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Defense making their points |
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Enjoying a career-high four-game point-scoring streak, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson offered a simple explanation for his sudden offensive outburst.
“It’s coincidence,” Ericsson explained.
What isn’t coincidence is that the Detroit defense has stepped up its game in terms of contributing to the team’s attack.
In Saturday’s 4-1 win over the New York Islanders, both Ericsson and Brendan Smith netted their third goals of the season and defensemen figured in all four goals.
“We have been talking about it lately,” Ericsson said. “We’re trying to look at different ways to create offense.”
It’s truly been a group effort. Ericsson (four points in four games), Niklas Kronwall (five points in five games), and Danny DeKeyser (three points in five games) have all been steady contributors in recent action.
Ranked as low as 23rd in the NHL in defensive scoring this season, the Wings have sought specific ways to improve those numbers and one avenue they opted to take was to simplify their role by merely getting pucks through to the net.
“We didn’t get that many shots,” Ericsson said of when the defense was struggling to put up points. “Usually the tops are open and when the forwards get it to us we have to be better getting pucks through and creating some offense and not getting the shots blocked.
“We’re getting more shots though and more passes.”
Even shots that aren’t on net but are in the vicinity and get the puck down low into areas where the vast majority of goals are scored are considered to be solid plays.
“If it bounces off the back board and back in play those are good shots, too,” Ericsson said. “That’s what we have to do sometimes. If we can get it on net and have someone there, that’s our goal.
“We just don’t want to hit any (opposition) shin pads. We don’t want to hit the first guy coming out (to block the shot) because then it’s coming out (of the zone) again.
“If it hits someone in front of the net we might get second chances off it.”
In today’s NHL, getting at least limited contribution from the back end is essential to the success of every team.
“I think with the new game you’ve got to use the D at the point and you’ve got to open up the ice because every team is playing the swarm system where everybody’s five, five, five and it’s hard to create any offense out of it,” Smith said. “So I think we’re trying to spread teams out a little more and it’s been effective with us scoring more goals.”
One And Done
With 32 games left in the regular season, the Wings have not lost consecutive games in regulation all season long.
“It shows we’re resilient,” Smith said. “That’s a compliment to our veterans who come in and get us ready for the next game if maybe we don’t have our best effort the night before.
“You have to give our leaders that. You have to pat them on the back to get us ready. And it shows the maturity of our young guys.
“It’s been key for us.”
Detroit coach Mike Babcock didn’t put too much stock in the stat.
“We’re off to a good start,” Babcock said. “There’s a lot of hockey left.”
Making A Point
When Pavel Datsyuk drew an assist on Tomas Tatar’s first-period power-play goal in Saturday’s win, it was the 554th helper he’s dished out as a Red Wing.
That tied Datsyuk with Sergei Fedorov for fifth all-time in franchise history, but once he surpasses Fedorov, Datsyuk faces a long haul to get to No. 4. That would be Alex Delvecchio, who collected 824 assists in 1,549 games for Detroit.
Steve Yzerman (1,063), Gordie Howe (1,023) and Nicklas Lidstrom (878) hold down the top three spots on the list.
It was also Datsyuk’s 862rd game for Detroit, tying him with Ted Lindsay for 11th in team history and with Darius Kasparaitis for 10th all-time among Russian NHLers.
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