You can call it a roll of the dice if you will, but if you do, it’s apparent that you haven’t been watching the Detroit Red Wings perform in the shootout during this NHL season.
Recently, Detroit coach Mike Babcock has been deploying three forwards and one defenseman as a combination during the five-minute four-on-four overtime period and Saturday, it paid dividends in a highlight-reel OT winner from right-winger Gustav Nyquist.
On the ice with forwards Darren Helm and Johan Franzen and defenseman Brendan Smith, Nyquist circled the Senators zone three times while in possession of the puck, holding off a variety of Ottawa pursuers until he managed to find a patch of open ice. Nyquist darted into the opening and snapped a wrist shot from just inside the left faceoff circle past Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson for the decider in Detroit’s 3-2 victory with just 48 seconds to spare before the Wings would have been headed to the dreaded shootout.
The Wings are 1-7 in shootouts this season.
“It was nice to avoid the shootout for once,… Nyquist said. “We haven’t been successful in that, so it’s nice to win in OT.…
To win in the fashion they did was even more astonishing, but the Wings are coming to expect such magic from Nyquist, who leads the team with 15 goals.
“That’s the kind of player he is, he’s real creative and strong on the puck,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said of Nyquist. “I think we’ll get to see more of that coming in January.
“He’s a great kid. He works hard. He deserves all the credit he gets. When you score goals like this, it’s well-earned.…
Zetterberg felt the move to go with three forwards in OT helped pave the way for Nyquist’s remarkable tally.
“We talked a few games ago about going three forwards and one defenseman,… Zetterberg explained. “Once you have the puck in their end it’s tough for them to know who to cover. Plays like that will develop if you have energy and hold onto the puck, eventually something will open up.
“I don’t think everyone would have it for 28 seconds like (Nyquist) did but it was a very nice play. There was great net front presence when he shot on net. That’s the kind of goals he does.…
The Wings have tried the three forwards, one defenseman unit in previous overtimes but this was the first time that Babcock’s plan paid dividends.
“We just tried to win,… Babcock said. “I thought we weren’t winning any of these games (shootouts), so after doing it for long enough and not winning enough we changed ’er up.
“I don’t know if it’s a mental thing or not. But when you put (Niklas) Kronwall and Zetterberg and (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Justin) Abdelkader out there it looks like four pretty good players to me and that’s what we just did.
“We’ve got three groups of that and we went with it.…
Turkey Legs Rallying from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits, the Wings were clearly the second-best team through much of the first 40 minutes.
“No question, especially the way we started,… Babcock said. “We didn’t skate good. We normally skate real good, but we didn’t skate at all for two periods.…
Back after missing two games with a groin strain, Jimmy Howard made 31 saves for the win, foiling Ottawa defenseman Erik Karlsson on a breakaway in overtime.
“We relied a lot on goaltending,… Babcock said. “I thought Howie was the key for us. We weren’t great, had turkey legs early for sure, skating around on two big drum sticks out there and weren’t moving very good out there.
“They skated better than us for whatever reason but our goaltending hung in there and we dug in. I thought Howie had given us a chance. That’s what I said to the guys going into the third, ‘Howie’s set us up here. We’re right where we want to be. Let’s just play well and execute’ and that’s what we did.
“We were mentally tough enough in the end to dig in, got mad enough to get ’er going. I thought our third period was way better.…
Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer