By the Numbers: Predators 3, Red Wings 1

When I first started writing here at MW, I told everyone that it would be a work in progress and that I would be making adjustments as necessary to make the blog efficient yet informative. For those of you who are regulars on the site, you know that this includes a pair of posts following each game: one highlighting line production and the other breaking down each scoring play in the game. I get great feedback on both of these, and neither of them will be leaving the site any time soon.

However, one of the things that has been plaguing me is the time requirement involved in putting together two separate posts after each game. Some nights I’ll get done with one and not want to work on the other and it winds up getting delayed by a day or two (just like this one). It’s quickly turning into an issue for me since I continually find myself behind on updates and recaps, which in turn sacrifices my wish to write more opinion/analysis pieces.

So with that in mind, I’ve decided to move forward by rolling the CSSI up into the “By the Numbers” recap, making it one uber recap that will save me from writing two separate recap posts. Yes, the amount of content will remain the same and yes, the length of the posts may get a bit longer, but I firmly believe that writing one longer post will work out better in terms of time commitments from my end, and the length of the posts will only be increased because of the addition of more numbers, not necessarily more words that need to be read. All in all, I think this is the right move but we’ll see how it plays out over the next month or so.

With that…

Postgame Thoughts

I really think the loss of Niklas Kronwall is going to affect us more than any of the other injuries we have seen so far this year, and I think that the game against Nashville is a perfect example of this. The offense sputtered through most of the game, and only really started applying serious pressure in the third period. Whether you believe in this stuff or not, Kronwall’s injury puts a huge dent in the karma of the Wings, given that Nik Jr. has always been an offensive minded defenseman with a big shot and high offensive upside. He’s been integral on the power play this year as well, and with the Wings reliability on power play scoring becoming more and more evident his loss becomes that much more of a damper.

That said, not even Kronwall can help a team that doesn’t show up over the first 40 minutes and fails to kill penalties. The Wings have to get back to special teams excellence if they want to succeed over the long haul, and if you don’t believe me, you are kidding yourself. The Wings have always prided themselves on excellent special teams play, and when the PK finally faltered last year it became a major focal point for improvement during both the postseason and the offseason. However, the struggles continue for the Wings and without as much elite talent as in past seasons (combined with the injuries to key role players)  it’s become a very real struggle to keep their head above water. If the Wings want to steady the ship, they need to start with the special teams.

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Production Charts

*The season totals are updated here and here.

Line Production

Special Teams Production

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CSSI

*Season CSSI numbers are updated here.

Goal 1 (PPG) (NSH 1 DET 0): Jason Arnott (7) from Steve Sullivan (6) and Shea Weber (8) at 10:24, First Period

• Wings on ice: Helm, Eaves, Stuart, Ericsson

• DP(-): Everyone on the ice for the Wings gets a (-1) because that was awful. No hustle, no fight, and everyone standing within two feet of each other when the play was over. Gross.

Goal 2 (PPG) (NSH 2 DET 0): Martin Erat (3) from Joel Ward (7) and David Legwand (8) at 1:41, Second Period

• Wings on ice: Helm, Eaves, Stuart, Ericsson

• DP(-): Stuart (-1) for following the puck instead of picking up Erat as he came into the zone. A really bad mental mistake from Stuart here as he winds up standing all alone in front of Osgood as Erat lets an uncontested shot go.

Goal 3 (NSH 2 DET 1): Drew Miller (1) from Dan Cleary (9) and Jonathan Ericsson (7) at 6:38, Second Period

• Wings on ice: Zetterberg, Cleary, Miller, Lidstrom, Ericsson

• HP(+): Miller (+1.5) for doing everything on this play. After Cleary gets weakly checked off the puck, it’s Miller who comes in, cleans up the mess, and makes an aggressive move to the net.

Goal 4 (NSH 3 DET 1): Martin Erat (4) from Jordin Tootoo (2) and Dan Hamhuis (5) at 17:40, Third Period

• Wings on ice: Zetterberg, Cleary, Miller, Lidstrom, Ericsson

• DP(-): Lidstrom (-1) for covering nobody and failing to step up and pick up Erat in the slot. Yes, Zetterberg probably should have been the guy to pick him up, but Lidstrom has to see that Hank was all over Goc and wasn’t going to disengage him and adjust accordingly. Instead, he stands around with nobody to cover, leaving Erat all day to shoot.

Miscellaneous Points:

• DP(-): Bertuzzi (-1) for just continuing to play poorly. He continues to throw ill-advised passes and doesn’t seem to be keeping up with the speed of his linemates. Most notably, he’s dragging Datsyuk’s game into the gutter with his poor play, which helps nobody.

Chart time:

Tags: Nashville Predators, Niklas Kronwall