Moritz Seider and Jake Walman control play, Alex Lyon excels, a low event game looks good for Detroit, and other statistical takeaways from Red Wings-Devils

On Wednesday evening, the Detroit Red Wings shut out the New Jersey Devils 4-0 in the team's most complete performance of the season to date.

Detroit scored three late in the first to seize control on the scoreboard, but its forecheck and neutral zone structure had already asserted dominance over the Devils before the breakthrough came.  Moritz Seider would add a further insurance goal in the second, and the Red Wings would cruise to the finish line for the shutout victory.

Here's a look inside the underlying numbers that defined Detroit's dominance.

The Big Picture

-By all situations expected goals (as tabulated by MoneyPuck.com), the Red Wings bested New Jersey 2.22 to 1.28.

At the end of the first period, Detroit earned a 3-0 edge on the scoreboard and a 1.136-0.339 edge by xG.  The Devils would struggle to match that total by the end of sixty minutes.

-Per Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five, Detroit had a 45% CorsiFor, 44.19% share of scoring chances, 61.54% share of high-danger chances, and a 52.85% share of xG.

That penultimate figure feels like the most important one here.  The Red Wings controlled this game from the start and ultimately won it not because they were the only side creating chances but rather because they dominated when it came to chance quality.

The below map of all situations scoring chances (courtesy of MoneyPuck) illustrates the way Detroit managed to create offense from the scoring square.  Blocking 20 shots (compared to just eight blocks for New Jersey) certainly helped the Red Wings limit the Devils' chances, but this was also Detroit's most complete and dominant performance of the year when it came to forcing turnovers and turning those turnovers into quick, quality offense.

-Perhaps the biggest takeaway stems from the fact that this was a low-event game—with the two teams combining for fewer than four xG—and it was in that context that the Red Wings looked so dominant.

Even with Nico Hischier sidelined due to injury, the Devils—graced with stars like Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Ondrej Palat, and Luke Hughes—have more high-end offensive dynamism than Detroit.  The same holds true for most all of the teams with Stanley Cup aspirations in the East.

As a result, track meets where opportunities off the rush abound and offense thrives will never flatter the Red Wings.  To optimize its chances on any given night against the East's elite, Detroit needs to limit offense in both directions and, in so doing, seize control.

Wednesday night was a masterclass in just that—using neutral zone structure and the forecheck to create opportunities and disrupt the rhythm of a skilled opponent.  It's a template the Red Wings would be well-served to return to this afternoon in Boston.

Individual Impacts

-Robby Fabbri led the way for Detroit skaters in individual xG contribution at 0.46.  His line (or, at least, his primary line) with David Perron and Andrew Copp was excellent throughout the night.  The trio played 3:46 together to the tune of a 57.6% on-ice xG share.

-On another night of an 11 forward, seven defensemen alignment, only one line for the Red Wings played more than 5:00 minutes together at five-on-five.

That line was Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, and Joe Veleno, who played 5:04 as a triumvirate.  They put up 0.032 xG for compared to 0.292 xG against.  Those are hardly exemplary numbers, but they are a reflection of the way low-event hockey (with minimal chances in either direction) benefited Detroit over the course of the game.

With that said, in the admittedly minuscule sample of one game, Veleno did not appear to provide the offensive spark the Red Wings might have wanted to the top line.  It will be interesting to see if he retains his role as the team's top line LW this afternoon against the Bruins.

-Beyond Raymond-Larkin-Veleno, Detroit's most frequently used line combinations amidst a night of shuffling were Perron-Copp Fabbri, Michael Rasmussen-J.T. Compher-Alex DeBrincat (3:20), Daniel Sprong-Rasmussen-Christian Fischer (3:20), and Raymond-Larkin-DeBrincat (2:30).

The Sprong-Rasmussen-Fischer trio was utterly dominant in its limited five-on-five role together, earning an extraordinary 93.7% share of on-ice xG together.

-On the back end, the 11 F/seven D rotation produced a similar dynamic to what we've seen in previous games with seven defensemen: a steady diet of Seider and Jake Walman with a lot of mixing and matching behind it.

Seider and Walman played 14:38 together at five-on-five, and in those minutes, they dominated.  They were on the ice for a goal for and none against, and they yielded an excellent 61.2 xGF%.

That figure is made all the more impressive by the fact that Seider's most common opponent at five-on-five was Jack Hughes—New Jersey's most dynamic and reliable offensive driver.

Meanwhile, it's good news to see that Walman (who finished the night with 20:12 of ice time overall, an assist, a +2 rating, and three shots on goal) did not appear to be on any type of limited pitch count after his injury scare against the Maple Leafs a week ago in Sweden.

Behind Walman and Seider, six different pairings saw between three and seven minutes of five-on-five ice time: Ben Chiarot-Jeff Petry (6:46), Olli Maatta-Justin Holl (4:30), Maatta-Petry (4:19), Gostisbehere-Maatta (4:14), Chiarot-Holl (3:59), and Gostisbehere-Petry (3:05).

-Perhaps the biggest story of the game was Alex Lyon in net.

He faced 1.278 xG in the form of 16 Devils shots, and he stopped them all.  In two starts as a Red Wing, Lyon can now claim a .933 save percentage and 1.53 goals against average.

Of course it's a small sample, but his steadiness in the crease begs a question: Has Lyon played his way into being Detroit's number one option in net?

By Goals Saved Above Expected per 60 (as calculated by MoneyPuck), Lyon is the best of the Red Wings' three options at 0.712.  James Reimer is second at 0.099, and Ville Husso is third at -0.421.

It's worth offering the caveat of a small sample once more, and, in Husso's defense, as the team's number one from the start of the season, he has generally faced the most difficult match-ups.

Nonetheless, it's undeniable that Lyon has made a major impact in a short time for the Red Wings, and he's played his way into earning more starts, even if he isn't the team's starter just yet.

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