Detroit Red Wings handed seventh straight loss thanks to Arizona

The Detroit Red Wings have now lost seven in a row.  The Wings lost 3-1 last evening in the desert of Arizona.  It’s a tale of two clubs, a Coyote team streaking to the playoffs and a Wings club sinking in hopes of landing Jack Hughes.

The Arizona Coyotes have the second most man games lost due to injury in the league yet they find themselves battling for a playoff spot.  A team that takes pride working hard in their own zone because they are currently challenged to score.  While the Coyotes have now won six straight games the Detroit Red Wings have lost seven in a row.

The Wings were coming off of an uninspiring 8-1 loss Tuesday at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens.  Not to sound too cynical but although the effort last night was a tick better than on Tuesday this game could have easily been 6-1 Yotes.

Jimmy Howard mentioned he spent time watching film and noticed his angles seemed to be a little off and admitted while playing in this league being “off” even an inch is enough for these shooters to capitalize on.  After the Coyotes buried their first two goals, I considered sending Jimmy Howard a new protractor because his doesn’t seem to be working.  If angles were the problem, his angles were still off.

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The first goal was a fluke but a bad look for Howard.  Arizona’s captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson sent a fluttering puck from his own blueline across the ice to a wide-open streaking Josh Archibald who sent a slap shot from the half wall that was headed well wide on the blocker side.

As Howard reached out with his blocker, he redirected the puck off the handle of his stick into the goal.  That’s why they say shoot from anywhere kids.  It was Archibald’s 10th goal of the season.

The second goal was ugly too.  Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored from the top of the left circle.  He deposited a cross-ice pass through traffic past an overcommitted Howard.  It wasn’t an ordinary cross-crease pass it was from the bottom of the right circle back up to the top of the left.  Howard couldn’t push from his left to right in time, and it was 2-0 Arizona.

Both goals were considered bad from the naked eye, and I thought he would like to have them both back.  Not only did I find them bad but so did Natural stat trick.  They felt both of those goals “low danger scoring chances.”  In all honesty, they were only considered scoring chances because both found twine.

If you discount those two weak goals (which you can’t) — Howard played exceptionally well.  He stopped 8 medium danger scoring chances and 14 of 15 high danger scoring chances.  The third goal allowed came after a spectacular save from a sprawling Howard.

He reached back with his glove and robbed the Yotes skater.  Tyler Bertuzzi then blocked a hard shot that had eyes for the wide-open net during the mad scramble, but the third time is a charm and Vinnie Hinostroza found a way to get it past Bertuzzi.

The Detroit Red Wings were frustrated because the goal light and horn came on during play after the marvelous Howard save and the Bertuzzi block.  It was a human error, and things happen, play continued on and although you wouldn’t likely be able to hear the whistle the officials allowed play to continue on.

The Wings received their lone goal from, who else?  Dylan Larkin.  Larkin scored on the power-play just before it expired. Anthony Mantha and Niklas Kronwall both notched helpers on the goal.  Mantha was midway in the right circle and found Kronwall at the point.  Kronwall with his head up looked towards the goal and found Larkin to the right of the net and fired a beautiful slap pass his way.  Larkin redirected it home and at the time cut the Coyotes lead to 1.

The Detroit Red Wings never recorded double-digit shots in any period.  The Coyotes nearly doubled them up each period recording 17,14,13 shots respectably.  The final tally would be 44-23 in favor of the Yotes.

The teams CF% for the game tells the story in this one.  The Detroit Red Wings team CF was 40.71%. The Coyotes were 59.29%, mostly carrying the play exclusively throughout the night.  The scoring chances were also alarming with Arizona recording a 65 SCF% while the Wings were well behind at 32.37%.

If you are not too interested in analytics or don’t care much about them, the jyst of it is the Coyotes carried the play, created the most scoring opportunities and shots.  The Detroit Red Wings struggled to get any sustained offensive zone pressure.  They need to find a way to record more shots and scoring chances, but it starts with possessing the puck in the offensive zone much more than they currently do.  The Wings travel to Colorado to take on the Avs Tuesday evening.