Blogs > Red Wings Corner

Up-to-the minute updates and insights from the Red Wings locker room at home and on the road. By Chuck Pleiness of The Macomb Daily.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Power play breakdown

With the Red Wings' power play having problems heading into San Jose, I watched that game trying to break down special teams. One of the biggest issues that Detroit was having was gaining the zone and keeping it.
So I tracked by time, how long the puck was held in the offensive zone and how long it took to regain the zone once the puck was cleared.
Unfortunately, the game was an odd one. The Red Wings spent more time with a 5-on-3 or 4-on-3 advantage than they did with the traditional 5-on-4 advantage. So, I'll have to track a few more games.
That said, there was a transition in effectiveness on the Red Wings' first power play in San Jose and it came when the second PP unit got on the ice (Filppula, Hudler, Cleary, Kronwall, Samuelsson). The first PP unit could neither keep the puck in the offensive zone or regain the zone effectively.
The Sharks cleared the zone four times on the first unit. The first unit held the puck in the zone for 5, 9, 6 and 6 seconds before a Sharks clear. Then it took 12, 14 and 11 seconds to regain the zone.
When the second unit got on the ice, they held the puck in for 16 and 15 seconds while using just 9 seconds to regain the zone.
The Wings didn't score on that power play, but next came a series of two-man advantages that kept the Red Wings on track.
Including the first PP time by the second PP unit, the Red Wings time in the offensive zone looked like this ... 16 seconds, 15, 8, 7, 18, 31, 57, 40, 18, 29, 7. Two of the sub-10 second possessions were ended by a goal and time expiring. During that same span, the Wings' time used to regain the zone looked like this ... 9 seconds, 8, 8, 6, 6, 7, 6 ... much better than the 11-14 seconds that it took opening the first PP.

The overall game stats looked like this ...
Average time in offensive zone
Detroit 18.1 seconds, San Jose 11.4 seconds
Average time to regain zone
Detroit 9.1 seconds, San Jose 12.1 seconds
Number of zone clears by PK
Detroit 17, San Jose 9
The Sharks did score three PP goals, but did so without long possessions, scoring after just 12, 6 and 9 seconds in the Detroit zone.

And for those of you who prefer individual stats, here's who cleared the zone on the PK for the Red Wings ...
Lidstrom 4
Datsyuk 3
Franzen 3
Cleary, Chelios, Kronwall, Draper, Hasek, Maltby 1 apiece
So there you have it, another stat for Lidstrom and Datsyuk to dominate.

2 Comments:

Blogger Borg said...

After going 29 for 29 on PKing, it is time to fix the fact that we are letting in seemingly 8 out of 10 lately.

January 21, 2008 at 4:56 PM 
Blogger Borg said...

Bruce: I was wondering what you thought about the Wings chances in the playoffs now that the Ducks seem to stand in the way. If Neids never would have come back I would have been dreaming about the cup every night, and now it seems like the Ducks could be repeat champions since they have what seems like a better team than their championship team. Your thoughts?

January 23, 2008 at 3:33 PM 

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