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Too many Scrooge-ups cost Red Wings in 2-1 loss to Florida Panthers

Posted on by J.J. FromKansas

The Wings welcomed Florida into their barn for the penultimate pre-Christmas match for both teams. The Wings were riding high off a 4-1 win over Carolina on Thursday while the cats were reeling from spending that same night getting lit up by the Leafs 6-1.

Roberto Luongo back in net for Florida but no Bjugstad. Jimmy Howard back in net for the Wings, but no Helm, Mantha, DeKeyser, Brian Rafalski OR Andreas Athanasiou. Let’s see how things turned out:

First Period

The first 1:56 passes without a whistle and features some nice feeling-out back-and-forth (along with three shots on net… two of which were the Panthers’). Just a minute later, Dennis Cholowski takes the first penalty of the game for holding Aleksander Barkov in the Wings’ zone. Just eight seconds into the power play, Mike Hoffman receives a pass out front from Huberdeau and one-times it past Howard to make it 1-0 Panthers.

The immediate shift after the goal, the Wings take a bit of time trying to adjust, but end up taking the momentum into the first commercial break, as a good shift by the Larkin line keeps extended pressure on in the Florida zone. Nyquist and Abdelkader both get good looks in front of Luongo which are stopped.

The play gets a bit choppier from there with not a lot going on until the 9:40 mark when Micheal Haley gets a penalty for trucking Nick Jensen with a late, high charging hit and Nik Kronwall takes an even-up call for “roughing.”  It’s chickenshit reffing at its finest, giving us two minutes of 4-on-4 skating.

The next eight minutes or so just kind of slog by with the play staying mostly around the edges of the ice until the Panthers get speed in transition up ice that turns into a 3-on-2 rush and ends up costly for the Wings’ defense as Evgenii Dadonov finishes the pass to the middle from Huberdeau to make it 2-0 Panthers.

Shortly after, Detroit gets a power play as McCann trips up Kronwall heading into the boards in the Detroit zone. Some good looks come from the Vanek behind-the-net setup, but Larkin doesn’t get as much on the best scoring chance as he wants to and Luongo keeps Detroit off the board for the first 1:52 of the penalty.

The Score: 2-0 Panthers

The Shots: 10-9 Red Wings

Standout Players: Dylan Larkin, Nick Jensen

Sit-Down Players: Michael Rasmussen, Justin Abdelkader

Second Period

I’m starting this period convincing myself that a promising loss is preferable to a cautionary win (you know… loser talk). It helps to start things off that Florida kills off the eight seconds of overlapping penalty to McCann and then immediately Aleksander Barkov earns his first penalty of the season holding Dylan Larkin in front of the net while the Wings’ top line continues pressure.

Again, this power play is political in that it’s full of promise and short on delivery. Interesting to see JDLR get some PP time at least.

Things settle for a while longer in the period, but start looking up at the exact midway point of the game as Thomas Vanek steals the puck from Jared McCann behind the Florida net, battles his way to the front, pulls his own rebound off Roberto Luongo’s stick, and deposits it around the leg pad to make it 2-1 Florida.

The official scorekeeper played the hockey-pokey with the assist on this goal, eventually awarding Dylan Larkin the well-deserved assist to extend his point streak to 10 games.  [They changed their mind again during the third period].

Following that, Justin Abdelkader got an opportunity for a hit on Huberdeau that would have led to a whole bunch of debate about targeting, principal point of contact, and dirty and instead of going for such a check, decide to make a hockey play and separate the player from the puck cleanly, which Mickey Redmond highlighted pretty well on the FS-D broadcast.  I know I spend a lot of time criticizing Abby’s decision-making, but I do want to say I’m real glad to have seen him make the right choice on this play.

Detroit continued to carry momentum for the next little while before Florida got their first scoring chance in a fair bit, seeing Dadonov fed again by Huberdeau for a shot that Howard got enough of to deflect it off the post and out of danger. This was immediately followed by Vanek getting a chance and missing a slapper from the high slot while things temporarily opened up between the two teams.

The last real dangerous play of the period happens as Trevor Daley falls down trying to collect a pass as the trailer into the offensive zone which creates what would be a clean 2-on-1 if not for an aggressive and fast backchecking job by Dylan Larkin to force the puck-carrier into an angled shot that Jimmy Howard stops. The period comes to a close with promise, but also with the Wings still trailing.

The Score: 2-1 Florida

The Shots: 17-16 Detroit

Standout Players: Filip Hronek, Dylan Larkin, Justin Abdelkader

Sit-Down Players: Trevor Daley, Niklas Kronwall

Third Period

The third period starts with a good shift by the Larkin line and continues up to the 1:42 mark when Frank Vatrano takes a penalty for holding onto Nick Jensen chasing own a loose puck into the Wings’ end.  Unfortunately, the next two minutes are the kind of power play execution that leaves the team sapped of any positive momentum going forward and Vatrano comes out with no harm done.

Again, the play devolves into a board-grind all over the ice for a time until the nine minute mark when Nick Jensen changes things up by putting a puck over the glass and taking a seat for delaying the game. This time, the Wings’ penalty kill lasted much longer than a bull-ride as they kept pressure on the Florida PP and prevented any really dangerous chances. In fact, they created two dangerous chances at the end and finished the penalty in the Florida zone where they were able to draw another PP opportunity on the continuation of play when Dylan Larkin was slashed at the net-front.

Sadly, Detroit’s third dangerous-looking power play (and fourth overall) still creates zero goals and the Wings are running out of time to get this game tied up. Dylan Larkin again has the best chance with a shot at the short side that he just can’t place perfectly in the top shelf.

As the Wings pour on pressure trying to tie up the game, Aaron Ekblad solidly rings the pipe with 1:33 left in the game before Detroit can get Jimmy Howard off the ice. Florida ices the puck shortly thereafter, so the Wings do get the empty net setup going for a short while before an iffy offsides call takes the faceoff to the neutral zone and the Wings use their timeout.

1:03 left and Florida ices it again, getting Howard to the bench once more. A bouncing puck costs Nyquist a clean shot, a scrambling Luongo controls rebounds on another opportunity, and a last-ditch Hronek shot gets through traffic, but the Wings can’t solve the Walluongo and the game ends 2-1.

The Score: 2-1 Panthers

The Shots: 34-23 Red Wings

Standout Players: Justin Abdelkader, Dylan Larkin

Sit-Down Players: Tyler Bertuzzi

Conclusion

Well, I said a promising loss is better than a cautionary win and got what I asked for. This was the best the Wings have played in the last few games, but I can’t go so far as to say it was a very well-played game.  They forced Luongo to do a lot of work and drove up the shot count better than they have in a little bit, but spent a whole lot of time trying to find ways to pull the puck off the boards and not much time in useful transition.

Keith Yandle was a dumpster-fire defensively for Florida and got very lucky his team didn’t have to pay for it. Of all the bad things said about the Red Wings’ defense since the retirement of Nick Lidstrom, Yandle looked in this game like he would fit into that narrative perfectly.

Martin Frk hustles his ass off. This is a good thing because it’s not exactly like he has to save his energy. He got one shift in the third period and played only 6:13.  He’s not really good enough to be demanding more ice time, but if I’m Blashill, I might consider giving it to him to make other players more aware that his kind of hustle is rewarded.

We’re in a period of time where every game is basically watching Dylan Larkin shifts and then waiting for the next Dylan Larkin shift to see something interesting.

Detroit is back at it again on Sunday with a visit to Toronto to wish the Maple Leafs well heading into the mandatory holiday break. The roster freeze is in effect, so they can’t leave a Nick Jensen or Luke Glendening under the tree for Mike Babcock, but maybe they can showcase a New Year’s present?

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