 6 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 77.78% | 14.6 | 69.9 | 37 | 106.8 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 4 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 87.50% | 13.7 | 65.7 | 30.7 | 96.4 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 3 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 85.71% | 18.7 | 61 | 35.3 | 96.3 |
| Erik.Cole | LR | 3 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 88.89% | 13.2 | 59.2 | 22.8 | 82 |
| Marek.Zidlicky | D | 1 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 83.33% | 15.2 | 67.1 | 39.5 | 106.6 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 3 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 80.00% | 15.4 | 62.3 | 35.1 | 97.4 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 0 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 66.67% | 16.4 | 62.2 | 36.6 | 98.7 |
| Stephen.Weiss | LC | 2 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 77.78% | 13 | 64.8 | 37 | 101.9 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% | 6.3 | 66.9 | 57.4 | 124.3 |
| Joakim.Andersson | C | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% | 6.3 | 67 | 57.4 | 124.5 |
| Drew.Miller | RC | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% | 6.4 | 56.3 | 56.3 | 112.6 |
Not a single corsi minus player and the Wings can’t win the game.
| Name | Pos | iCF | C+/- | ZSO | ZSD | ZS% | TOI | CF60 | CA60 | CP60 |
| Justin.Abdelkader | RL | 8 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 88.89% | 13.9 | 69 | 17.2 | 86.2 |
| Henrik.Zetterberg | CL | 1 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 88.89% | 14.1 | 59.7 | 21.3 | 81 |
| Erik.Cole | LR | 3 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 88.89% | 13.2 | 59.2 | 22.8 | 82 |
| Tomas.Jurco | RL | 4 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 87.50% | 13.7 | 65.7 | 30.7 | 96.4 |
| Danny.Dekeyser | D | 3 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 85.71% | 18.7 | 61 | 35.3 | 96.3 |
| Marek.Zidlicky | D | 1 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 83.33% | 15.2 | 67.1 | 39.5 | 106.6 |
| Brendan.Smith | D | 3 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 80.00% | 15.4 | 62.3 | 35.1 | 97.4 |
| Jimmy.Howard | G | 0 | 30 | 21 | 6 | 77.78% | 50.9 | 68.4 | 33 | 101.4 |
| Riley.Sheahan | C | 6 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 77.78% | 14.6 | 69.9 | 37 | 106.8 |
| Stephen.Weiss | LC | 2 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 77.78% | 13 | 64.8 | 37 | 101.9 |
| Niklas.Kronwall | D | 0 | 16 | 10 | 3 | 76.92% | 19.2 | 78 | 28.1 | 106.1 |
| Kyle.Quincey | D | 2 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 75.00% | 17.6 | 71.5 | 27.2 | 98.7 |
| Tomas.Tatar | LR | 9 | 17 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 17.7 | 84.8 | 27.1 | 111.9 |
| Pavel.Datsyuk | CL | 5 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 71.43% | 16.4 | 77 | 29.3 | 106.3 |
| Jonathan.Ericsson | D | 0 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 66.67% | 16.4 | 62.2 | 36.6 | 98.7 |
| Gustav.Nyquist | LR | 6 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 62.50% | 16.5 | 72.8 | 40.1 | 112.9 |
| Luke.Glendening | C | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% | 6.3 | 66.9 | 57.4 | 124.3 |
| Joakim.Andersson | C | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% | 6.3 | 67 | 57.4 | 124.5 |
| Drew.Miller | RC | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% | 6.4 | 56.3 | 56.3 | 112.6 |
Even the sacrificial lamb line couldn’t get fewer than 50% offensive zone starts.
Check out more from war-on-ice.com, including the visualized shift chart here.
Final Say
I hope the Wings don’t let this game get to them.
Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca
