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Red Wings Game Analysis, After-Action Report for Sunday March 8th: Detroit Red Wings 3 – Boston Bruins 5

The Wings lost back-to-back regulation games for the first time all season, dropping a 5-3 matinee game in Boston on Sunday.

Box Score Here

Reffing wasn’t bad in this game, but special teams were. Detroit went 1-for-5 on the power play, but allowed two power play goals on Boston’s five chances and allowed another two power play goals on their own chances. shots ended up 39-30 for Detroit in the score effects derby.

Niklas Svedberg allowed to soft ugly goals and won. Jonas Gustavsson lasted two periods.

Guide to plus/minus adjustments

The Goals

1st Period 04:15 – Boston Goal (SH): Brad Marchand (wrist shot) unassisted
Weiss gives a puck away in the neutral zone and Marchand puts it into the Detroit net for the first goal of the game. Easy-to-adjust on this one. Zidlicky keeps his minus for a bad cross-ice pass and Weiss gets an extra minus for the turnover that leads to the goal. Abdelkader, Zetterberg, and Cole are cleared.

1st Period 07:01 – Detroit Goal: Gustav Nyquist (wrist shot) from Kyle Quincey
Goose gets us back to even as he slides a wrister from the high slot that gets through Svedberg. After a good zone entry and forechecking by Sheahan’s line leads to a couple opportunities, the Bruins get control of the puck as a corner-to-corner pass buys a bit of time for Krug. Nyquist bears down on him and he tries to get out of the zone with a pass up to Lucic along the boards, but Quincey has just come off the bench and is pinching in. Lucic can’t tip it past Quincey out of the zone and Nyquist is able to follow up by poking the puck away from both of them and through the legs of Spooner, recovering with a look in the middle of the ice. Seidenberg comes out to challenge right as Nyquist releases a wrister that sneaks right through Svedberg. I’m going to give Cole’s and Zetterberg’s pluses on this play back to Sheahan and Pulkkinen, who were actually involved. Further, I’m awarding Sheahan a plus for all his work on this shift to keep the Bruins hemmed in. Quincey keeps his plus and earns an extra half plus for the good step-up on Lucic, but DeKeyser will give his plus back to Smith while Zidlicky will also get a shift change adjustment for his role in how the play develops. Nyquist will earn a half-plus for taking the puck off the scrum and getting to the middle with it.

1st Period 09:12 – Boston Goal (PP): David Pastrnak (wrist shot) from Milan Lucic and Reilly Smith
The Bruins’ power play gives them back the lead as Pastrnak snipes top corner from the dot. Detroit gets a whistle 1:12 into the power play as Monster catches a shot. Andersson ties up the ensuing faceoff and the puck ends up getting swept behind the Wings’ icing line with Lucic winning the race to it and resetting it to the point for the zone setup. After moving it low to the far side, the Bruins get it back up top with a fully set-up power play. Reilly Smith goes to Pastrnak on the outside of the left circle for a quick pass to Lucic in the middle. The PKers swarm on Lucic immediately, so he moves it right back to Pastrnak with a different angle now that the PKers are bunched up. This gives the Bruins’ forward space to walk to the dot and snipe it past a Carl Soderberg screen into the top shelf. I’m going to give half-minuses to the entire PK team here as everybody is doing something just a little bit wrong, which allows the very good movement by the Boston PK to finish the play. Sheahan and Andersson miscommunicate, leaving neither covering Lucic well enough in the middle. This draws Quincey up out of Pastrnak’s shooting lane which he doesn’t get back into. Smith isn’t fighting for net-front positioning, so he’s doing nothing to prevent the Soderberg screen (if he were trying to push him off, Smith likely is in the way of Pastrnak’s shot too. It’s a domino failure here.

2nd Period 11:44 – Boston Goal (SH): Daniel Paille (wrist shot) unassisted
Paille gives the Bruins their 2nd shorthanded goal of the day on another turnover, this time at the Boston blue line. Detroit has to bring it out from behind their own net after a Boston clear, which they do with Kronwall feinting up the middle before doing the drop pass at his own blue line. With two people to the right, one to the left, and Kronwall standing still in the middle at the blue line, Weiss chugs up through the neutral zone against a Boston defense in a very small box that’s still heavily centered. Weiss tries to step around Kronwall and feed it to Abdelkader on the weak (left) side while accelerating to the net, but has his pass knocked down by Paille, who doesn’t take long to get going the other way on what is now a breakaway. Paille makes a weak move and slides it through Gustavsson for his first of the game and Boston’s 2nd shorty. Abdelkader, Zetterberg, Kronwall, and Cole will be cleared. Weiss will get a turnover minus for his second breakaway-giving mistake of the game.

2nd Period 18:39 – Boston Goal: Daniel Paille (wrist shot) from Maxime Talbot and Gregory Campbell
Daniel Paille earns a multi-goal game against the Wings because hahaha. The Bruins get an offensive zone faceoff against a frankenline as Tomas Tatar doesn’t get his stick down on a pass from Kyle Quincey, causing the puck to get all the way down ice. Campbell wins the draw to Talbot, who steps across the circle from the inside faceoff position and circles down to the trapezoid before throwing a pass out front to Paille who had crossed over from the opposite edge of the circle to win a position battle and pop the Talbot pass into the net. Miller will be cleared here as he’s in position the whole time. Zetterberg will get a half-minus for losing the faceoff and Tatar will get a half-minus for the missed pass that leads to the icing. Quincey will get a minus for the bad angle he takes and letting Talbot get the pass to the middle while DeKeyser will get a minus for losing the position battle against Paille.

3rd Period 01:24 – Detroit Goal: Luke Glendening (wrist shot) from Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar
Glendening gives the Wings life early in the third as he squeaks a stinker through Svedberg. Kelly misses a pass to Soderberg leaving the Boston zone which allows Ericsson to pick it up at center and feed it back to Tatar, who tries to tip it to Glendening re-entering the zone only to have that miss when Glendening chooses to keep coming back defensively. Datsyuk picks up the puck and circles around before throwing a little juke on Lucic which gets him into the zone in the center lane. Pavs hits Glendening on the right-side lane entering the zone, sneaking him in behind the changing Bruins and with the defenders leaning the wrong way a bit. Glendening gets to the top of the circle and fires a wrister that sneaks through Svedberg for the Wings’ 2nd goal of the game. No adjustment here. Boston changed badly and their goalie gave up a softy.

3rd Period 04:03 – Boston Goal (PP): Loui Eriksson (tip-in) from Patrice Bergeron and Ryan Spooner
Boston regains the three-goal lead on the power play as Eriksson pops one in. Datsyuk loses the faceoff, allowing the Bruins to set up to the point and then go cross ice for Spooner to ring one off the post that Krug recovers at the far half-wall and resets to Hamilton at the top of the zone. Hamilton goes back to Spooner on the right side to drag low to the outside quadrant of the circle before feeding it back to Bergeron for a one-timer from the right side of the slot. Howard stops this, but Eriksson is all alone on the doorstep to jam under him before he can reach out and protect the puck. Datsyuk will get a half-minus for losing the faceoff and then another half-minus for the coverage on this play which allows two high-quality scoring chances. Glendening will get a half-minus for not being on Bergeron immediately and Quincey a half-minus for not being in Bergeron’s shooting lane. DeKeyser will get a half-minus for being too far away from the near post where Eriksson sits uncovered.

3rd Period 06:02 – Detroit Goal (PP): Marek Zidlicky (wrist shot) from Tomas Tatar and Pavel Datsyuk
The Wings refuse to die as Zidlicky mails one into the top corner past a screen. Detroit gets set up as Datsyuk wins the faceoff back to Zidlicky in the zone. After moving to the umbrella point, Zidlicky goes to Tatar on the right side to walk up and down the coverage looking or a hole before he goes back up top after drawing both Bergeron and Marchand below the tops of the circles. Zidlicky receives it on his backhand and holds for a moment while Marchand comes up to get in his lane. Marchand stops about ten feet in front of Zidlicky and just tries to take up his shooting lane, cheating just a bit to the left side where Datsyuk is up. Zidlicky looks that way and even fakes a pass to get Marchand to bite before backing farther to the right to get a clean shot away. Sheahan is at the net-front, but its actually Zdeno Chara who prevents his goalie from seeing this shot. I’m going to give Datsyuk, Tatar, and Zidlicky each a half-plus on this play for winning the faceoff and getting the PKers out of position.

The Penalties

1st Period 03:13 – Reilly Smith (slashing) against Henrik Zetterberg: Hank is dangling against three Bruins when he gets his stick knocked out of his hands by a slash by Smith. Zetterberg will get a plus.

1st Period 07:42 – Danny DeKeyser (hooking) against Chris Kelly: The Wings’ top line is struggling to get out of their zone against a line of nobodies and Detroit takes a penalty for it as DeKeyser wraps his stick into Kelly’s midsection on their way to the boards for a loose puck. Minus for DeKeyser.

1st Period 12:03 – Niklas Kronwall (interference) against Milan Lucic: Detroit once again gets hemmed in their own line and take a penalty. This time it’s Lucic winning a battle in front and drawing Kronwall into interfering with him. Kronwall gets a minus.

1st period 18:21 – Loui Eriksson (interference) against Kyle Quincey: Loui Eriksson sets a pick for his teammate in the offensive zone and gets a sit down for it. No adjustment.

2nd Period 02:02 – Milan Lucic (goalie interference): Lucic bowls over Gustavsson and sits. No adjustment.

2nd Period 10:02 – Gregory Campbell (holding) against Drew Miller: The Wings get another power play as Campbell cheats his way into the sin bin. Campbell is losing a race to center and reaches out to slow down Miller as a result, earning himself a penalty. Miller will get a plus for keeping his feet moving through this.

2nd Period 12:27 – Drew Miller (tripping) against Patrice Bergeron: Miller comes on and lazily takes Bergeron down swinging his stick wildly. Minus for Miller.

3rd Period 03:50 – Joakim Andersson (high sticking) against Dougie Hamilton: Easy call to make here as Andersson loses body position and fails on the stick-lift. Minus for Andersson.

3rd Period 05:42 – Carl Soderberg (tripping) against Brendan Smith: Smith trips over an errant stick in his own zone as Soderberg lazily swipes at him. I’m going to give Smith a half-plus. He makes a good move here to create the right situation.

3rd Period 15:53 – Riley Sheahan (hooking) against Chris Kelly: Sheahan takes the wrong angle on a forecheck and hooks Kelly. bad time to take a penalty. Minus for Sheahan.

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 -2 -4 -2 -2
Joakim Andersson 1 -1.5 -0.5 -1 -1.5
Teemu Pulkkinen 1 1 1 1
Justin Abdelkader 1 -2 0 2 2
Tomas Tatar 1 0 0.5 -0.5 0
Riley Sheahan 1 0.5 1 -0.5 -1 1 0.5
Henrik Zetterberg 1 -2 -0.5 -0.5 1 -1 2 1.5
Gustav Nyquist 1 1 1.5 0.5 0.5
Erik Cole 1 -1 0 -1 2 1
Pavel Datsyuk 1 1 0.5 0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5
Luke Glendening 1 1 0.5 -0.5 -0.5
Drew Miller 1 -1 0 -1 1 1 1
Niklas Kronwall 1 0 -1 1 0
Jonathan Ericsson 1 1 1 0
Brendan Smith 1 1 -0.5 0.5 1 1
Marek Zidlicky 1 -1 -0.5 0.5 0.5
Kyle Quincey 1 -1.5 0.5 -2 -1.5
Danny DeKeyser 1 -3.5 -1.5 -1 -1 -3.5

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

Full Season Chart Here

Possession Metrics

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

Name Pos iCF C+/- F+/- ZSO ZSD ZS% TOI CF60 CA60 CP60
Marek.Zidlicky D 1 21 17 10 1 90.91% 12.1 118.9 14.9 133.8
Brendan.Smith D 1 20 15 8 1 88.89% 11.8 121.5 20.3 141.8
Jimmy.Howard G 0 13 12 10 3 76.92% 15.3 70.4 19.6 90
Teemu.Pulkkinen LR 4 10 8 4 0 100.00% 9.4 95.6 31.9 127.4
Pavel.Datsyuk CL 4 10 8 7 3 70.00% 11.7 81.8 30.7 112.4
Tomas.Tatar LR 3 8 7 7 4 63.64% 12.7 75.8 37.9 113.7
Riley.Sheahan C 2 7 5 4 1 80.00% 12.4 81.9 48.2 130.1
Gustav.Nyquist LR 7 7 6 5 0 100.00% 12.1 84.6 49.8 134.4
Erik.Cole LR 3 7 5 5 3 62.50% 12.3 58.4 24.3 82.8
Henrik.Zetterberg CL 4 5 4 5 3 62.50% 12.8 51.5 28.1 79.5
Luke.Glendening C 5 3 4 6 4 60.00% 11.4 63 47.3 110.3
Justin.Abdelkader RL 2 3 1 4 2 66.67% 11.9 50.5 35.4 85.9
Jonas.Gustavsson G 0 2 -2 6 11 35.29% 26.6 60.8 56.3 117.1
Stephen.Weiss LC 1 0 -1 1 6 14.29% 6 50.4 50.4 100.8
Niklas.Kronwall D 4 -1 0 5 5 50.00% 15.3 58.9 62.8 121.7
Jonathan.Ericsson D 1 -2 -1 3 5 37.50% 12.9 55.8 65.1 120.9
Danny.Dekeyser D 0 -4 -5 3 8 27.27% 15.2 27.7 43.5 71.2
Kyle.Quincey D 2 -5 -7 3 8 27.27% 16.7 28.7 46.6 75.3
Drew.Miller RC 0 -7 -8 0 8 0.00% 6.8 17.7 79.8 97.5
Joakim.Andersson C 1 -7 -8 0 8 0.00% 6.4 18.8 84.6 103.4

Score effects and special teams tell the story of this game better than even strength possession numbers.

Name Pos iCF C+/- F+/- ZSO ZSD ZS% TOI CF60 CA60 CP60
Teemu.Pulkkinen LR 4 10 8 4 0 100.00% 9.4 95.6 31.9 127.4
Gustav.Nyquist LR 7 7 6 5 0 100.00% 12.1 84.6 49.8 134.4
Marek.Zidlicky D 1 21 17 10 1 90.91% 12.1 118.9 14.9 133.8
Brendan.Smith D 1 20 15 8 1 88.89% 11.8 121.5 20.3 141.8
Riley.Sheahan C 2 7 5 4 1 80.00% 12.4 81.9 48.2 130.1
Jimmy.Howard G 0 13 12 10 3 76.92% 15.3 70.4 19.6 90
Pavel.Datsyuk CL 4 10 8 7 3 70.00% 11.7 81.8 30.7 112.4
Justin.Abdelkader RL 2 3 1 4 2 66.67% 11.9 50.5 35.4 85.9
Tomas.Tatar LR 3 8 7 7 4 63.64% 12.7 75.8 37.9 113.7
Erik.Cole LR 3 7 5 5 3 62.50% 12.3 58.4 24.3 82.8
Henrik.Zetterberg CL 4 5 4 5 3 62.50% 12.8 51.5 28.1 79.5
Luke.Glendening C 5 3 4 6 4 60.00% 11.4 63 47.3 110.3
Niklas.Kronwall D 4 -1 0 5 5 50.00% 15.3 58.9 62.8 121.7
Jonathan.Ericsson D 1 -2 -1 3 5 37.50% 12.9 55.8 65.1 120.9
Jonas.Gustavsson G 0 2 -2 6 11 35.29% 26.6 60.8 56.3 117.1
Danny.Dekeyser D 0 -4 -5 3 8 27.27% 15.2 27.7 43.5 71.2
Kyle.Quincey D 2 -5 -7 3 8 27.27% 16.7 28.7 46.6 75.3
Stephen.Weiss LC 1 0 -1 1 6 14.29% 6 50.4 50.4 100.8
Drew.Miller RC 0 -7 -8 0 8 0.00% 6.8 17.7 79.8 97.5
Joakim.Andersson C 1 -7 -8 0 8 0.00% 6.4 18.8 84.6 103.4

The 4th line held their own against Boston’s 4th line, but got eaten up by higher matchups.

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

Final Say

The Red Wings found a pretty creative way to let their fans down in this game. It had been a while since we had seen such a complete special teams debacle like this. Stephen Weiss should be scratched. Glendening got a goal from the top line, so I’m sure Babcock will keep him there forever, but I wasn’t terribly impressed. I noticed a few times where it didn’t look like he was skating through people in the third and he had trouble controlling the puck and keeping up with his linemates’ passing all game long.

Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca

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