At the end of their Thursday night showdown with the St. Louis Blues, the Red Wings had taken two points from one of the best teams in the league. Pavel Datsyuk’s late overtime heroics were the proximate cause for the eventual win which could allow us to gloss over the fact that the Red Wings were leading into the final minutes of regulation. With 47.6 seconds remaining, a combination of unforced errors, overly conservative puck movement, and a brilliant set play executed by the Blues led to a game tying goal by Alex Steen and a collective groan by Red Wings fans.
The Red Wings, by design or by circumstance, seemed content to play out the remaining time by only playing defense and letting the Blues keep possession of the puck. We are going to pick up play just after the puck was dumped behind the net by the Blues. Niklas Kronwall picks it up and skates it out with TJ Oshie of the Blues applying pressure. See the screenshot below showing the play at the moment Kronwall attempts to clear. The black in the this picture and all subsequent pictures will show the direction the puck will travel.
In addition to recording where the puck will ultimately go, I circled three Red Wings who are outlet options for Kronwall. Drew Miller (furthest right) is not a good option due to his proximity to Backes but the other two are Henrik Zetterberg (far left) and Datsyuk (center). With a relatively simple pass to Datsyuk or Zetterberg, the Red Wings could still elect to clear it from the zone or they could advance the puck and make an attempt at the empty net which would end the game. Instead, Kronwall elects to make the “safe play” and attempts to directly clear the puck from the zone. Now I’m not sure if he was not looking or if David Backes is transparent but Kronwall shoots it right at him and the puck bounces into the near corner as shown in our next picture.
The puck is sitting near the boards at the beginning of the black arrow which is showing where the puck will be going soon. Kronwall, in his attempt to retriever the failed clear is pressured by Oshie and then falls down (part of his skate is visible above the boards in front of Oshie). Datsyuk pinches low in support as Backes moves to the boards to give Oshie an outlet. Oshie tries to move the puck around the boards to Backes but it bounces over his stick and goes behind the net. Jonathan Ericsson (in front of the net) pivots around the back of the net after the puck (green arrow) while Backes reverses course and pursues.
Ericsson catches up to the puck in the far corner with Backes hot on his tail. Vladimir Tarasenko is also pressing though his course is disrupted by a savvy pick move by Zetterberg. Ericsson again has several options similar to Kronwall had just seconds before. He can attempt a clear or make a pass to a player with more space. I’ve highlighted in green three options he had though I am not saying Ericsson needs to know what his options are. At this point he should be relying on his teammates to direct him what to do with the puck. He can pass towards the middle to Datsyuk (farthest left in green circle), Zetterberg (center) or reverse the puck around the boards behind the net to Kronwall. Again, this does not mean the Red Wings still can not clear the puck but getting the puck to an open player increases the likelihood that a clear or attempt to score are successful and also gives the option to set up a breakout. Ericsson, instinctively or as directed by teammates, clears the puck off the wall and out to center. He was successful in what he attempted to do in that he cleared if far enough so Kronwall, Miller and he could change while not shooting it so far it drew an icing. Still though, I would have preferred the Red Wings attempt to keep the puck away from the Blues altogether by making a breakout and trying for a put-away goal.
Switching to the end zone view now, we see Alex Steen with the puck started the Blues attack into what appears to be a well-rehearsed set play. The Red Wings have three players basically standing still at the blue line with Datsyuk at the most forward position and Justin Abdelkader also in the neutral zone. I imagine the Red Wings intend this to be a conservative formation meant to keep as many players in a position to defense as possible. As we’ll see, this does not end up being the case. Steen is going to wait for Datsyuk to flow to Steen’s left then pass it to Tarasenko standing at the exact center of the blue line. Danny Dekeyser, fresh off the bench is drawn to pressure Tarasenko (as shown by the long red arrow above) ultimately diving to the ice and essentially taking himself out of the play.
The blue line here is Mickey Redmond apparently starting to draw a fish on the broadcast. In the red circle you see Tarasenko immediately getting rid of the puck in a crisp pass to Alex Pietrangelo who is skating with speed through the neutral zone. Since Tarasenko got rid of the puck so fast, Dekeyser’s dive served no purpose and as you will see, leaves Kyle Quincey as the only player in position to defense the rush. During all of this, Quincey continues to retreat towards the Red Wings goal (red arrow).
At this point, the problems become apparent. Abdelkader, (far left Red Wing) was standing still and cannot do anything more than try to hack at the puck as Pietrangelo zooms by. Dekeyser is just getting to his feet as the other Blue on the rush, Steen, enters the zone undefended leaving Quincey the lone defender back. Quincey, for his part, has retreated so far that he has left a large gap between himself and the Blues players entering the zone though I am not sure I blame for this since he had no other support. Regardless, the large gap means that in order to be of any use as a defender, Quincey has to move very slowly to allow the attackers to catch up. This forces him to be essentially immobile while Pietrangelo and Steen are rushing in.
Blue arrow is Redmond again. With two simple passes, the Blues have dissected the Red Wings supposedly conservative defensive formation to gain a 2-on-1 rush. As you can see by comparing the two most recent screenshots, in the time it took for Pietrangelo and Steen to go from the blue line to the faceoff dot, Quincey has barely moved. The other four Red Wings skaters in the red circles are all now non-factors in the play. Quincey is now left with the unenviable task of defending a 2-on-1 rush by two speeding attackers while completely flat-footed. Pietrangelo, being the incredibly talented player that he is, looked at Quincey and saw this:
Kyle Quincey as seen by Alex Pietrangelo
Pietrangelo expertly passes the puck around Quincey to an open Steen who tips it past goaltender Petr Mrazek to tie the game.
There are a couple things I wanted to highlight with this goal. First, that there is unquestionably decisions and tactics which are “too safe.” The Red Wings had two opportunities to regroup and mount a counterattack towards an empty net that were passed up in order to attempt to clear the puck. The first time they tried, Kronwall failed to get it out of the zone and turned the puck over, if briefly. After Oshie passed it over Backes’ stick, Ericsson makes another clear attempt which succeeds in getting the puck out of the zone and allowing the Red Wings to change. However, by giving away possession of the puck and mounting basically no forecheck, the Red Wings allowed the Blues to set up a devastatingly success rush which, coupled with some key defensive mistakes, led to the game tying goal.
Second, I wanted to highlight the poor defensive positioning and decision making that was somehow poor enough to turn a supposedly completely defensive formation into a 2-on-1 with two passes. Dekeyser’s ill-advised dive was a major factor but only exacerbated the effects of a horrible formation and some bone-headed execution.
Give the Blues credit here. They chose the right play and the right time and executed it flawlessly. Without Datsyuk’s buzzer-beater in overtime, this goal might be hurting a lot more today.
Screenshots are made possible by Alex Wood’s fantastic work to compile Red Wings highlight videos. The video of the play discussed above can be found here.