EDMONTON, Alb…

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The Red Wings lost in a shootout in a game where they gave up the lead with less than a minute to go; a game they had no business being in to start. Detroit played well in the third period, erasing a two-goal deficit, but couldn’t close it out and found themselves on the losing end of a shootout for the first time this season.

Detroit had a full two-minute 5-on-3 and didn’t score. I loathe having to talk about special teams at this point. The Wings are bad at it. The end.

CSSI Methodology Explanation here

Goalie Ratings

I am going to rate both goalies in the head-to-head, since I feel they both warrant consideration. Basically, Ty Conklin loses, getting a -1 in the head-to-head and a -2 in the overall. Conklin did not play well in the first period and didn’t get to play another because of it. On the other side, Joey MacDonald came in and made big saves to keep the Wings from falling farther behind while they got their shit together and started playing better. MacDonald will get a +1 in the head-to-head and a +2.5 overall. Joey Mac saw 23 shots in 45 minutes and had to make several huge saves.

Scoring and plus/minus analysis after the jump

The Goals

1st Period 02:42 – Edmonton Goal (PP): Sam Gagner (snap shot) from Ryan Whitney and Ales Hemsky
The Penalty – Danny Cleary (tripping): Early in the first, Taylor Hall carries into the Wings zone with speed, cuts across the middle, and gets tripped by Danny Cleary. This will earn a minus for Cleary.
The Wings kill off the first minute of the PP, but allow Edmonton to get it set up with extended pressure in the zone. Hemsky, Whitney, and Gagner all combine on the left side of the ice to use their man advantage against Stuart and Zetterberg on that side to collapse them into allowing Whitney to sneak in from the point and get a slap shot off from a good scoring location. Conklin is able to stop this shot, but Gagner is on the doorstep to poke in the rebound behind a very dizzy Brad Stuart. The passing here is good to get Stuart moving around and with his stick on the wrong side of the guy standing at the doorstep. The bigger problem is Zetterberg pinching down on Gagner and leaving the lane open to find Whitney for the initial shot. Zetterberg’s positioning will earn him a minus.

1st Period 05:41 – Edmonton Goal: Jordan Eberle (wrist shot) from Sam Gagner
Ty Conklin stops a puck behind his net for Brad Stuart to pick up and carry to the corner with Jordan Eberle in tow. Stuart tries to go up the boards to Drew Miller, but Sam Gagner steps in front of him at the boards and steals the puck. As Gagner carries down, he throws a sharp-angle backhand on net that Conklin goes down to stop. The puck hits off Conklin and goes behind the net where Jordan Eberle throws it right back on him trying to bank it in. Conklin, likely anticipating a wrap-around attempt has already left his butterfly position by this time, which allows the puck to bounce off his skate and roll across the crease. While four Red Wings within five feet of the goal try to figure out what’s going on, Eberle uses his momentum to meet the puck on the opposite side and tap it in. This is a bad goal by Conklin, which will temporarily clear minuses for Miller, Cleary, Stuart, Lidstrom, and Helm. However, after clearing the minuses automatically, I’m going to give everybody on the ice back some blame. The pass from Stuart is a bit weak and he overskates the play, allowing Gagner past him in the first place. Stu will get back his minus plus a half. Drew Miller is standing still, allowing Gagner to step around him and steal the pass; then, he’s one of the two players standing behind the Detroit net confused about his coverage. Miller will get back his minus, plus a full 2nd. Lidstrom allows Eberle to get around him and beat him to the front of the post he’s supposed to be guarding. This will get Lidstrom the same two minuses as Miller. Finally, both Helm and Cleary are covering high (as in the bottom of the circles) for passes to guys out front, but I would have liked to have seen one of them recognize that the rest of their linemates were in serious trouble and stepped in to keep Eberle from getting to that puck. Helm and Cleary will earn back a half-minus each.

Penalty Adjustment (x3): 8:37 into the first, Niklas Kronwall catches Ales Hemsky skating out of the Edmonton zone with his head down and absolutely blasts the guy with a huge clean check. Corey Potter immediately comes in to start beating up on Kronwall and earns a double-minor when Kronwall refuses to have to fight for delivering a clean check. This is smart by Kronwall and will earn him a plus. While the Wings are on the PP, Henrik Zetterberg gets boarded by Ladislav Smid. This is more of a dumb play by Smid than a hustle play by Z, so there will be no adjustment. Much later in the period (officially called at 18:05, Tomas Holmstrom gets called for hooking in the offensive zone when he gets his stick blade in on Anton Lander after losing positioning on the boards. This will get Holmstrom a minus.

1st Period 19:23 – Detroit Goal (SH): Valtteri Filppula (Ryan Whitney) from Henrik Zetterberg
While on the PK, Brad Stuart catches Jordan Eberle with a bit of a mishandle and uses that opportunity to step up on him and knock the puck to Justin Abdelkader standing higher in the zone. Abby carries it down ice against Corey Potter, trying to deke around him in front of the net. Potter takes Abdelkader out of the play and the puck rolls harmlessly to Dubnyk, who is forced to hold it by Drew Miller following the play. This leads to an offensive zone faceoff for the shorthanded Red Wings which Zetterberg wins back to White for a shot on goal that Dubnyk kicks out. Cam Barker picks it up and skates with it, but he collides with Gagner in the circle to slow them both down and let Zetterberg get over to pressure. Gagner tries to pass it up ice, but the puck deflects off Z’s skate to the middle of the ice where Val Filppula is skating. Flip gets the puck and turns back to the net where he flubs a snap shot off the heel of his stick. The puck hits Ryan Whitney down low and goes in off his skate around Dubnyk. The three men who earned this faceoff, Stuart, Abdelkader, and Miller, will each pick up a plus for helping make this play happen. Zetterberg will pick up 1.5 bonus pluses for winning the faceoff and for the pressure to force the turnover.

1st Period 19:59 – Edmonton Goal (PP): Sam Gagner (tip in) from Ryan Smyth and Ryan Whitney
The Penalty - Tomas Holmstrom (hooking): Covered above.
As time is expiring in the period, Edmonton gets their 2nd power play goal of the period. With 5.7 seconds left, Ty Conklin bails out Ian White by getting his stick on a pass designed for Sam Gagner out front. The puck gets within inches of the blue line before Ryan Whitney gets to it and dumps the puck back to Ryan Smyth at the half-boards with 2.4 seconds remaining. Smyth wastes no time throwing it at the net. The puck gets there with about half a second left, which is enough time for the uncovered Sam Gagner to tip it through Ty Conklin and in. Despite the tip, I don’t like Conklin giving this one up either. He’s playing to push the rebound of the initial shot out high and opens his five-hole in the process. a better choice is to just play big right here and let time expire. Conklin will get another bad goal. However, Ian White plays a fairly terrible set of coverage plays here, starting with the original pass to Gagner that Conklin has to deflect out and ending with him standing nowhere near the net-front as though he’s anticipating the clear and not playing to the horn. White will get two minuses for avoiding Gagner like he stinks. Lidstrom will also pull a minus for not playing the clock right. If he realizes how little time is left, I think Lidstrom should have hustled to pressure Smith before he got the chance to get the shot off.

3rd Period 02:18 – Detroit Goal: Todd Beruzzi (wrist shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen
Early in the third, Mike Babcock switches up the lines and it pays dividends. The Zetterberg-Franzen-Bertuzzi line does good work to get the puck deep in the Edmonton zone. Z and Bert combine behind the net to get it out to Franzen in the low corner. While Jeff Petry goes to challenge Franzen, Smid backs off Zetterberg to keep him from stepping out front and Bertuzzi drags Horcoff around the front of the net. Franzen returns the pass to Zetterberg behind the net, who uses his body to let the puck by so he can turn and get a pass out to the front of the net on the other side. Bertuzzi has beaten Horcoff for positioning out front and gets a shot from point-blank. Dubnyk stops this shot, but Bert jams the rebound under him and in. The good low cycle by Zetterberg and Bert will get them each a half-plus.

3rd Period 05:49 – Detroit Goal: Drew Miller (wrist shot) from Darren Helm and Danny Cleary
A few minutes later, we’re tied. Dan Cleary uses a body-positioning play on Cam Barker in the neutral zone similar to what Zetterberg did to Smid on the previous goal. This breaks Cleary in on for a shot from the top of the circle that Dubnyk stops, but the rebound gets past Gagner and allows Helm to pick it up and start the cycle. Helm goes to Stuart before receiving the pass back. Gagner tries to pinch him off at the boards, but a give-and-go with Cleary frees him. Helm turns back in the corner and goes back to Cleary up the boards. Cleary gives himself room by angling off the boards and dragging Barker with him. This decision gives Helm enough time to slip past Hemsky to the far side while Cleary turns inward. Cleary finds Helm on the far side with the pass. In the split second after the Edmonton defense all turns to face Helm, he delivers a pass to Drew Miller separating from his man out front and in great position to shuffle the puck in around the goalie to tie it. Cleary and Helm do great work here to open lanes and make space to cycle in the zone. Cleary will get 1.5 pluses and Helm a bonus 1. Brad Stuart will also get the third assist on this play.

3rd Period 16:19 – Detroit Goal: Todd Bertuzzi (snap shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Ian White
Late in the third, it looks like Detroit is going to escape this game with two points after a Bertuzzi snipe shot gives him goal #301 on his career. Edmonton dumps it in to get a clear. Joey MacDonald pushes it to Ian White, who gives it to Henrik Zetterberg moving with speed. Z steps around a forechecking Eberle and into the neutral zone on the right wing side. Here, he turns from backhand to forehand to feed it to Todd Bertuzzi with space on the left wing. Bert crosses the blue line as Andy Sutton steps over to cover him. Bert fakes a shot from high in the zone which locks Andy Sutton into “Hit him on the follow-through” mode. Instead, Bert steps around Sutton and into the slot for a snapper around Dubnyk. Joey MacDonald will get the third assist on this play for starting it out to White quickly. Bert’s okie-doke on Andy Sutton makes me laugh every time I watch it on replay and will earn Bert a bonus plus.

3rd Period 19:21 – Edmonton Goal: Jordan Eberle (wrist shot) from Ales Hemsky and Ryan Smyth
With the net empty for Edmonton, they get a bit of a fortuitous bounce and tie it up late. The Oilers get it deep where Eberle and Smyth double-team Brad Stuart behind the net. Smyth tries to feet it out front, but the puck deflects off Kronwall’s skate. Hemsky moves in and tries to put it on net, but the puck bounces up off Kronwall’s stick and lands in front of the crease on the other side. Eberle is right there to collect this puck and put it on net. MacDonald stops the initial shot, but the rebound sits there for Eberle to put in while Stuart scrambles to stop it. This is kind of a tough-luck bounce on everybody’s part, but Brad Stuart has to eliminate the stick. Stu will get a half-minus for this. However, I also feel that the fact that there are three centers (Datsyuk, Helm, Filppula) playing defense here without one of them properly helping Stuart on the boards leads to this. Based on their positioning at the time, I feel Datsyuk deserves the extra minus for his failure to step in and help Stu. Valtteri Filppula and Darren Helm will not get minuses.

Goal Saved Adjustment: With less than 30 seconds to go in the overtime period, Edmonton gets a 2-on-1 that turns into a 3-on-2 rush which ends when Nick Lidstrom makes a save on Ryan Whitney. The play happens when Ericsson is caught sneaking in for a shot attempt that he doesn’t get because the pass from Zetterberg deflects past him for Taylor Hall to pick up and come in on Lidstrom with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins joining. Hall has to saucer the pass over and RNH can’t grab it cleanly. The time lost here means MacDonald is square to him when he controls. Instead of forcing a bad shot, RNH finds Whitney trailing the play right in the slot. MacDonald is not in position to stop this, but Lidstrom’s got his back and is able to stop the surefire goal. Lidstrom will get a plus for this. Additionally, Ericsson will get a minus. It’s not so much being caught by an unfortunate bounce, since you do have to take some risks in OT, but he’s the first guy to get back and essentially covers nobody while this play develops. He was in position to prevent the pass to Whitney and Hall’s momentum carried him around behind the net, making that the actual prudent play to make.

Penalty Non-Adjustments:
1st Period 18:05 – Mike Commodore & Ben Eager (fighting): Whatever, this was stupid.
2nd Period 02:34 - Ryan Whitney (hooking): Emmerton is doing his job to forecheck, but I do not see a hook here.
2nd Period 09:09 – Tomas Holmstrom, Ben Eager, & Mike Commodore (roughing): Cam Barker interferes with Tomas Holmstrom at the Wings’ blue line. Homer responds by grabbing Barker by the head and pulling him down. Ben Eager and Mike Commodore get involved because why the hell not? Detroit ends up shorthanded. The best thing to come out of this whole thing was the FSD cameras picking up the easily lip-read Ben Eager calling Jonathan Ericsson something impolite. No adjustments.

Bonus Ratings

-1.5 to Pavel Datsyuk: Not only was Datsyuk not as noticeable at 5-on-5, but he’s completely failed as the quarterback of the power play. I feel it’s his refusal to force coverage decisions by pressuring defenders which is one of the primary causes of the Wings’ PP woes lately.
-1 to Johan Franzen: A secondary assist for an easy-to-make return pass and an observer’s plus for not ruining Bertuzzi’s rush got him to +2 on the night, but he wasn’t that good. Franzen loafed through much of this game again.
-1 to Brad Stuart & Niklas Kronwall: These two seemed overmatched and slow by the Edmonton forecheck in this game. Not their best night.
-1 to Jonathan Ericsson: Big Rig also took a step backward from a string of good games with a stinker in this one. He was consistently half a step behind where he should have been all night
+1 to Darren Helm & Henrik Zetterberg: The two good centers helped turn the tide in the third period. These two moved their feet well and took space away from their opponents.
+1 to Todd Bertuzzi: Bert skated like a man possessed. He used his size, skated hard on backchecking, and most-importantly, didn’t turn the puck over.

Honorable Mentions:
I still want to give minuses to the entire team for how disgusted I was with their play through two periods.

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I guess there’s something to be said about moral victories. While we as Wing fans don’t get to experience too many of them, it’s important to recognize them when they happen.

Tonight was a moral victory for the Red Wings. This had “trap game” written all over it, and they came out and played like it. Losing puck battles, getting out-skated, terrible special teams, and 3 very preventable goals against later, the Wings were down 3-1 only because of a fluke goal by Valtteri Filppula. It seemed like the first half road Red Wings were back.

The second period wasn’t much better. The Wings were able to contain the awesomeness that is Sam Gagner after he potted another 3 points in the first period in between his attempts to cure cancer and end world hunger, but they couldn’t get any pucks past Devan Dubnyk in their annual “make Dubnyk look like a Vezina winner” game. All seemed lost entering the third period.

But a funny thing happened in the third. The Wings, despite every single fan counting this game as a loss, woke up. Sure it took 40 minutes, but once they got going, it was impressive. Dominating puck possession and tilting the ice towards the Oilers’ end, the Wings got 2 goals from Todd Bertuzzi and one from Drew Miller and managed to actually have a lead with less than a minute to go. Unfortunately, Jordan Eberle, who has a pesky habit of scoring last-minute goals, tied the game at 4 and we headed to overtime.

While the Wings have been dynamite in extra time, it was Edmonton who had the best chances. After stops by the post and Nicklas Lidstrom, the Wings were able to get the game into a shootout, meaning we all thought this was a win for Detroit. But, Pavel Datsyuk missed the net and Joey MacDonald (in relief of Ty Conklin) couldn’t stop everyone and the Oilers got the 2 points they deserved.

After the jump, the late-night bullets.

• We give Babs some shit for not doing things when the Wings aren’t playing well, but switching Zetterberg for Datsyuk was a sublte and brilliant move that immediately paid dividends. It seems like such a small thing, to swap centers, and yet Zetterberg immediately flourished with Bertuzzi and Franzen, chipping in 3 assists and looking fantastic. Tonight was not one of Datsyuk’s better nights, as he looked “off” for the whole game.
• Speaking of Datsyuk, JJ had the following comment in the game thread tonight:
  
  

  It’s time to start criticizing Datsyuk

  He’s money at 5-on-5, but I’m getting tired of watching him lazily hold the puck at the side of the play while the PKers get set to defend all the high-quality plays and leave them with nothing but low-percentage bullshit.

  It’s time for Datsyuk to start putting pressure on the penalty killers.

I wholeheartedly agree with the above. Datsyuk is the player who typically has the puck the most, and he has the ability to influence the play more than anyone on the Wings’ power play.

• Speaking of the power play, what the fuck is going on? 1 for their last 38 on the road, and their inability to get any decent chances while enjoying a 5-on-3 advantage in the first period while down 2-0 was probably the biggest reason why they lost the game. Combine that with a penalty kill unit that seems to give up at least one power play goal a game, and it’s an extremely large area of concern for the Wings.
• Thanks for nothing, Ty Conklin. Seriously, if you’re going to be “the guy” after Jimmy Howard gets injured, you might not want to flop around like a fish on “Deadliest Catch” and then allow a last second shot to get through you after your team miraculously pulls within one. To make matters worse for Mr Plumber, Joey MacDonald comes in an plays great. MacDonald’s play has got to earn him the start on Monday night against Phoenix. The team just doesn’t seem to have any confidence when Conklin’s in net.
• Going after Niklas Kronwall after a clean hit on Ales Hemsky? I thought you were better than that, Edmonton.
• Drew Miller tied his career high in goals for a season, with his 10th of the season. He’s scored 10 each of the three seasons he’s been a Red Wing. He now has 18 points, 1 off his career high set in 2009-10, his first with the Wings. To say that Miller was a good pickup would be a massive understatement.
• Sam Gagner just scored again.
• Congratulations to Todd Bertuzzi, who scored his 300th goal of his career tonight, then added 301 and finished off the “hat trick” by scoring in the shootout (if Edmonton fans are going to throw hats for Gagner, then I’m going to sarcastically call Bert’s performance a hat trick). Haters are going to hate, but good on you for reaching this milestone. For your efforts, you get the coveted WIIM Player of the Game.

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At 83, Mr. Hockey is still in demand and on the move. Gordie Howe is about to embark on another series of fundraisers to support dementia research.
It’s a person…

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Can you believe it? Despite playing like utter garbage, the Wings are still in this game.

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The Red Wings and Canucks met on Thursday night in what very well could be a WCF preview matchup. Detroit carried much of the play, but couldn’t capitalize on mistakes and ended up having to rely on their still-perfect shootout record to pull out a 4-3 victory.

On special teams, Detroit was given four power play opportunities to Vancouver’s one. Neither team converted with the man advantage. The reffing standard was almost good, but I’m not complaining hard considering I feel the Wings got away with a little more than the Canucks. Vancouver’s third period helped stem the tide a little on the shot clock, but Detroit still ended the game with a 43-25 advantage there.

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Goalie Ratings

Jimmy Howard played well enough to earn a +0.5 overall rating for his performance on the night. None of Vancouver’s goals were soft, but it would have been nice for him to have gotten lucky enough to have stopped one of them. He did have to be sharp several times after going long stretches without seeing any action. However, Jimmy was outshined by necessity on the other end. Roberto Luongo stopped three breakaways in the first period and saw 18 more attempts on his net. Howard will get a -1 on the head-to-head through no fault of his own.

Scoring and plus/minus analysis after the jump

The Goals

1st Period 05:27 – Detroit Goal: Danny Cleary (wrist shot) from Darren Helm
Vancouver stops a 1-on-2 Drew Miller rush into their zone and Alex Burrows picks up the puck. In an attempt to hit a homerun breakout, he flips a puck cross-ice through center where a step-up by Darren Helm prevents it from connection. Helm skates to the blue line before dishing off to Cleary on the right wing side and going to the front of the net. Vancouver’s defense collapses to adjust as Cleary comes off the half-boards to angle at the net. Dan Hamhuis is standing at the faceoff dot trying to prevent Cleary from getting cleanly to the net, but he gets okie-doked by an impressive Cleary dangle. Bieksa isn’t there to back up Hamhuis because Darren Helm takes a line to the net-front which both prevents Luongo from seeing Cleary’s shot from five feet away but also keeps Bieksa away from making it. Danny Cleary’s dashing dangle will earn him a bonus half-plus for the guts to go to the middle. Darren Helm will pick up another assist on this play as the screener.

Penalty Adjustment: 6:40 into the first, Alex Edler steps up on Pavel Datsyuk in the neutral zone to try and steal the puck from him. Pavel ends up getting it back and poking it past Edler with a chance to break in. In response, Edler hauls down Datsyuk to prevent the break. This will earn Datsyuk a plus.

Penalty Adjustment: At 11:50 of the period, there’s a puck battle in the Wings’ zone during which Henrik Sedin gets his stick into the midsection of Henrik Zetterberg. Hank clamps down on the stick and Sedin lets go, throws his hands in the air, and waits for the call. Z definitely holds the stick here, but he actually WAS hooked. This will be a half-minus for Zetterberg

1st Period 16:13 – Vancouver Goal: Ryan Kesler (wrist shot) from David Booth and Kevin Bieksa
Late in the first, Vancouver ties it up with some good forechecking work. A shift and a half of good neutral zone defense by both teams creates a give-and-take while both teams try to get the puck into the other zone. Finally, Vancouver collects in their own zone and goes for a stretch saucer pass off the stick of Kevin Bieksa. Pavel Datsyuk deflects the pick out of the air and into his own zone to create a dump-in for the Canucks. David Booth is already moving with speed into the zone and gets to the puck in the corner first with Datsyuk trying to body him off, Brad Stuart covering behind the net to the side Booth is facing, and Kronwall coming in for support. Booth outmuscles Datsyuk to escape off the boards and gets and interior angle on Kronwall as he tries to bring it in front of the net for a chance. Kronwall gets his stick in and combines with Howard to block off the low near-side corner, but the fracas takes both Kronwall & Booth out of the play while leaving the puck to slide to the top of the crease, where a crashing Ryan Kesler puts the rebound home. Responsibility for this one is going to fall on the three low men on the play. Franzen and Bertuzzi will have their minuses cleared. Each of the three other defenders will pick up extra blame. Datsyuk cannot lose this board battle to Booth while allowing him to escape to the inside. If Booth has to take the puck back around the boards, then fine, but you cannot let a guy escape with a line to bring it to the front of the net. Kronwall has a lot to cover here and should be able to trust that the board battle isn’t going to end this way, but he’s too far to the outside of the positioning here and is not adequately covering. This leads to Kronwall getting taken out of the play with Kesler being unguarded. Stuart takes a risk in taking a step fully behind the net to cut off Booth and he gets burned. If he’s covering the far post and minding Mason Raymond, there’s a good chance he’s actually in front of the net with a chance to keep Kesler off the rebound. Stuart gambled and lost. Of the three mistakes, Datsyuk and Stuart will each get a full minus, while Kronwall will get only an extra half-minus. I feel the mistakes of his teammates put more pressure on Kronwall to cover more angles than he can. He still goofs up, but not as badly.

2nd Period 13:51 – Detroit Goal: Jiri Hudler (slap shot) from Valtteri Filppula and Brad Stuart
Detroit finally gains the advantage in a period where they badly outskate their opponents. Vancouver breaks a low forecheck by the Wings’ 2nd line, but some good work on the boards by Valtteri Filppula against Jannik Hansen keeps Vancouver from carrying out of their own zone. Hansen is forced to dump the puck into the neutral zone and regroup while Kronwall picks up the puck at center and immediately goes across to his defensive partner. Stuart lets the neutral zone defense adjust to the other side of the zone before going back across one more time to Valtteri Filppula at the blue line. Flip brings in with space while Zetterberg loops back in on the far side just in front of Hudler in what is now a 3-on-3 rush. Hansen angles to Filppula while Salo skates to keep him from getting a lane to the net. The 2-on-1 coverage on Filppula means the opposite on the far end as while this is happening, Zetterberg drives the net to tie up Edler with Hudler backing off into the empty space behind them. Filppula finds Hudler with the pass at the top of the circle that Hudler collects and fires over Luongo from the hash marks. Niklas Kronwall will get the third assist here. I’m going to give both Brad Stuart and Valtteri Filppula bonus half-assists on this play for their vision to make a tight neutral zone defense stretch beyond its bounds. The patience by both to let the defense adjust before making them reverse and adjust again creates all the space they need here. Henrik Zetterberg will pick up a non-touch assist for dragging Edler out of the way for Hudler. Also, Filppula’s forechecking work to stifle transition and force the neutral zone turnover will earn Flip a bonus plus.

Penalty Adjustment: Late in the 2nd period, Jonathan Ericsson chases down an iced puck in his own end with Jannik Hansen on his tail. E gets there first and slides to stop, but Hansen jabs Ericsson’s skate blade and brings him down. The hustle here is good for a half-plus for Ericsson.

3rd Period 10:10 – Vancouver Goal: Alexandre Burrows (slap shot) from Maxim Lapierre
Vancouver’s pressure throughout the first part of the period pays off as their forecheck creates a turnover and a a goal to tie it. Two Canucks consistently dog the puck as Ericsson and Kindl combine to look for a way out of the zone. The two Wings defenders manage this from the low corner to Howard’s right as they find the third man outlet in Drew Miller coming around behind the net to take a short pass from Ericsson and start carrying up ice. As Miller follows the round of the far boards, he’s first met by Jannik Hansen taking a run at him which forces him to cut inside to avoid the check. This cut slows him down enough for Maxim Lapierre to catch him from behind and Alex Burrows to get in front. Miller tries to drag it between both of them, but Burrows pokes it off his stick Lapierre just gets his stick on it before Ericsson can get to it and pokes it back to where Burrows meets it. The Canucks’ cannibal fires a slapper from pretty much the exact same spot Hudler had in the previous period and sees the same result. A large majority of the blame on this goal goes to Drew Miller. Kindl, Cleary, and Helm will be cleared of minuses on this play. Ericsson earns an extra half-minus. He’s the last man back on the play and can’t prevent this from developing after the turnover. I’m actually not worried that he got beaten to the puck by Lapierre as much as I’m concerned that he’s too far up ice. There’s a good chance that if he stays below the hash marks until Miller is farther up ice, he has a chance to stop Burrows from getting this slap shot on net. The big mistake is to Miller, who commits a cardinal sin of turning the puck over directly in a high-scoring area. Miller’s turnover goof is good for an extra 1.5 minuses.

3rd Period 12:05 – Detroit Goal: Drew Miller (wrist shot) from Danny Cleary and Brad Stuart
Shortly after his big mistake, Drew Miller makes amends by regaining the lead for Detroit. Jimmy Howard stops a Dan Hamhuis point shot that he doesn’t see all the way and it deflects to the corner for Brad Stuart to outlet on for Danny Cleary up the wing. Cleary skates across the blue line with Drew Miller joining him off the bench. Miller receives the pass on the left wing while Cleary goes to the net. Miller throws a shot at front that tips off Cleary’s stick and on net. Luongo stops this shot, but the rebound comes back out. Cleary and Booth overskate and Aaron Rome gets his stick on it first; instead of trying to clear it away, Rome tries to pass it softly to Luongo to cover for a whistle. Lu isn’t on the same page and can’t control the puck, giving Miller another whack at the puck to start a scramble. Cleary comes back out front from behind the net and also gets a shot on net. As this third rebound comes off Luongo, it leaves him down and reaching for a puck which gets on Drew Miller’s stick first two feed outside of the crease. Miller pops it over Luongo and Detroit has the lead again. This is a goal scored by two guys while the other three change. Brad Stuart, Nik Kronwall, and Henrik Zetterberg all step off the ice in favor of Jakub Kindl, Jonathan Ericsson, and Darren Helm. I am going to give Kindl, Ericsson, and Helm’s pluses back to Kronwall, Stuart, and Zetterberg. The three that stepped off were all directly defensively responsible for how the previous Vancouver rush ended and the Red Wings’ rush up ice started with the way they played their positions. On the rush, I like the determination of Miller and Cleary to just fight for an ugly goal directly on the doorstep (something some guys on the top line could learn from, I feel). Cleary and Miller will get half-pluses.

3rd Period 15:36 – Vancouver Goal: Mason Raymond (wrist shot) from Sami Salo and Henrik Sedin
Before they can run out the clock, Detroit again surrenders the lead on a deflected shot. Darren Helm loses a defensive zone faceoff, which is pushed back to Sami Salo at the point. Drew Miller pressures him, so he goes to Mason Raymond at the half-boards. Kronwall skates out to pressure him as Raymond takes two steps off the boards and throws a wrister which deflects off Brad Stuart and into the net. Cleary and Miller will have their minuses cleared. Miller is doing his job by forcing the point man to dump it off to a side option and Cleary’s on the other side of the ice covering Salo while this is all going down. Kronwall will keep part of his blame, but it will only be a half-minus. There’s a lot of interference going on after this faceoff which prevents him from cleanly separating from the scrum and getting to Raymond sooner. Darren Helm will get an extra minus for losing the faceoff cleanly. Brad Stuart will also get an extra minus on the “don’t deflect it past your own goaltender” rule. Stuart sees this puck coming and reacts to it. He either needs to get all of it or none of it and he fails at that.

Penalty Non-Adjustments
1st Period 19:19 – Ryan Kesler (cross checking): Kesler obviously remembers Kronwall’s hit on him in the last game, as he forechecks in on #55 to deliver a cross-check which breaks Kesler’s own stick. I almost want to give Kronwall credit for being in Kesler’s head enough to make him take such a ridiculously immature penalty, but ultimately, it’s up to the Hipstler to be a grown-up here, something he consistently fails to do.
2nd Period 06:22 – Kevin Bieksa (high sticking): Zetterberg is skating into the Vanouver zone behind Kevin Bieksa (Kesler is covering for him) and Bieksa goes for one of those lazy stick-checks on a guy to let him know that you’re right behind him. Bieksa’s even more careless than usual on a play like this though, and his stick ramps up to get Zetterberg high. Lazy penalty by the Vancouver D-man here.
2nd Period 13:53 - Justin Abdelkader & Maxim Lapierre (fighting): Those two men angrily hugged.
3rd Period 07:44 – Todd Bertuzzi & Keith Ballard (fighting): Those two men also angrily hugged and the angrier of them won the fight because the other angry one tried low-bridging him, which he angrily did not appreciate.

Bonus Ratings

+1 to Henrik Zetterberg & Valtteri Filppula; +0.5 to Jiri Hudler: Henrik Sedin did manage to get an assist in this game, but that was only after the defense played by this line forced Alain Vigneault to split up the wondertwins. Zetterberg and Filppula were absolutely stifling in their own zone. Hudler had several key backchecks to prevent good entries as well.
-1 to Johan Franzen: Mule put 9 attempts towards the net (4 SOG), but he was playing away from contact again and many of those shots were simple non-dangerous perimeter shots. I’d love for those to go in, but Franzen needs to be fighting for the tough spots on the ice and he was not doing that in this game.
+1 to Darren Helm & Justin Abdelkader: The speed and tenacity of these two gave Vancouver’s lines fits all night. Both of them did a very good job killing the Zetterberg penalty and had the kind of nose for action that would have made me happy to see either of them get a shift on the power play.
+1 to Nicklas Lidstrom and Jonathan Ericsson: Yeah, I put them together just to make you cringe. Despite having drastically different assignments, these were the two most consistent defensemen on the team for confident positional defense.

Honorable Mentions:

Ian White played well as Lidstrom’s partner, but he also had far too many mistakes in his own end to earn bonus consideration. Jakub Kindl held his own, but he continues to fall into shaky shifts. I get the feeling that Kindl needs to get himself a Kronwallian goal and he’ll get the confidence to start playing like a puck-moving shut-down defender.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia &ndas…

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The Oilers put on a show Tuesday night.

22-year-old Sam Gagner scored four goals and added four assists to tie Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey for the franchise record of eight points in a single game. The Oilers ended the game with an 8-4 victory over the Blackhawks. Before Tuesday, Edmonton had only scored nine goals in their previous four games before the offensive explosion. Hopefully they shot their load on offense and they return to their normal ways tonight.

Of course, news broke yesterday that Jimmy Howard is out with the tip of his finger broken. That means it’s up to Mr. Conklin to close the door. And while he’s played better recently, if Gagner plays like he did last game he might be breaking Darryl Sittler’s record of 10 points in a single hockey game.

Joking aside, the Wings are finally above .500 on the road (15-14-0) and, even without Howard, the Oilers are a team Detroit should beat. They’re capable of stealing a game (as they did against Chicago), but the Wings talent is better, older and wiser. The division battle is close and the team has put an emphasis on playing better on the road. Tonight is a chance at two more points and another step in the right direction.

The race for the playoffs continues with a second stop in Alberta. The rest of the Central is right on the Wings heels. Don’t let the points slip away.

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The Copper & Blue is your SBNation Oilers’ blog.

Puck drop is just after 10p ET on Fox Sports Detroit.

The Expected Lineup

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Johan Franzen — Pavel Datsyuk — Todd Bertuzzi

Valtteri Filppula — Henrik Zetterberg — Jiri Hudler

Danny Cleary — Darren Helm — Drew Miller

Jan Mursak — Justin Abdelkader — Tomas Holmstrom

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Nicklas Lidstrom — Ian White

Niklas Kronwall — Brad Stuart

Jonathan Ericsson — Mike Commodore

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Ty Conklin (starting)

Joey MacDonald

Scratches: Cory Emmerton and Jakub Kindl

Injuries: Patrick Eaves (jaw) and Jimmy Howard (finger)

RED WINGS	HOW THEY MATCH UP	OILERS
35-16-1 (71 pts; 1st in NHL)	Record	20-26-5 (45 pts; 14th in West)
3.10 (5th in NHL)	Goals Per Game	2.57 (18th in NHL)
2.33 (6th)	Goals Against Per Game	2.82 (20th)
17.8% (16th)	Power Play %	21.4% (3rd)
80.9% (23rd)	Penalty Kill %	82.6% (15th)
Johan Franzen (19 goals)	Goal Leader	Jordan Eberle (20 goals)
Pavel Datsyuk (53 points)	Points Leader	Jordan Eberle (50 points)

• The Red Wings are 55-36-13-10 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Edmonton Oilers franchise.
• The Oilers are 3-0-1 in their last four games. They have wins over the Blackhawks, Avalanche, and Sharks and their OT loss was to the Canucks. Not too shabby.
• In the “Doesn’t Matter in Tonight’s Game But it’s a Great Stat and Makes the Blackhawks Look Stupid” Department: Edmonton has outscored Chicago 17-6 at home this season.
• Potential trade target Ales Hemsky and his 16 goals and 20 assists will be in action for the Oilers tonight.
• Former Oiler Ty Conklin is 4-2-0 with a 3.02 GAA, .900 SV% and one shutout against his former team.
• Jiri Hudler has four goals in the last three games. Valtteri Filppula has a new career high 41 points already this season. Happy times for everyone. Detroit’s “youth” is stepping up.
• The Wings are 7-0-0 (including a 2-1 OT thriller at H2H2) in their last seven games against Edmonton.

Prediction: Mr. Conklin will be serviceable. The Wings depth will come through and the third line will continue to play well and chip in a goal. The Datsyuk/Franzen/Bertuzzi line will wake up and be the best group on the night. Wings win 5-3 and Pavel Datsyuk is your player of the game.

Let’s Go Red Wings.

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The first period started out pretty slow with both teams feeling each other out and a lot of neutral zone play. Later in the period with Smith in the box for his third penalty of the game, Hamilton got a powerplay goal from Fortier. The Griffins got it back when Conner in the circle hit Minard in the slot for a quick redirection and a Powerplay goal. There was a big scrum in the corner late in the period with Callahan in the middle. Pyett took down a Bulldogs player with just a couple of seconds left to break up a scoring chance. Shots on Goal: GR 8 – Ham 8.

The Bulldogs started the second really taking the puck to McCollum and taking over the game. Another penalty by Pyett put Hamilton on the powerplay and they capitalized right away with Willsie clanking a shot in off the post. The Griffins are having all sorts of penalty trouble and can’t stay out of the box. Another man advantage goal makes it 3-1 Hamilton. FitzGerald took runs at several Grand Rapids players and it came to a head when he was dumped in front of the Griffins net and then attacked Smith with his stick. FitzGerald completely melted down and had to be restrained by the linesman and forcibly removed from the ice. He was given a high-sticking major and a game misconduct. Exelby also went to the box cutting the PP to three minutes. Sloppy play by the Griffins while 4 on 4 ended up in the net behind McCollum to give the Bulldogs a 4-1 lead. Another Griffins penalty pretty much killed off the rest of the major and then the Bulldogs scored again to add insult to injury. Shots on Goal: GR 6 – Ham 16.

Pearce in for McCollum to start the third. Ehrhardt lost the puck right in front and almost made it 6-1. GR showing a little life in the third. Henry came out of the box, picked up the breakout pass and went in alone on Pearce but shot it wide. Janik wrested a shorty from the point that floated past Lawson to cut the lead to three. But that was all the offense the Griffins could muster and the game ended. Shots on goal: GR 15 – Ham 4. For the Game: GR 29 – Ham 28.

Lines:
Tatar – Ferraro/Coetzee – Pare
Nyquist – Andersson – Brunnstrom
Minard – Johnson – Conner
Callahan – Raedeke – Coetzee

Pairings:
Lashoff – Ehrhardt
Janik – Pyett
Exelby – Smith

Starter: McCollum
Backup: Pearce

Scratches:
Aubry
Parkes
Piche

PP:
Tatar – Ferraro – Pare
Janik – Pyett

Nyquist – Andersson – Brunnstrom
Exelby – Smith

PK:
Johnson – Conner
Janik- Ehrhardt

Tatar – Pare
Exelby – Lashoff

Raedeke – Callahan

Observations:

Brutal game, not much good to say.

Ehrhardt and Lashoff looked solid most of the night and are really developing into some good young blueliners.

Smith was agitated and undisciplined and was noticeable for the wrong reasons.

Willie Coetzee made some great plays tonight including a pair of passes that he banked off the boards to himself on the same rush to beat Hamilton players while rushing the puck up the ice. If he can find the confidence to do that on a regular basis, he should be very dangerous.

Brunnstrom did a great job in the neutral zone to break up plays and send the puck up ice. You could tell Hamilton was a little frustrated they couldn’t get the puck by him.

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EDMONTON, Albe…

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