A dominant five-on-five performance, the bottom six leads the way, Husso's struggles continue, and other takeaways from the underlying numbers in Detroit's 5-4 win over Columbus Saturday afternoon

On Saturday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings emerged victorious from a back-and-forth battle with the Columbus Blue Jackets by a 5-4 scoreline.  As it played out, Columbus threatened to send the Red Wings off to Sweden with a bitter taste in their mouths, but a retrospective look at the game's underlying numbers reveals a dominant outing from Detroit.

The Big Picture

-Per MoneyPuck.com, the Red Wings bested their guests on expected goals by a 3.39-1.67 tally in all situations.  Detroit raced out of the gate building a 2-0 lead in just four minutes and 26 seconds.  In that span, the Red Wings accrued 1.24 xG, compared to just 0.071 for Columbus.  However, the Jackets would score twice by period's end, despite racking up just 0.692 xG in the game's opening 20 minutes.

In the early stages of the second, Columbus would continue this pattern of finding goals off minimal chances created with Sean Kuraly beating Ville Husso 5:41 into the second with a shot worth just 0.059 xG.  However, from the midpoint of the second period, Detroit swung the game decisively in its favor, scoring twice late in the frame to re-claim the lead then adding an insurance marker early in the third.

In the final frame, Detroit afforded their guests precious little.  Patrik Laine managed a goal, but the Jackets posted just 0.738 xG, not enough to claw back even, and the Red Wings held on for a win.

-Entering the game, the Red Wings talked about the need for simple hockey and getting pucks and bodies to the net.  The below map of scoring chances reveals Detroit's success in meeting that goal, showing a bevy of opportunities from just beyond the crease.

-Per Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five, the Red Wings owned 59.52% of the shots, 56.82% of the scoring chances, 69.32% of the high-danger chances, and 64.65% of the expected goals.  That high-danger chance share is perhaps the best illustration of Detroit's decisive advantage: The Red Wings, by and large, owned the slot on both ends of the rink, and that's as winning a formula as there is in the modern NHL.

Individual Impacts

-By individual xG contributions, Robby Fabbri (0.89) and Joe Veleno (0.69) led the way for Detroit.  That makes sense when you consider the dominance of their line (with Christian Fischer) over the course of the night at five-on-five.

That trio played 10:05 together, and in that span, they were on the ice for two goals for and one against.  However, a better illustration of their game control comes from xG, where they put up 1.868 xG for compared to just 0.354 xG against (a monstrous 84.1% share).

It was a dominant night from the Veleno line, a welcome revelation after Fabbri did not appear so sharp in his return from injury Tuesday against the Rangers.

-The fourth line (Klim Kostin, Michael Rasmussen, and Daniel Sprong) continued to play their simple and effective, field-position-winning game.  In 7:41 together, the line put up a 75.2% share of on-ice xG, and they scored once without giving up a goal.  The goal itself is perhaps less important than the consistency with which the line drove play in the right direction, pinning Columbus deep over and over.  Then, Sprong's goal provided an offensive bonus.  On the whole, it was an excellent performance from the Red Wings' bottom six.

-It was a slightly more difficult day for the top line of Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin, and Lucas Raymond.  DeBrincat notched a crucial goal to snap a personal dry spell, but the line played to just a 39.2% share of on-ice xG in 10:08.  

-After struggling mightily against the Canadiens on Thursday, the Detroit defense corps bounced back with a much stronger performance Saturday against the Blue Jackets.  Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry led the way, playing 16:04 together at five-on-five to the tune of a 67.3% xG share.  Petry led Red Wings skaters in ice-time at 24:16.

Behind those two, Jake Walman and Moritz Seider played 14:36 together at five-on-five, earning a 59.5% xG share, and Shayne Gostisbehere and Justin Holl posted a 54.8% xG share in 9:09 at five-on-five.

-Considering all those winning xG figures, the primary reason Detroit didn't put away their guests sooner has to be goaltending.  Ville Husso gave up four goals on 1.667 xG, for a Goals Saved Above Expected of -2.33.

As we always say, single-game samples can be harsh or overly flattering, and that's especially true for a goaltender.  In this case, there are certainly a few extenuating circumstances that might explain Husso's struggles.

For example, on Kuraly's goal (which, again, came on a shot worth just 0.059 xG, well beneath a 10% chance to find the back of the net), Petry allowed Kuraly past him far too easily at the blue line, setting up a chance with no defender between him and Husso.

On Adam Fantilli's goal, which tied the game late in the first, Detroit was far from stellar in staying between its checks and the net, allowing multiple Jackets to get inside position and eventually for Fantilli to bat in a goal.

All of that is to say, that poor GSAE figure is a reflection of Husso and the Red Wings' defensive work yesterday afternoon.  Nonetheless, Husso's struggles in recent weeks are hard to ignore, and while he earned the win yesterday, he did not exactly put those concerns to rest.

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