Welcome back to the Rank ‘Em Roundup. Right around the last time we were doing this, the Red Wings were announcing a brand new seven-year extension for Justin Abdelakder, so that one got a little lost in the shuffle. We’ve seen another six games since then, but we’re only going in five-game increments, so clear the St. Louis game from your mind.
Detroit went 2-2-1 for a total of 5 points in those 5 games, but they continued to trend up in important possession numbers. Let’s go to the votes to see how they made the fans feel in that stretch.
Votes tallied as of November 21st
| Player | GP | Total Diff | Total Percent | Avg Diff | Avg Percent |
| Dylan Larkin | 5 | 708 | 96.21% | 141.6 | 95.01% |
| Pavel Datsyuk | 5 | 582 | 81.46% | 116.4 | 89.08% |
| Petr Mrazek | 3 | 277 | 77.65% | 92.33 | 74.03% |
| Alexey Marchenko | 5 | 531 | 74.15% | 106.2 | 82.33% |
| Mike Green | 5 | 262 | 69.02% | 52.4 | 58.30% |
| Andreas Athanasiou | 4 | 369 | 68.69% | 92.25 | 79.19% |
| Tomas Tatar | 5 | 414 | 67.36% | 82.8 | 71.92% |
| Gustav Nyquist | 5 | 325 | 58.49% | 65 | 65.07% |
| Teemu Pulkkinen | 5 | 239 | 53.95% | 59.75 | 70.14% |
| Darren Helm | 5 | 259 | 51.57% | 51.8 | 58.84% |
| Henrik Zetterberg | 5 | 222 | 49.09% | 44.40 | 57.23% |
| Riley Sheahan | 5 | 205 | 48.83% | 41 | 54.56% |
| Brad Richards | 1 | 56 | 46.15% | 56 | 81.82% |
| Danny DeKeyser | 5 | 184 | 45.69% | 36.80 | 51.13% |
| Justin Abdelkader | 5 | 99 | 42.04% | 19.8 | 50.07% |
| Jakub Kindl | 4 | -70 | 28.03% | -17.5 | 28.22% |
| Drew Miller | 5 | -61 | 25.59% | -12.2 | 33.46% |
| Jimmy Howard | 2 | -97 | 25.00% | -48.5 | 21.83% |
| Niklas Kronwall | 5 | -77 | 24.80% | -15.4 | 33.02% |
| Jonathan Ericsson | 5 | -170 | 22.45% | -34 | 29.20% |
| Luke Glendening | 5 | -292 | 16.58% | -58.4 | 20.37% |
| Brendan Smith | 1 | -70 | 12.82% | -70 | 18.18% |
| Joakim Andersson | 1 | -72 | 4.21% | -72 | 4.21% |
Rank ‘Em Links
Game 1 (3-2 L vs San Jose)
Game 2 (3-1 L at Boston)
Game 3 (4-3 OTW at Ottawa)
Game 4 (2-1 OTL vs Washington)
Game 5 (3-2 W vs Los Angeles)
The Awards
Rank ‘Em Ruler: I’m going to have to just name this award after Dylan Larkin, he wins it so much. At this point, the only people giving Larkin the thumbs-down are super-grumps, drunk people, and the occasional opposition fan trying to screw up the numbers.
Roller Coaster Tycoon: Henrik Zetterberg won the up-and-down award this time around by going positive against the Sharks, Sens, and Kings while hitting the lows against Boston and Washington. His negative differentials weren’t that low, but they were definitely offset wildly by the +116 against Ottawa
Mr Meh: Drew Miller won the no-thumbs trophy for this week, earning 313 passover votes by people who didn’t feel strongly enough to vote one way or another. Justin Abdelakder usually wins this one, but Miller had him by almost 80 (non)votes. Nik Kronwall earned 2nd with 309 neutrals.
The Pincushion: Smith and Andersson took heavy negative votes in their one game played each, but Luke Glendening got in all five and pulled a negative ranking in each, for a total of -292. Glendening got easier usage than he’s used to, but he made a number of big, obvious mistakes in goals against the Wings this week, driving him to be the only player to go negative in all five games.
#1 in your Hearts, #1 in your Rotation: Petr Mrazek got into three games to Jimmy Howard’s two, earning positive rankings in two of three games. Jimmy Howard gave up 3 goals on 14 shots against the Sharks to pull a negative and then got a negative ranking for beating Ottawa because the Wings blew a two goal lead in the third period. Mrazek is starting to stand out (even more) as the fan favorite.
Working the Averages
Since not every game is voted on equally, let’s take a look at how everybody worked out by average rankings rather than totals.
| Player | GP | Total Diff | Total Percent | Avg Diff | Avg Percent |
| Dylan Larkin | 5 | 708 | 96.21% | 141.6 | 95.01% |
| Pavel Datsyuk | 5 | 582 | 81.46% | 116.4 | 89.08% |
| Alexey Marchenko | 5 | 531 | 74.15% | 106.2 | 82.33% |
| Brad Richards | 1 | 56 | 46.15% | 56 | 81.82% |
| Andreas Athanasiou | 4 | 369 | 68.69% | 92.25 | 79.19% |
| Petr Mrazek | 3 | 277 | 77.65% | 92.33 | 74.03% |
| Tomas Tatar | 5 | 414 | 67.36% | 82.8 | 71.92% |
| Teemu Pulkkinen | 5 | 239 | 53.95% | 59.75 | 70.14% |
| Gustav Nyquist | 5 | 325 | 58.49% | 65 | 65.07% |
| Darren Helm | 5 | 259 | 51.57% | 51.8 | 58.84% |
| Mike Green | 5 | 262 | 69.02% | 52.4 | 58.30% |
| Henrik Zetterberg | 5 | 222 | 49.09% | 44.40 | 57.23% |
| Riley Sheahan | 5 | 205 | 48.83% | 41 | 54.56% |
| Danny DeKeyser | 5 | 184 | 45.69% | 36.80 | 51.13% |
| Justin Abdelkader | 5 | 99 | 42.04% | 19.8 | 50.07% |
| Drew Miller | 5 | -61 | 25.59% | -12.2 | 33.46% |
| Niklas Kronwall | 5 | -77 | 24.80% | -15.4 | 33.02% |
| Jonathan Ericsson | 5 | -170 | 22.45% | -34 | 29.20% |
| Jakub Kindl | 4 | -70 | 28.03% | -17.5 | 28.22% |
| Jimmy Howard | 2 | -97 | 25.00% | -48.5 | 21.83% |
| Luke Glendening | 5 | -292 | 16.58% | -58.4 | 20.37% |
| Brendan Smith | 1 | -70 | 12.82% | -70 | 18.18% |
| Joakim Andersson | 1 | -72 | 4.21% | -72 | 4.21% |
Observations
Alexey Marchenko is really popular as a defenseman. Part of this is the thing where he’s a younger guy and just about anything is more popular than a lot of the Wings’ defensemen who haven’t been good enough these last few years, but that sells Marchenko short. Sure, he gets kind of easy third pairing duties, but he’s well-positioned, strong with the puck, and doesn’t make mistakes very often at all. Marchenko doesn’t stand out, but that’s exactly his job.
Jonathan Ericsson earned one plus and DK got two minus performances. The two have been paired together lately taking on some real tough competition, but I think they’ve done a real good job as the Wings’ top shutdown pair. Riggy still turns the puck over more than anybody, but the DK effect on him has been positive.
Pavel Datsyuk is back! Hey, it’s an easy observation, but I just want to take a moment and appreciate how amazing he still is with the puck.
It’s weird seeing Darren Helm not earning more positive votes considering the effect he’s had on Luke Glendening’s wing. A big part is also that the Glendening line isn’t taking nearly as many minutes against top scoring threats, but Darren Helm has singlehandedly turned that line into one that’s capable of transition instead of simply dumping the puck out of the defensive zone.
Ranking the Refs
| Player | GP | Total Diff | Total Percent | Avg Diff | Avg Percent |
| The Refs | 5 | -417 | 10.05% | -83.4 | 11.16% |
The Refs did best against San Jose, according to the voting, earning a mere -24 ranking in a game that featured only three power plays total. Washington earned the refs 34% of their total differential, as the Caps were given six power plays to the Wings’ two. Fans were especially displeased with the fact that the Caps got away with two different too-man-men plays while Detroit got called for one in the third period. The Refs are never going to win, but yeah they were shit.
Blash’s Class
| Player | GP | Total Diff | Total Percent | Avg Diff | Avg Percent |
| Jeff Blashill | 5 | 128 | 42.17% | 25.6 | 49.33% |
Blash earned a positive differential overall, but is drawing too many neutal votes to have an approval rating over 50%. The coaching took hits for San Jose (where Detroit outshot the Sharks 2-to-1 and lost), and against Boston (where they were very bad), but got positive ratings in the last three games where they got five out of six points. Amazing what winning does for the coach’s popularity. huh?
– – –
We’re already one game into the next five-game segment, as the Wings took out the Blues in overtime. We’ll get back with you once we’re all done with four more.
