Red Wings Game Analysis, After-Action Report for Wednesday February 18th: Detroit Red Wings 3 – Chicago Blackhawks 2 (SO)

If I were to tell you the Red Wings would take their three-game losing streak into Chicago where they’d be badly outshot, get one power play to the Hawks’ four, and that it would go to a shootout, would you believe me if I told you the Red Wings won? Of course you would, because you probably read the title of this post which gave away the score. That’s not important right now though.

Box Score Here

Neither team scored on the power play and the Hawks outshot Detroit 34-28. In general terms about how the team that has the puck more often gets more power play opportunities, this game fit that narrative. I thought the reffing was pretty bad in this one while also admitting that the Hawks deserved to have more power plays.

Jimmy Howard earned both points for the Wings in this game. He had a wonderful outing and actually won a shootout. Corey Crawford made a few robbery-type saves, but he was less tested.

Guide to plus/minus adjustments

The Goals

2nd Period 16:10 – Detroit Goal: Tomas Tatar (wrist shot) from Darren Helm and Riley Sheahan
The Wings get the first goal of the game on one of their few good rushes up ice to this point in the game as Helm finds Tatar wide open on the back doorstep. The play starts in the Wings’ zone as Datsyuk and Kronwall with support from Tatar are able to win a board battle against the Hawks’ forecheckers, allowing Datsyuk to walk behind his own net to start a breakout play. Versteeg chases him immediately, forcing him to come out where Kane pinches straight on him and Richards pinches in from the side. Datsyuk calmly beats this with a pass up ice to Tatar jumping out of the zone coming up the right wing side. Helm joins along coming from the left to the center lane while Ericsson also jumps into the play crossing into the Hawks’ zone on the left wing side. Tatar pulls up on Duncan Keith just inside the zone and drags him to the middle of the zone before throwing a backhand pass to the point he just left. Riley Sheahan comes off the bench and tries to control the puck only to have it bounce off his stick all the way down to Helm at the net-front. Helm shields it away from Seabrook to Crawford’s left as everybody collapses to that side of the net. Helm turns a bit and throws a backhand across the crease where Tatar meets it for the open net. I’m going to give Kronwall back the plus that DeKeyser gets for them changing behind the play, since Kronwall was involved in the possession change which became this rush. Datsyuk will get a plus for helping create this goal despite not being on the ice. Helm and Tatar will each get a half-plus for their great work in keeping this play going to its ultimate conclusion.

2nd Period 16:49 – Chicago Goal: Brandon Saad (wrist shot) from Marian Hossa
The Hawks tie it up shortly as Saad gets some space thanks to an uncalled offsides. The fourth line ices it off the post-goal faceoff and then Glendening loses the defensive zone draw, giving the Hawks some good opportunities. After Quincey and Glendening work to get the puck loose for Andersson in the corner, Joker messes up an attempt to dump the puck high out of the zone as Rozsival keeps it in. Glendening does a good job to angle off Toews behind the net on the dump, which gives Quincey an opportunity in the corner. Q dumps it up off the glass, but Hossa gets it just across the blue line and tries to dump it back in only to have it hit Glendening exiting the zone. Glendening gets the puck, but can’t get it past Hossa along the boards, who is able to punch it away from Quincey and Andersson to Saad coming up through center. Saad gets the puck and brings it into the zone just after Hossa crosses the blueline (the missed offsides). Hossa dives the center on Quincey while Saad brings it up the right side against DeKeyser. DK recognizes that Hossa has a step and so he is forced to back off far enough to let Saad get to the top of the circle where he snaps it by Howard to tie it. There’s a lot of silly stuff here and this goal shouldn’t have counted for the offsides. However, I don’t think that clears anybody of blame here. It was a bang-bang call and the Wings made too many mistakes on this sequence to just forgive everybody. I am going to clear Miller’s minus, as he’s doing his job on this play the entire time. Glendening will keep his minus for the faceoff loss, but he made two good plays to get the Wings clearing opportunities which I feel warrant him not getting the extra punishment that the lost faceoff would usually bring. Andersson and Quincey will each get a half-minus for their failed clears and another half-minus for the inability to cover the neutral zone play. DK will keep his minus for not being able to block or get enough out of the way of the Saad shot, although I do recognize he was put in a bit of a hard spot.

3rd Period 17:54 – Detroit Goal: Darren Helm (wrist shot) from Pavel Datsyuk
The Wings take the lead late on a great keep-in that turns into a greasy net-front goal. Detroit gains possession as Saad tries to get fancy at the point in the Detroit zone and has a cutesy pass picked off by Quincey, who then makes a smart spin to keep it away from Saad before backhanding it up the boards for Tatar to enter the zone on the right wing side with Helm coming up the middle. Tatar finds DeKeyser trailing behind the middle lane for a shot attempt that misses wide. Saad gets it along the boards and turns up ice with Tatar hassling him into losing control of the puck just as Datsyuk steps up inside the blue line and takes the puck away. This play catches both Seabrook and Oduya heading the wrong direction while Helm is all alone in front of the net to receive a pass from Datsyuk. Crawford tries to poke it away from Helm, who recovers and throws a backhander at the goalie which is stopped. Helm takes another chop at it and this time bounces it into the net off Seabrook’s leg. I’m going to give Quincey a plus for the steal and pass that starts this sequence. I’m going to give Tatar a half-plus for helping keep Saad from getting it cleanly out of the zone. I’m also going to give Datsyuk a plus for the steal and feed that makes this one happen.

3rd Period 18:37 – Chicago Goal: Kris Versteeg (slap shot) from Duncan Keith
And again, the Hawks tie it again shortly after on essentially the same play. Chicago gets the puck deep with 1:37 to go and is able to pull Crawford for the extra skater. Glendening and Ericsson can’t get it around the forecheckers and Versteeg gets it past Sheahan at the wall back to Duncan Keith at the point with space to pull the puck towards the middle. With Miller standing in Keith’s shooting lane, Sheahan races off the boards to challenge him, allowing Keith to pass it off to Versteeg coming off the boards at the top of the circle. Versteeg one-times the puck from here. Howard is able to stop it, but the puck bounces off the goalie, then off Niklas Kronwall in front of the net and in. I’m going to clear Andersson and Miller as guys who were watching their lanes like they should have been. Glendening and Ericsson will each get a minus for losing the puck to the forecheck while Sheahan will get a minus for the bad coverage allowing the Hawks to set up this shot. Kronwall’s going to get a minus for getting himself turned around and batting the puck into his own net.

The Penalties

1st Period 09:15 – Bryan Bickell (slashing) against Drew Miller: Chicago takes the first penalty as Bickell chops Miller’s stick in the neutral zone, breaking it. No adjustment.

1st Period 11:11 – Justin Abdelkader (hooking) against Brandon Saad: Hossa and Saad get a shorthanded rush that Howard has to save. Abby gets caught behind his man and hooks him to stop the chance. Minus for Abdelkader.

1st Period 18:25 – Kyle Quincey (high sticking) against Ryan Hartman: Quincey gets his stick up playing bad defense and goes for a sit. Minus for Quincey.

2nd Period 06:29 – Teemu Pulkkinen (hooking) against Brad Richards: The Wings are doing good work in the offensive zone when Teemu Pulkkinen lifts Brad Richards’ stick and Richards asks the ref for a penalty. Richards gets his way and Pulkkinen sits. No adjustment. This is a bad call.

3rd Period 08:38 – Justin Abdelkader (interference) against Patrick Sharp: Abby isn’t watching where he’s going on a backcheck and he knocks over Sharp away from the puck. What a dumb play by Abby, who will get a minus.

Total Adjustments

Full Season Chart Here

Possession Metrics

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

I knew the penalty differential was a big part of the reason the Wings got generally killed on possession, but I’m amazed that anybody on the Wings was double-digit positive for even-strength Corsi, although if I had to guess one person, I definitely would have picked somebody from the Datsyuk line, who pretty well handled the Toews & Hossa line. I thought Zetterberg’s line looked pretty invisible, but their roughly even attempts came because they lost secondary matchups. Zetterberg’s line actually got the better of Richards and Kane. The bottom lines got absolutely murdered.

Zone matching with lower lines taking defensive zone starts was the plan for this one.

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

Final Say

Two times, Babcock tried to keep things calm after a Red Wings’ goal by putting defensive forwards out there and both ties it bit him in the ass.

Corsi Timeline from Hockeystats.ca