Kyle Quincey or Jakub Kindl?
There was a time when posing that question would have amounted to a case of “choose your poison… to fans of the Detroit Red Wings.
Saturday, it’s a situation the Wings could face in Dallas as they prepare to face the Stars.
Detroit defenseman Quincey missed Friday’s practice at the Taylor, Mich. Sportsplex due to an undisclosed ailment.
“He’s just got a chronic thing so we’ll see what happens,… Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.
Detroit GM Ken Holland didn’t elaborate much further. “He’s day to day,… Holland said of Quincey. “We’ll see how he is tomorrow.…
Just in case Quincey can’t go, Kindl, who was two games into a four-game conditioning stint with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s American Hockey League farm club, was recalled to be available to fill the void.
No so long ago, such a move would have been viewed as six of one, a half a dozen of the other. Quincey struggled mightily at the start of last season and was minus-14 in late November, but he was much better in the second half and this season, has quietly put together a solid campaign.
His 3-10-13 totals have already equalled last season’s output and Quincey is plus-five through 54 games, forming a solid second pairing with Danny DeKeyser.
“I think him and Q have played unbelievable this year,… Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said of the tandem. “They’re very solid. They can play against anybody else.…
Meanwhile, Kindl has struggled. His offensive numbers – 2-7-9 in 27 games – are decent, but the overall package remains faulty.
“He’s just got to go back and execute with the puck,… Babcock said of Kindl. “He’s real good when he’s got the puck looking up ice. He’s got to go back and execute with the puck.
“If he does that, we’re laughing.…
Kindl, who was out with an elbow injury, hasn’t played an NHL game since Dec. 27 and the Wings are hopeful that his minor-league stint will help him shake off the rust and work out the kinks while regaining his lost confidence.
“Anybody that doesn’t play for a long time does, so that’s why we sent him down,… Babcock said of potential confidence issues with Kindl. “We expect him to come up on a high.
“He’s had two real good games down there. It just makes it easier when you’ve sat out for a long time, you come back and you’ve haven’t played and it’s hard. This way you can come back and get going.…
Off Corsi The NHL unveiled its new platform featuring analytics Friday on its website NHL.com but the Wings didn’t sound as if it was something that would make them click.
“No,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “I don’t do that. But I think the coaches and management really like that stat, analytics. It makes their job a little bit easier, I think.
“If they want to find something, they can do it.…
Maybe so, but it’s hardly a priority for Babcock and his staff.
“Don’t get me wrong,… Babcock said. “There’s some parts that I think are real valuable.…
At the same time, Babcock doesn’t buy that stats like Corsi and Fenwick, which assess a player’s value around five-on-five shot attempts while they are on the ice, are comparable to a stat like on-base percentage in baseball.
“I think if you want to base signing players on shots, I think you’re nuts,… Babcock said. “And I think it doesn’t tell the story, so to me, it’s like all stats, stats can tell any story you want.
“You’ve got to be able to be smart enough to understand information from it. I’ve been very impressed by the kid we brought in to work with our team (Andrew Brewer) because he’s found us some stuff we didn’t think about. But it wasn’t based on shot clock or stats that don’t even tell the truth.…
Babcock doesn’t believe that tracking shot attempts is a way to assess a player’s performance level and it isn’t something that the Wings do as part of their analytics – though that’s not what they label their research.
“We never called it analytics,… Babcock said. “We just called it doing our homework.
“Basically what we do is we’re not as much into shots as we are into (scoring) chances. That’s what we believe. We believe in chances. We’re big into ‘Are we getting the puck back? Do we have the puck?’
“The shot stuff to me sometimes doesn’t add up the same. Some nights we feel we have the puck a lot and have 40 shots on goal and some nights we have the puck a lot and we don’t get a lot of shots, so to us it’s about getting chances.…
Not So Bad While it’s been a rough year for Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard in the shootout, his career numbers show that he’s actually not that awful in the situation.
While a dismal 1-7 this season, Howard’s career record in shootout competitions is 20-28. He shows a save percentage of .679, stopping 112 of 165 attempts.
Babcock was pleased to see his goalie get the goose egg off his shootout record win a 3-2 win Wednesday at Chicago.
“He came up big for us in the game and again in the shootout, but that’s something he’s been doing for us all year,… Babcock said. “Even though the shootout part of it maybe hasn’t been as perfect, he’s come up huge for us and stolen games for us. “It was great to see him get one.…
His 2011-12 record of seven shootout wins placed Howard fourth overall in the NHL and Howard’s season-by-season breakdown further emphasizes that this has simply been an off year for him in the shootout:
2014-15 – 1-7 record, .409 save percentage 2013-14 – 3-5 record, .692 save percentage 2012-13 – 1-5 record, .579 save percentage 2011-12 – 7-2 record, .815 save percentage 2010-11 – 3-2 record, .882 save percentage 2009-10 – 5-7 record, .685 save percentage
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