No pleasantries tonight, folks. Let’s get to the nitty-gritty. I’m not going to go quite as in-depth in this one on the setup, but I’ll be thorough in the adjustment explanations.
CSSI Methodology Explanation here
Goalie Ratings
Jimmy Howard lasted one period and gave up four goals. He’s the goalie of record and will get the -1 in the head-to-head as well as a -2 overall. He actually did have to make a couple of big saves (which is extra-sad), but he was just about as sharp as the guys in front of him. Ty Conklin came in on relief and played two periods, giving up another three goals. Conklin won’t get a head-to-head rating (if he did, he’d lose that too), but he’ll get an even rating overall. I didn’t much like the goals he gave up, but he made more big saves and was left out to dry a bit more.
Scoring and plus/minus analysis after the jump
The Goals
1st Period 05:08 – Montreal Goal: Rene Bourque (tip in) from Scott Gomez and Raphael Diaz
Scott Gomez is able to come up ice with speed as they break the Wings’ forecheck and get around an ineffective neutral zone trap. Gomez is able to skate all the way down the boards unimpeded before getting to the bottom of the circle and throwing the puck at the front of the net. The puck hits Rene Bourque charging hard on the back door and goes into the net. Primary fault here is Brad Stuart’s. Every single Wings player is between their blue line and the red line when Gomez moves up. Stuart gives far too much gap behind Drew Miller forcing Gomez to the outside and this leaves him open to get all the way into the zone with speed. Stuart will get an extra minus. Kronwall is in a tough spot caused by the speedy entry, I’d like if he’s looking at this pass though. Kronner will also pull an extra half-minus. Miller and Helm keep their minuses for being part of the failed forecheck and not preventing the speed through center. Bertuzzi had just stepped on, but he was the only thing standing between Gomez and hitting Tomas Plekanec coming in late through the slot. Bert will not get a minus.
1st Period 10:56 – Montreal Goal: Alexei Emelin (slap shot) from Andrei Kostitsyn
The Wings let Montreal change and set a rush while holding the puck behind their own bench for 12 seconds. Montreal turns this into a clean zone entry and forecheck, which is heartily won by Andrei Kostitsyn and Lars eller over Henrik Zetterberg, Ian White, and Jakub Kindl. Kostitsyn gets enough of a step on Kindl as he steps from the corner around behind the net that he forces Kindl to haul him down. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop him from getting the puck out top where Emelin picks it up, brings it to the middle just above the circles, and fires a slapshot through Howard. Again, there are no cleared minuses, as the entire line allows too much space for the Habs to move. Kindl will get a penalty minus for the one he would have taken had the goal not happened. Kindl will also earn a coverage minus, as will Zetterberg and White. These three lose two different board battles to only two Canadiens players. Hudler will also get an extra half-minus, as the pass from Kostitsyn from behind the net goes right past his stick.
Penalty Adjustment: 16:12 into the first, the Wings are still on a power play when Jakub Kindl traps himself against a PKing Tomas Plekanec just outside of Detroit’s zone and turns the puck over to him. Kindl chases Plekanec through the Detroit zone and eventually hooks him. Kindl will get a minus.
1st Period 17:58 – Montreal Goal: David Desharnais (wrist shot) from Erik Cole
Detroit spends a bunch of time in the Canadiens’ zone on a 4-on-4 trying to find a seam before Datsyuk gets bold and tries to beat two of them. The resulting turnover leads to an odd-man rush with David Desharnais carrying up the left wing, Raphael Diaz on the other side, and Erik Cole following up. Kronwall gets back to pressure the puck-carrier with Stuart trying to cut off the passing lane. Desharnais angles off the boards toward the net to put pressure on Howard. As he makes his very first move, Howard bites on it and opens his legs to move laterally. Desharnais is actually trying to cut over to his backhand and put it in, but he loses the puck. Fortunately for him, he loses it directly through Jimmy Howard and this turns out to be your game-winner. This is a bad goal for Howard. It’s almost like a breakaway here, but you just can’t get beaten by a puck that weakly rolls of a guy’s stick like that. Minuses for Stuart, Datsyuk, Kronwall, and Franzen are auto-cleared. Franzen is the only one whose minus remains cleared on this play, as he’s standing net-front when the puck is turned over. Stuart gets his minus. He’s back on the play, but there’s some confusion as to who should be covering whom as they come back into the zone. Kronwall picks his minus back up on a coverage mistake, as he’s caught when Erik Cole comes out of the zone with it. Datsyuk will pick up 1.5 minuses for the turnover.
1st Period 19:33 – Montreal Goal: Tomas Plekanec (backhand) from Rene Bourque and Tomas Kaberle
Commodore has an outlet blocked, but recovers. Next Kindl has an outlet tipped and the Habs get the puck back at center. Montreal turns it back into the Wings’ zone through some completely ineffective neutral zone defense. Kaberle passes to Bourque for a one-timer from 50 feet. The puck deflects off Commodore as it goes in on Howard, which causes him to misplay it and kick the rebound out front on the other side. Plekanec is there to collect before Kindl can pick up what’s happened and Howard can recover. He slides it into the net on the backhand from the right hash marks. I’m more forgiving on what is a really tough bounce for Howard here, but I’d desperately like to see him react better to the puck changing direction here. At any rate, Commodore will get an extra 1.5 minuses and Kindl and extra 2 minuses. This whole shift is a comedy of errors by these two. Both get outlet passes blocked and both completely fail to play effective defense. Commodore changes the direction of a shot to make his goalie make a harder save and Kindl isn’t paying attention to the stick he needs to eliminate. None of the forwards are cleared though. They do not set up well on the transition defense and allow Montreal to create the chance in the first place. In fact, I’m going to give Cleary and Miller each an extra half-minus for allowing a cross-ice pass from Gomez to hit Kaberle in stride streaking into the neutral zone on the far side. They’re both about equally as responsible for making sure that’s not an option, but they don’t communicate well enough.
2nd Period 01:52 – Montreal Goal: Max Pacioretty (wrist shot) from David Desharnais and Erik Cole
Erik Cole tips a puck from his own end all the way into the Detroit zone where Max Pacioretty beats Ian White to it on the boards and sets it to the point where a shot deflects high over the net out front and takes a crazy bounce back in front. Zetterberg forces the Desharnais shot wide while Conklin scrambles to that side. This brings the puck behind the net on the opposite side of the scramble. Pacioretty is the first player on it down low as he brings it out front and roofs it over a sprawling Conklin. Valtteri FIlppula will have his minus cleared here, as he’s consistently covering guys on the other side of the play. Zetterberg will keep his minus; while I like his coverage on Desharnais out front, he loses an offensive zone faceoff on this play. Ian White losing the board battle will cost him an extra half-minus. Jiri Hudler will get an extra half-minus. As stupid as it is, Pacioretty is his responsibility by this point and he recognizes that far too late to do anything about it. The reason the net-side coverage is Hudler’s job here is because Jonathan Ericsson follows Erik Cole halfway up the fucking zone for no reason and leaves that spot for Hudler to cover. There’s not a good reason for Ericsson to do this instead of releasing his coverage of Cole to Hudler at the top of the zone and getting back down. This mistake will be worth two coverage minuses for Ericsson.
2nd Period 04:18 – Montreal Goal (PP): David Desharnais (wrist shot) from Max Pacioretty and Tomas Kaberle
The Penalty – Jonathan Ericsson (tripping): Ericsson tries a sweep check on Plekanec as he enters the Detroit zone, misses, and goes to the box for tripping his guy. Cut-and-dry minus for Ericsson here.
Montreal keeps it in and cycles for 50 seconds on the power play before Desharnais beats Ty Conklin short side from low in the circle. Conklin is too deep in his crease and gives up far too much space. This will be credited as a half-bad goal. However, another miscommunication between Kronwall and Stuart leads to this. One of them needs to challenge Desharnais and neither end up doing so right. The miscommunication will earn both Stuart and Kronwall a half-minus.
Penalty Adjustment: about two minutes after the PP goal, Darren Helm draws one for Detroit as he does a good one-man dump & chase to get around the Montreal defense. As he does, Alex Emelin chops him down before he can get to the puck. Helm will get a plus.
3rd Period 00:21 – Detroit Goal: Jiri Hudler (wrist shot) from Darren Helm
Detroit’s line-blender works as Ian White collects a turned over clearing attempt and dumps it back in to help the forecheck. a Montreal whiff of another clearing attempt leaves the puck on Helm’s stick to cut through the middle above the circles. Helm is covered so he goes across the grain back to Jiri Hudler, who makes a move on Scott Gomez and roofs it from below the dot. I like the forechecking pressure here, but a lot of what creates this goal is sloppiness by the Habs. However, some of that sloppiness was forced. Cleary & Helm force Kaberle to try a rushed pass to Plekanec in the middle which turns it over to white. Then a Brad Stuart step-up leads to Gomez turning it over to Helm. Cleary & Helm will get half-pluses while Stuart will get a full plus. Ian White will also get a half-assist (third). Even though his dump back in led to a temporary change of possession, I feel it was the right play.
3rd Period 06:07 – Detroit Goal: Jiri Hudler (wrist shot) from Mike Commodore and Niklas Kronwall
The Wings’ third line cycles well around the zone before a shot from the right side by Commodore goes through a screen off Price and to Jiri Hudler standing on the back door for the easy put in. Cleary will get a screener’s assist for making sure price doesn’t see the Commodore shot. Again the forecheck by this line does good work to create turnovers and space. Hudler, Helm, and Cleary will all pick up pluses. Hudler will get a half-assist (self) for getting it to Kronwall to set the play. Helm wlll also pick up a non-touch assist.
Penalty Adjustment: Ericsson loses the puck skating out of his own zone and takes out Erik Cole to prevent the breakaway his turnover would have caused. It’s a good penalty to take when you’re covering up for a teammate. When you’re covering for yourself, you still get a minus, like Ericsson here.
3rd Period 18:37 – Montreal Goal: Erik Cole (wrist shot) from Lars Eller
Stuart misses a hip-check on Erik Cole as he enters the Detroit zone. Cole recovers the puck and gets around Kindl to skate below the net. Instead of coming out the other side, Cole turns back and tries to feed Lars Eller in front. Eller is prevented from putting it in, but is able to recover the puck in double-coverage and throw a backhander into the crease. Erik Cole daylights in the back door just as this happens and gets his stick in to tip it home. Stuart’s missed check and failed coverage on Eller will get him a minus and a half. Kindl’s failure to cover by pinning Cole to the boards and then failure to cover by eliminating Coles’ stick on the back door is worth the same minus and a half. No forwards get cleared here, as they let the defense get outmanned down low. Also, Hudler and Helm are part of what led to the Montreal transition.
Penalty Non-Adjustments:
1st Period 05:45 – Lars Eller (tripping): Just bad stick positioning on the one by Eller. Not drawn by White
1st Period 14:04 - Hal Gill (hooking): Hal Gill steps directly into Todd Bertuzzi off a faceoff and goes to the box for it. This is the kind of interference play that gets called probably about 10% of the time, but it’s not a drawn penalty by Bert.
1st Period 16:40 - PK Subban (elbowing): Stupid move by Subban to blindly retaliate for a nothing play on Cleary.
Bonus Ratings
None
Honorable Mentions:
Danny Cleary was a +1 officially on the night and if he weren’t already, I was going to give him one to make sure he was. He was the brightest of the dim bulbs. It’s weird not giving out bonus adjustments, but everybody who was awful paid for it in the goal adjustments and everybody who was less-than-awful was just otherwise too invisible or earned his praise in the adjustments for Detroit’s two goals. Jakub Kindl had such an amazingly bad night it’s scary.
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