CSSI: 11/18/09 vs. Dallas

It should come as no surprise to anyone that most of the coverage from the loss to Dallas has centered on the whole Dennis LaRue “intent to blow” situation. A situation which was not helped in any way, shape or form when NHL VP Mike Murphy went on air and tried to explain LaRue’s logic without even have talked to the guy since it happened. Whatever. We knew that was coming, just like we all know the call was crap.

Lost in the fury of the “no goal”, however, was the fact that the Wings came out and played another one of their infamous “uninspired” games. Dallas took it to the Wings and, goal or no goal, Detroit had no business winning the game on Wednesday. Was it as bad as the whoopin’ up in Toronto? No. Was it disappointing? You betcha. Not much hustle, sloppy defensive zone play and 0-4 on the power play will do that to a team.

I’ll let the numbers do the talking the rest of the way.

Season CSSI numbers are updated here.

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CSSI: 11/18/09 vs. Dallas

Goal 1 (PPG) (DAL 1 DET 0): Mike Ribeiro (6) from Brad Richards (15) and Stephane Robidas (7) at 9:26, First Period

• Wings on ice: Zetterberg, Cleary, Stuart, Ericsson

• DP(-): Stuart (-1) for completely over-running Ribeiro as he receives the puck in the zone. Ericsson (-1.5) for, oh I don’t know, flailing around on the ice and scoring on his own goalie?

Goal 2 (DAL 2 DET 0): Matt Niskanen (1) from Brad Richards (16) and James Neal (10) at 3:52, Second Period

• Wings on ice: Helm, Draper, Eaves, Lidstrom, Kronwall

• DP(-): Helm (-0.5) for the turnover in the defensive end. Lidstrom (-1) for having the puck come right to his stick, failing to clear it and turning it over to Richards. Eaves (-1) for being completely out of position, preferring to float around in the middle of the ice rather than stay up top and challenge the shot from Niskanen.

Goal 3 (DAL 2 DET 1): Henrik Zetterberg (9) from Ville Leino (2) and Brett Lebda (2) at 6:16, Second Period

• Wings on ice: Zetterberg, Leino, Cleary, Lidstrom, Rafalski

• HP(+): Lebda (+0.5) for the nice stretch pass from his own zone (Funny, Lebs isn’t on the ice for this one when it finally finishes). Leino (+0.5) gets some love here, even though I think his assist was more about luck and the puck finding Zetterberg than it was any sort of skill. Zetterberg (+1.5) for yet another highlight reel goal. Seriously sick finish. Cleary (+0.5) gets some love as well for doing a nice job of cutting to the net and taking Grossman right out of the play, leaving Hank to beat Richards and then Auld.

Goal 4 (PPG) (DAL 3 DET 1): Loui Eriksson (9) from James Neal (11) and Mike Modano (2) at 12:43, Third Period

• Wings on ice: Zetterberg, Cleary, Kronwall, Stuart

• DP(-): Kronwall (-0.5) for coming out a bit too high on Modano and failing to get back into a good position to block Neal’s pass. Stuart (-1) for doing absolutely nothing but watch Neal’s pass zoom by him to the waiting stick of Eriksson when he had every chance to break the pass up or get in the way of it. Complete laziness.

Miscellaneous Points:

• HP(+): May (+1) for the complete obvious. Plus, the guy finally won a fight again. Abdelkader (+1) for bringing the hustle on a night where nobody else bothered.

Chart time:

Tags: Dallas Stars