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Third period summary - an uneventful period for the most part. Detroit’s anemic power play was overcome by the league’s worst penalty kill. Luke Glendening’s loss is felt, in a huge way. His faceoff prowess would have made a difference tonight instead it was hot garbage on ice. Two awful teams playing terrible hockey. There really isn’t a way to soften the fact at this point. Nashville is a team that was reeling, but Detroit is just playing poorly. The power play is bad enough that, if there were any expectations, someone would be fired or moved. Yzerman is content to let the team spiral with no real leadership behind the bench at this point. Larkin, Ryan, Zadina, Mantha tonight, all tried to get things going. Brome looked like a rookie and made some horrible plays. Erne is every bit of Abdelkader 2.0. There’s just not enough here, still, to get anything accomplished on most nights. The loss of Bertuzzi is painful. The loss of Luke is painful. The effort tonight was ok, but the power play is just awful. We’re going to hear more excuses from the coach, and Larkin will have to stare down the camera while the press acts questions alluding to, “would it be better right now if you were winning? Do you hate losing?” Just nonsense. If Yzerman wants this group to move forward, he’s going to have to get some new life injected again. This is just painful.
Second Period Summary - Detroit had a good second period. They held Nashville to 5 shots on goal (unfortunately one went in). Nashville broke through with a good net drive by Duchene that went 5 hole as Greiss was sliding across. 14 seconds later, Marc Staal scores on a bizarre shot off the rush. Detroit is still in this one heading into the third. If they can replicate the second period effort and limit Nashville’s SOG, they’ve got a shot in this one.
First Period Summary - a long and uninteresting period got some life when Nashville scored on the power play. Glendening is sorely missed, as it was a lost faceoff that led to a strong possession and the “Brett Hull” style slapped by Ryan Ellis. The follow up shift by Nashville looked dominant, but Greiss was able to weather the storm. Late in the period, Anthony Mantha had one of his best shifts of the season, and it led to the goal by Robby Fabbri. Mantha was skating well and battling. Bobby Ryan and Filip Zadina both had some beautiful and creative rushes on net, and Ryan has been back checking like crazy. There are some good things along the way, Detroit needs to get better zone time moving forward.
Detroit lost a close game in Sunrise, Florida on Tuesday. Greiss did all he could to keep the team in it, but Zadina’s lone tally wasn’t enough to support the outstanding effort in net. The positive, this was a very close game against a much deeper team. Part of last year’s issues was the mental “collapse” on the bench while giving up 4 goals per game. Greiss is helping keep the team more mentally engaged and putting forth better efforts. It’s a step forward.
Nashville’s stats, going into tonight, are eye opening. When P.K. Subban came to the Preds, it seemed like they were going to be knocking on the door for the next several years. P.K. Has since moved on, and the team has faded a bit. Duchene and Johansen, making a combined 16 million, have 2 and 0 goals respectively. RyJo is on IR, but he has 10 games under his belt for this year. Forsberg is a saving grace, with 6 goals so far. The club went out and spent on scoring that hasn’t really materialized.
The Wings and Predators are shockingly similar in the major categories. Detroit has the league’s worst power play at 9.3%(31st), Nashville has the 9th worst at 14.3%(22nd). Detroit’s PK has been tough to watch at 70%(28th) but Nashville’s is actually worse at 62.8% (31st). Goals for sees Detroit at an anemic 1.93 (31st) but Nashville isn’t much better at 2.31 (27th). Detroit’s goals against is 3.29 (23rd) but Nashvilles is 3.54 (26th). I would never have guessed that by this point in the season, the two teams have such similar numbers. The difference, certainly, is expectation.
What Detroit accomplishes tonight will be in large part due to what team shows up. With games every other night and this being their third destination on the trip, the team is going to be getting exhausted. The bubble life, mentally, is apparently pretty rough mentally. Players throughout the league are breaking down with not seeing family much (if at all in some cases). The home bubble, at least, has some familiarity. At the two week point of drifting in isolation with a lot of travel, it’s bound to take its toll.
If Detroit can split this series, it will be a good step. The power play may have a better chance against a league worst PK. But, if Glendening is still on the shelf, the PK is going to be as bad or worse than the statistics. LG came on in the faceoff dot as league leader last week, and it made a difference. The Gudas hit (non addressed, punished or fined) rattled him. It’s still a massive failure on the part of Player’s Safety, and with no reasonable explanation.
What do you think tonight, and the next game, will bring? Let me know your thoughts on who will step up, or make an impact tonight. I’ll be updating between periods. Enjoy the game!
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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