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Who is responsible for the Detroit Red Wings’ Game 3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks?

Posted by Mike on May 21, 2013 in Red Wings
The perfect breakout to set up the third goal. Abdelkader take the puck on the half board and calmly makes a play back to Smith. Franzen sees strong position and cuts across the ice from the far ice.

The perfect breakout to set up the third goal. Abdelkader take the puck on the half board and calmly makes a play back to Smith. Franzen sees strong position and cuts across the ice from the far wing.

If there was a game to start believing in this thing, that was obviously it. Not so much because of the 2-1 series lead but because, for once, Henrik Zetterberg played no part in any of the Red Wings goals. Unless you’re a goalie, supreme individual performances don’t work in the playoffs. the best players end up canceling each other out. Gustav Nyquist and his band of merry men stepped in to fill the void.

Allowed

4:35, 3rd Period. 2-1 Red Wings

Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen actually do a good job of forechecking, but Franzen is hit from behind in the corner and loses the puck. The third forward into the zone, Pavel Datsyuk, pressures the defenseman. That forces a flip pass to Patrick Kane. Kyle Quincey, mesmerized, tries to bat the puck out of the air and misses. Brendan Smith hustles back in attempting to make up for Quincey’s mistake, but instead of leaning on Kane, Smith tries sweep the puck away. Kane fends him off and beats Jimmy Howard. Responsibility: Kyle Quincey (0.75), Brendan Smith (0.25)

We’ll just tiptoe around the who was responsible for that “non-” goal that would have tied the game.

 

Scored

7:49, 2nd period. 1-0 Red Wings.

After the Red Wings lose the faceoff, Damien Brunner gets to a loose puck and flips it out of the zone. Gustav Nyquist chases it down, hopscotches around one defenseman, waits out the other, holds on a little longer to wait out Crawford and scores. That might have been a set faceoff play, excluding the whole losing the faceoff part. Back in the day, my team ran had a similar strategy. Whether it was or not, Nyquist gets most of the credit because he did most of the work. Responsibility: Damien Brunner (0.25), Gustav Nyquist (0.75)

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Who is responsible for the Detroit Red Wings’ Game 2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks?

Posted by Mike on May 19, 2013 in Red Wings
Great hustle by Dan Cleary to get into the play and set the pick in front of the net.

Great hustle by Dan Cleary to get into the play and set the pick in front of the net.

Things we knew before Game 2: The Red Wings won. Brendan Smith redeemed himself. Henrik Zetterberg is really good at hockey.

Things we learned after Game 2: The Red Wings defense is the key component of the series. In Game 1. Two major mistakes from defensemen and two minor ones led to three goals. In Game 2 defensemen played major parts in three of the Red Wings’ four goals. If the Red Wings get holed in their own zone and subjected to the Blackhawks forwards, they’re going to lose. If the defensemen can make smart outlet passes and jump into the play offensively,the Red Wings are going to win.

Through two games, it’s been that simple. Take a look at the numbers.

Allowed

14:05 1st period. 1-0, Blackhawks

Brendan Smith steps up to take away a pass, misses, and the Blackhawks go in on a three-on-two. Kyle Quincey does all he can to take away a pass to Patrick Kane and does so, with the pass hitting his stick and going to Michal Handzus.  Dan Cleary goes straight for the puck instead of picking up Handzus, who passes backdoor for the goal.  Responsibility: Brendan Smith (0.5), Dan Cleary (0.5)

 

Scored

2:40 2nd period. 1-1, tied

Damien Brunner forces a turnover in the zone. Gustav Nyquist gets the puck, then gets decapitated. Joakim Andersson chases down loose puck and gives it to Jakub  Kindl, who gives it back to Andersson, who give back to Kindl, who takes a quick wrist shot that finds its way through and is tipped in by Damien Brunner. Responsibility: Damien Brunner (0.25), Jakub Kindl (0.25), Joakim Andersson (0.25), Gustav Nyquist (0.25)

16:08 2nd period. 2-1, Red Wings

The puck is flopped up the boards and Henrik Zetterberg gets it as Niklas Hjalmarsson can’t handle the pressure and falls down. Brendan Smith jumps into the play. The dish. The goal.  Responsibility: Henrik Zetterberg (0.5), Brendan Smith (0.5)

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Your bi-weekly Jose Alvarez/Chris Bootcheck update: The pitching matchup for the ages that didn’t happen

Posted by Mike on May 17, 2013 in Tigers
This throwback photo of Jose Alvarez shows a closer resemblance to the Bag Watcher photo than any other. If there were any doubts Alvarez was our man, they're gone now.

This throwback photo of Jose Alvarez shows a closer resemblance to the Bag Watcher photo than any other. If there were any doubts Alvarez was our man, they’re gone now.

As May neared its midpoint, we knew the series and pitching matchup we’ve all been hoping for was approaching. No, not Tigers vs. Rangers and Justin Verlander vs. Yu Darvish. I’m talking about Jose Alvarez’s Toledo Mud Hens facing Chris Bootcheck’s Scranton Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

But the matchup of mound monsters didn’t happen. Jose Alvarez continued his assassination of hitters on Tuesday, going six innings and giving up just two earned runs while striking out seven. Bootcheck pitched the next day. Maybe the pressure of seeing Alvarez’s performance got to him. Maybe he felt like he needed to give his former team a chance to live. Maybe he thought I was going to be in attendance and got nervous. It was his worst performance of the season.

He gave up eight runs on eight hits in just three innings. The good news is that he only walked two (control has always been a weakness) and, due to his ruthless pillaging of the International League before then, his ERA only rose to a still very respectable 3.00. In the three starts between we last met and Wednesday, he pitched 18 innings, gave up four earned runs and walked five while striking out 13. The Bootcheck legend found a new audience. The one hiccup can’t diminish a solid season.

But Alvarez can. He is done with the talk of the previous James Mungro Memorial Award sponsored by (get at me Videxio) winner. He doesn’t have hiccups. Since we last checked in, Alvarez has given up a total of four runs while striking out 24.  His 1.69 ERA is second in the International League.

He turned 24 earlier this month. He has been confirmed as a real person who can give quotes to the newspaper and everything. He is basically the younger, better, Venezuelan version of Chris Bootcheck. So he can do what his counterpart couldn’t, right? He can get a call up to the major leagues?

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Who is to blame for the Red Wings’ Game 1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks?

Posted by Mike on May 16, 2013 in Red Wings
The beginning of the third goal. Dan Carcillo is the blackhawk in the middle. Somehow he beats all three Red Wings near him to the puck behind the net.

The beginning of the third goal. Dan Carcillo is the Blackhawk in the middle. Somehow, he beats all three Red Wings near him to the puck behind the net.

The Red Wings held out longer than expected, but that game eventually turned into the bus crash you secretly expected it to be. Get ready for the first in what should be a lot of minuses in this series.

Allowed

9:03, 1st period, 1-0 Blackhawks (PP)

Gustav Nyquist takes a hooking penalty. Brendan Smith loses a battle behind the Red Wings net and the Blackhawks get it out to the point. Smith chases out and doesn’t do anything. The puck goes down in the corner to Kyle Quincey who gives it to back to Smith on a pass that may have been intended for Cory Emmerton. Smith fails on his clear, one quick pass to Marian Hossa later and it’s in the net. Responsibility: Gustav Nyquist (0.25), Brendan Smith (0.75)

8:02, 3rd period, 2-1 Blackhawks

Jonathan Ericsson battles in the corner, finally wins the puck and then sends a weak backhand pass up the boards directly to a Blackhawk. The puck comes to Patrick Kane who walks up the boards and draws a puck-watching Dan Cleary to him while Johnny Oduya slips into the slot wide open. Two passes later Oduya puts it off the post and in. Responsibility: Dan Cleary (0.5), Jonathan Ericsson (0.5)

11:23 3rd period, 3-1 Blackhawks

The puck is dumped into the corner and gets caught up on the back of the net. Despite Damien Brunner, Gustav Nyquist and Niklas Kronwall around him, Dan Carcillo beats all of them to puck. Nyquist takes a circuitous route behind the net. Brunner half-heartedly battles for it. Howard tries to hold it against the mesh but fails and gets his stick caught while doing so.

Kindl glides in as the fourth-man into the zone (how a defenseman is the fourth man into the zone, I don’t know), and fails to check for the trailer, Marcus Kruger. Instead, Kindl converges on Michael Frolik, who Kronwall kind of sort of had, and leaves Kruger wide open to find the loose puck and backhand it into the net. This was just horrible defense all around. I’m hesitant to put part of the blame on Jimmy Howard after he stopped 38 shots, but he’s either got to forget about the puck on the net or be strong enough to hold it there and get the whistle. Responsibility: Damien Brunner (0.20), Gustav Nyquist (0.20), Nicklas Kronwall (0.20), Jakub Kindl (0.20), Jimmy Howard (0.20)

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How the Detroit Red Wings became the very team they repeatedly lost to in the playoffs

Posted by Mike on May 15, 2013 in Red Wings

Capture

The Red Wings couldn’t be the pearl of the NHL forever.

That was the prevailing thought after the first lockout. The salary cap would eliminate the Red Wings’ competitive advantage — being able to spend lots and a lots of money. They would regress to the mean. They would, eventually, have to be the ones looking up at the giant.

That time has come.

The 36-7-5 Blackhawks await, the No. 1 seed, the team that swept the Red Wings in the regular-season series.

For the first time since the Red Wings ran off back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998 (and probably even before that), they are severe underdogs in a playoff series. LVH Superbook has the Chicago Blackhawks -340 to win the series. That means you have to bet $340 to win $100. It’s the worst odds of any of the remaining teams. By over 100 points.

Whenever this season comes to an end, it won’t be the same as all those early-round playoff losses to Anaheim and Edmonton and Los Angeles. Those came with the Red Wings as the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in series against what were supposed to be clearly inferior teams. They ran into the hot goalie and some bad luck, squandered a chance at the Cup.

There are no daydreams of a Stanley Cup for this team. For a while it didn’t look like it would ever get a chance to play. But the lockout lifted in January and a few days after it did Mike Babcock gave an interview to the NHL Network. He was asked what effect the 48-game schedule was going to have.

“We’re hoping, like everybody else, to get lucky with injuries,” Babcock said. “You get the wrong people hurt in this business for too long of time, I mean let’s be honest, this year you get a groin pull that’s 10 days, that’s five games. Injuries are going to be significant.”

If it didn’t turn out so badly, Babock would get more credit for being prophetic.

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The four (or five?) people you can thank the most for getting the Detroit Red Wings to the second round

Posted by Mike on May 14, 2013 in Red Wings
This man just won you a series. (clydeorama)

This man just won you a series. (clydeorama)

Sure, the Red Wings beating the Ducks was a team effort and every one in the organization contributed, but let’s get past the cliches. Some members of the Red Wings were more responsible for the win than others. It’s not like that social media intern really made a difference in Game 6. Here are the four people you should be building bedroom shrines to, and one more that will get more than that if the Red Wings upset the Blackhawks.

Henrik Zetterberg - Zetterberg led everybody on the Responsibility Chart with a 2.83 rating, a full goal better than anybody else on the team. He single-handedly accounted for 3.08 goals, while allowing just 0.25. The winning team averaged 3.57 goals in the series. Zetterberg was basically solely responsible for one win.

In total, Zetterberg played a part in 10 of his team’s 18 goals and just one of the Ducks’s 21 goals in this series.

Justin Abdelkader and Dan Cleary - Second and third (1.83 and 1.6, respectively) on the Responsibility Chart, they both did one thing well: go to the front of the net. Filling the void left by Tomas Holmstrom is where the two got most of their points, although Abdelkader became better player after the suspension and Put Da Team on his Back with that shorthanded goal in Game 7. If the stars get you to the finals and the grinders get you to the Cup, these two showed the Red Wings might have the roster to do it.

Mike Babcock - Babcock has become the Mike Tyson of coaching. Before the opponent even steps in the ring they’re scared of him. Take what Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau told the Detroit Free Press before Game 7.

“You’re always looking at the other bench and at who they’re putting on, who is not playing as well for you as you think, and maybe making changes,” Bodreau said. “You try to think three steps ahead, but it’s difficult.

“I know at the end of each of these games, I’m pretty whipped. That tells me I’m having to do more thinking than I really want to do. And besides, when you’re trying to match wits with Mike (Babcock), who has been in every pressure situation in the world, it’s not the easiest thing.”

To simply 92 words into five: Babcock was in his head.

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Who is responsible for the Red Wings’ Game 7 win over the Anaheim Ducks?

Posted by Mike on May 13, 2013 in Red Wings
The puck's path on what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

The puck’s path on what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

(A full series recap is coming later.Also,  the James Mungro Memorial Award Update has been pushed to later in the week.)

No long intros. No short intros. No intros at all except this one telling you that there won’t be any intros. So, I guess this is actually a short intro. So one short intro. I’m confused. Moving on to the numbers.

Allowed

This is essentially a power play goal since Kyle Quincey got out of the box four seconds before the goal went in. Emerson Etem gets the puck in the neutral zone, two steps by Valtteri Filppula and shoots the puck into the zone. It’s not a good dump in and hits Carlo Colaiacovo right on the stick. Colaiacovo can’t control it and gives  it back to Etem, who takes the puck, gets away from Filppula again, steps around a diving Jakub Kindl and beats Jimmy Howard short side. Howard’s angle is way off here. Not sure Kindl needed to go down, but he was taking away the pass to the man driving to the front so it’s semi-excusable. Responsibility: Carlo Colaiacovo (0.25), Valtteri Filppula (0.25), Jimmy Howard (0.25), Kyle Quincey (0.25)

Henrik Zetterberg takes a delay of game penalty. Anaheim misses a shot on the power play, Francois Beauchemin beats Joakim Andersson to the puck and fires it on net, where it hits Jonathan Ericsson in the skate and goes in. Ericsson was literally standing in the crease, not really covering anybody. Responsibility: Henrik Zetterberg (0.25), Jonathan Ericsson (0.25), Joakim Andersson (0.25), luck (0.25)

 

Scored

Filppula takes a low hard shot on net from the top of the circle. Dan Cleary has a good screen in front. Jonas Hiller makes the save with his pad and kicks it out to the slot where Zetterberg comes in and snaps it into the net. Responsibility: Valtteri Filppula (0.33), Dan Cleary (0.33), Henrik Zetterberg (0.33)

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