WINGS WEEKLY 10/29/2017: East Coast Woes

6 years ago

Welcome back to another edition of Wings Weekly! This week, I’m a day late and many dollars shorter after travelling the state of Florida to watch two of the Red Wings four games this week. While their week ended on somewhat of a high on Saturday night, the first two games were unforgivable disasters. Let’s dive in and dissect this mess of a week.

THE RECORD

1-3-0

The Wings losing streak from last week extended into this week as they dropped three of their four games. The first was an embarrassment of a loss against the Vancouver Canucks last Sunday. Though they exited the first period tied at 1 thanks to an Anthony Mantha goal late in the period, they completely collapsed into themselves during the 2nd period where they allowed three goals in a little more than ten minutes.

As you can see, their play got worse and worse as the game went on. They were outshot 37-21, out hit 20-18, and had a whopping 16 giveaways. It was such an embarrassing showing for the team that they vowed to never let happen again.

Then they were off to Buffalo for what was surely their most boring game of the season so far. The Wings were shutout in a 1-0 Sabres victory, with Benoit Pouliot scoring the only goal in the 2nd period. Detroit matched Buffalo’s 29 shots, but couldn’t get one past Robin Lehner. This loss was probably even harder for them than Vancouver as it extended their losing streak to five against a struggling Buffalo team.

The team then moved down the coast to Tampa Bay where the Lightning served them a 3-2 defeat. The loss came, once again, at the hands of Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos who put up a combined three points. Frans Nielsen scored the only two Red Wings goals, one shorthanded and one on the powerplay late in the game. Detroit was chasing the game most of the night, but they at least managed to get 31 shots on net. That being said, they sure made Jimmy Howard work as Tampa peppered him with 38 shots.

Wrapping up the week in Sunrise, Florida on Saturday night, the Wings finally put an end to their losing streak, capping it at six games, with a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. There were definitely some things to be excited about from this game, such as Andreas Athanasiou’s first goal of the season and Gustav Nyquist’s solo effort.

There were some serious concerns about this game too, like Detroit’s 17 penalty minutes and their season-high 46 shots against. Once again, Howard kept them in the game long enough for Nyquist to wrap it up in the shootout, ending a frustratingly dire week on a somewhat positive note.

THE STATS

The Regular Stats

Courtesy of NHL.com

It was a quiet week for offense. Nyquist led the charge with his three points and it’s nice to see all three of Athanasiou, Mantha, and Dylan Larkin once again contributing throughout the week. It’s worth stopping here to give AA credit on his first goal of the season, a beautiful shot from the slot off a pass from Larkin.

Notably absent from the scoreboard this week are Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Tatar, despite being two of the better shooters on the team. Mike Green added one more point to his already impressive offensive start to the season.

Green continues to lead all players in points with his single goal and ten assists. Not far behind him are Larkin, Mantha, and Zetterberg. It’s nice to see the young guys chipping in offensively, especially after Larkin’s soft season last year. Hopefully he can put a couple more pucks in the net in the coming games to really boost his point total.

The Fancy Stats

Detroit hit a season-low in 5v5 CF% against the Lightning on Thursday night and failed to hit the 50% mark at all this week. Not a great showing for a struggling team that’s in need of confidence. What is positive here, is that the 5v5 CF% are not reflective of the total team performance. A struggling powerplay and the inability to stay out of the box is really what’s killing this team on the scoreboard.

AA made a huge impact in his two games back, leading the team in Relative Corsi-For percentage. This is so indicative of why Detroit needed him back and the difference he can make on the ice. In two games, AA’s got one goal and a positive Corsi-For percentage. Putting him on the powerplay can only be a good thing since he can use his speed and hands to get the puck to Marty Frk who can blast it from the point.

This is one area where Detroit seriously needs to improve. They are bottom-10 in the league in powerplay percentage with a measly 9.1% and 5v4 shots for per 60 minutes. So far this season – and especially this week – special teams are a big part of why the Red Wings have been losing games.

THE STANDINGS

Dropping three of their four games this week, two of which were against division rivals, really hurt the Red Wings. They allowed Tampa to take a more firm grip on first place and Buffalo to gain some ground on them. Finally, they gave up a point to the Panthers on Saturday night, which isn’t ideal. Winning that shootout did extend their shootout streak to 12 consecutive wins (spanning over the last three seasons). If nothing else, this helps beef up their ROW column in case it comes down to a tie. It’s definitely not something they want to fall back on, though.

THE WINGS NATION PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Oct 28, 2017; Sunrise, FL, USA; Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard (35) warms up before a game against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Jimmy Howard was by far the Red Wings best player this week. In the four games played, he faced a total of 153 shots (an average of 38.25 shots per game played) and turned away 143 of them, posting a .935 save percentage and 2.50 goals against average. He currently has the eighth best save percentage in the league among goalies who have played seven games or more.

Howie has been what’s making the Wings look competitive and it’s about time the rest of the team follows his lead.

CONCLUSION

It was a bad week for the Red Wings. They had a -5 goal differential and a -31 shot differential. I don’t know how they anticipate generating more offense with an effort like that. They also led the league in penalties taken with a total of 21. That’s an average of 5.25 penalties per game played. Staying out of the box is going to be key moving forward if they want to play more in their opponent’s end.

This week provides a new opportunity to start to turn the season around.

COMING UP

The Wings only have two games this week as they make their return to LCA on Hallowe’en and then hit the road again for Ottawa.

Tuesday, October 31 – vs. Arizona Coyotes

Thursday, November 1 – @ Ottawa Senators

Tomorrow’s game is a good chance for them to build on the momentum they created in Florida. They’ve already beat the Coyotes once this year and doing it again could create some confidence in a group that isn’t feeling much right now, especially offensively.

They also beat the Senators in a shootout earlier this year, but this game will be much more challenging for them now that Erik Karlsson has returned to form. I do believe that with some confidence and the right amount of momentum, the boys can pull this one off. Keep an eye out for our game previews and post-game recaps throughout the week.