Red Wings 0, Rangers 4: Game Notes

DETROIT—Last night at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings dropped to 6-7-1 by way of a 4-0 loss at the hands of the visiting New York Rangers.  The Red Wings dominated the flow of shots and chances all evening but couldn't beat New York netminder Jonathan Quick all evening, paving the path to a Ranger victory.  Let's dive a bit deeper into the result:

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The Game in One Quote

The obvious candidate for quote of the evening was coach Derek Lalonde saying, "I don't know if I've been in a more frustrating hockey game" in 30+ years of coaching, but since that line led last night's game story, I decided to go in a different direction here.

I think a question worth exploring out of last night's game is the extent to which its fair to chalk up last night's loss as little more than bad puck luck and goaltending against versus an indictment on something more systemic in the Red Wings' finishing.

After yesterday's game, Detroit ranks 30th in the NHL at 2.43 goals per game.  Last night was a much different paradigm than most of the Red Wings' defeats this season, in that Detroit was dominant in terms of chance creation but simply couldn't finish beat Quick.  More often, in losing efforts, we've seen a Red Wings team that struggled to muster much of anything, while spending entirely too much time in the defensive zone.  Even in victories, Detroit has tended toward a 'smash and grab' approach—making the most of minimal chances, while still probably spending too much time defending.

Against New York, the Red Wings dominated play by traditional metrics (37-14 in shots) and advanced ones (3.44-2.51 in all situations expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick).  So is last night progress?  Maybe, but it also came against a Ranger team in a spotty patch of form itself that has never been a beacon of five-on-five game control.  Having a night where lots of offense flows is a nice step forward, but when it doesn't actually amount to anything, it's hard to take much solace in it.

If Detroit can make a habit of creating offense with such fluency, then perhaps we will look back on last night's loss as a positive inflection point, but if that doesn't come to pass, it will be hard not to consider it a missed opportunity.

Number to Know: 0.921-0.156

Last night at five-on-five, the Red Wings' top line of Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin, and Lucas Raymond out-chanced their opponents 0.921-0.156, per MoneyPuck.  The score during those minutes?  0-0.

In that way, the top line stood in for the rest of the team: Lots of chances with no end product.  Regardless of which combination of DeBrincat, Raymond, and Patrick Kane play beside Larkin, Lalonde has stressed that he doesn't want his top line trading chances.  Instead, their imperative is to drive offense.  They managed just that Saturday night, beginning on the first shift of the game with a tremendous Larkin set-up for DeBrincat at the back door.  However, they just couldn't find the end product.

Per MoneyPuck, Raymond led the Red Wings with 0.47 individual xG, but, as has been the case for most of the season, he just couldn't find the back of the net.  Detroit's firepower probably isn't as potent as last year's team, in terms of natural finishers up and down the lineup.  However, that DeBrincat-Larkin-Raymond trio is probably the clearest case of being snake-bitten.  If those three continue to create chances like that, they certainly won't be held off the score sheet often.

Observations

PK Struggling with Passivity

New York initially wrested control of this game away from the Red Wings with a power play goal seven seconds into a Simon Edvinsson minor penalty.  The goal came on a Chris Kreider deflection of an Adam Fox point shot, set up by Artemi Panarin, the most formidable combination within that vaunted Ranger power play:

Thought Detroit successfully killed off a subsequent Ranger PP, it was one again undeniable that the penalty kill is ailing the Red Wings in a major way at the moment.  "It's just details," said Chiarot after the game.  "The one tonight was sort of a unique play.  You don't see too many shots from the wall like that, pretty good tip in front of the net.  It's just details and being sharp and being aggressive.  I think that's when our penalty kills been its best is when we're aggressive and taking time and space away, not given the other team the kind of looks they want.  It's a work in progress still.  It was not going well, and then we had it straightened out a bit, and the last two games hasn't been great, so something that we have to continue to work on."

You can see a bit of the passivity Chiarot alluded to in the goal against.  After winning the draw, the Rangers retreat to what oughtn't be a very dangerous corner of the offensive zone.  Andrew Copp goes out to provide some pressure, but the interchange between Fox and Panarin renders that pressure ineffective, particularly because there is no second layer of aggression after Copp ventures out.  The end result is an open look for Fox and an easy tip for Kreider.

Perhaps there is a bit of a problem in the way Detroit's PK presently tips the aggression/passivity scales, but it was Lalonde who had the best summary of the state of his penalty kill: "Bottom line is, they're going in, and we gotta stop the bleeding."

Adventurous Edvinsson Gives and Takes

I thought this was one of Simon Edvinsson's best offensive games to date in his nascent NHL career.  He looked as assertive as I've seen him at the NHL level, picking his spots to jump into the play well and creating some danger off those chances.  At one point, he and his defense partner Moritz Seider were the ones leading an odd-man rush alongside Lucas Raymond.  Since last season, it's been clear Edvinsson has the potential to be an elite defensive defenseman at the NHL level, but his offensive ceiling has been hazier to me.  Last night was a nice indicator that he has plenty to give in that department as well.

However, it must also be pointed out that it was a careless penalty from Edvinsson that put the Rangers on the power play that produced Kreider's opening and game-winning goal.  The Little Caesars Arena crowd didn't like the call, but it was a clear trip, and the sort of penalty a team with a struggling PK can ill afford.  Edvinsson turned the puck over in the neutral zone, then tripped Mika Zibanajed in his attempt to recover it.

It was still a promising night for Edvinsson, but the penalty served as a reminder that there are still aspects of his game that need sharpening.

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