Observations on special teams and Igor Shesterkin sinking the Red Wings in New York, the state of Detroit's goaltending room, and the state of Jonatan Berggren's game
Observations on special teams and Igor Shesterkin sinking the Red Wings in New York, the state of Detroit's goaltending room, and the state of Jonatan Berggren's game
Monday night in New York, the Red Wings dropped a 4-1 decision at the hands of the New York Rangers. Let's take a moment to review the action.
The Night in One Quote
"This wasn't a complete goalie [stolen result]...They cashed in on the power play. There's more we definitely could've done, but obviously he was a really, really big difference in it. He's special. I can see why he turned down the 88 [million]. Good agent." -Derek Lalonde, head coach, Detroit Red Wings
The obvious difference in last night's game wore number 31 in blue. Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves on 32 shots, and, to Lalonde's point, while he wasn't the only reason New York emerged victorious, he was clearly the biggest one. The last part of the quote (offered, one presumes, from Lalonde with tongue squarely in cheek) alludes to a recent report from Kevin Weekes of the NHL Network that the superstar goaltender declined a contract extension offer of eight years and $88 million.
Numbers to Know: 0/4 & 2.19-1.69
The first number is Detroit's record on the power play Monday the night, and the second is the margin of the five-on-five expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick. That formula is, more or less, the standard formula for the New York Rangers. They aren't a great five-on-five team (which may or may not be a driving cause in recent playoff runs stalling out), but they are excellent on special teams and they have (arguably) the best goaltender in the world between the pipes. There's a fragility to that model, but it was enough to sweep the season series against the Red Wings a year ago.
From a Detroit perspective, Lalonde said of his team's power play effort, "We generated some looks, but we gotta cash in, especially in a game like this. You play an opponent like this, you play a goalie like that on the road...The game-winning goal was the power play. They won the special teams game tonight." He noted that one option for the Red Wings to look to get the power play back on track is to re-introduce Erik Gustafsson (a healthy scratch each of the last two games after a difficult defensive showing in the season opener) to help coordinate things from the point.
As far as last night's result is concerned, Detroit played well enough to win, at least in theory, but, in practice, as often seems to be the case against this opponent, it was insufficient.
Observations
-Berggren's Game Growing:
One positive, albeit a relatively marginal one, from Tuesday's action for Detroit was Jonatan Berggren. With Christian Fischer unavailable, Berggren earned a promotion from the fourth line to the third and played a season-high 12:54. In and of itself, that's not the most inspiring lift, but Berggren's coach had positive things to say about his performance, perhaps previewing a path to a bigger role moving forward.
"He's making plays, which is good. He made some plays on the rush, great offensive instincts. I appreciate that he's starting to really work on his 200-foot game. A couple of wall battles that he won, trying to get to the inside a little more. A lot of positives with Berggy."
As my colleague Connor Earegood has pointed out a few times, there is something of a square peg/round hole to using Berggren in a fourth line role. To this point, he's yet to record a point this season, but his incisive passing has impressed on the power play, and if he can continue to build the non-scoring elements of his five-on-five game, there will be more ice time waiting for him on the other side.
-Goaltending Pecking Order Becomes Clearer (For Now)
Opposite Shesterkin, Alex Lyon made 24 of 27 saves in the Red Wings crease. Now through three games, we've seen each of Detroit's three goaltenders entering the season have gotten a start. Ville Husso's performance resulted in him being sent to Grand Rapids, Cam Talbot pitched a shutout Saturday night (after relieving Husso Thursday), and now Lyon delivered a performance somewhere in between.
"Felt good, felt pretty confident," Lyon said by way of self-assessment post-game. "I think it maybe could've been sharper, a bit sharper, but I can work with t. at. Just gotta keep grinding and get back to work.
Of course goaltending is a fickle beast and subject to swings in form as the season progresses. However, for the time being, we do have what feels like a relatively clear hierarchy in the Red Wings goaltending room, and that wasn't the case as recently as last week. At least for the short term, expect Talbot to get the lion's share of starts, Lyon to serve as a back-up earning semi-regular starts, and Husso to stick around Grand Rapids.
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