Red Wings-Panthers quick take: Were the Wings jobbed? Maybe, maybe not.

The Red Wings attempted to extend their fledgling win streak to three games while battling a pesky opponent in the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

Detroit played rope-a-dope hockey en route to a 3-2 loss to the Panthers, who are now tied with the Red Wings in points…

And the Wings lost on a controversial call, with Jonathan Huberdeau first shoving Mrazek, perhaps involuntarily, and then putting the puck past Mrazek with 7.9 seconds remaining in the 3rd period.

Mrazek was furious when the NHL-instituted review for goaltender interference played out, Blashill got kicked out of the game and the Red Wings left the ice reluctantly and left the ice irate.

Update: Here’s the Panthers’ call from NHL.com, 3:24 of it:

Update #2: YouTube version:

Florida’s lineup was set before warm-ups, as noted by NHL.com’s Alain Poupart:

Panthers projected lineup

Evgenii Dadonov — Aleksander Barkov — Nick Bjugstad

Jonathan Huberdeau — Vincent Trocheck — Denis Malgin

Jamie McGinn — Jared McCann — Maxim Mamin

Micheal Haley — Derek MacKenzie — Colton Sceviour

Keith Yandle — Aaron Ekblad

Mike Matheson — Mark Pysyk

MacKenzie Weegar — Alexander Petrovic

Harri Sateri

Samuel Monteambeault

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill chose to not reveal his starting goaltender until warm-ups, but the Red Wings’ Twitter account made a guess 1 hour before the pre-game skate…

The answer to, “Who’s starting?” was “Petr!”

The Panthers started Denis Malgin, Jonathan Huberdeau and Vincent Trocheck at forward, Mike Matheson and Denis Malgin on defense and Harri Sateri in goal.

The Red Wings started Tomas Tatar, Frans Nielsen and Darren Helm at forward, Jonathan Ericsson and Trevor Daley on defense and Petr Mrazek in goal.

Kyle Rehman and Gord Dwyer refereed the game, with Steve Miller and Matt MacPherson working the lines.

The 1st period

1st period observations:

  • Nielsen drew in for the opening faceoff opposite Trocheck and the Panthers battled the puck back to their defense, dumped and chased, and Helm worked with Nielsen to muck and grind the puck out of trouble, set up in the Panthers’ zone, and re-set…
  • Tomas Tatar stole the puck from the Panthers at center ice and danced his way into the Panthers’ zone as Mike Matheson fumbled the puck, and Sateri made a bumbling stop that was impossible to tell whether it went into the goal.

  • Nyquist, Mantha and Zetterberg won an offensive zone faceoff and pushed the puck to the blueline, and the Panthers took over, with Dadonov and McCann roaring into the Wings’ zone, where they flipped a puck over the Wings’ goal.
  • Nielsen returned to the ice with Bertuzzi and Athanasiou, and the odd line surrendered a rush to Barkov, who got the Panthers’ first shot on Mrazek at 1:29.
  • Glendening’s line came out to complete the four-line rotation for a defensive zone faceoff, and Glendening, Abdelkader and Frk did what the previous lines did–they worked the puck into the Panthers’ zone, got out-worked for the puck, and ended up skating out of the Wings’ zone after Detroit’s defense took care of their forwards’ missteps.
  • Nielsen’s line returned to the ice 2:30 into the 1st, and Mrazek had to make another sharp stop, this time on Pysyk, as the Wings looked unsteady on their feet early.

Worse, the Aaron Ekblad flipped a backhand shot into the Red Wings’ net through traffic–off the goalpost and under the crossbar–and Florida took a 1-0 lead at 3:17.

Yandle scored at 3:17 from Huberdeau and Yandle.

  • Florida continued to menace the Wings on the post-goal shift, and Mike Matheson put a rifle shot OFF THE POST as Detroit played flat-footed hockey.
  • It was hard to tell much of anything given the Panthers’ camera angle, which is so low to the ice that you can spit into the rink from the camera stand…
  • And the Red Wings continued to struggle, pushing the puck back, back and back some more under heavy pressure over the first 5 minutes’ worth of play.
  • At 5:14, the shots were 4-3 Florida, attempts 8-3, hits 6-2 Florida, giveaways 1-1, takeaways 1-1, blocked shots 2-0 Detroit, faceoffs 5-5 (50%).
  • Nothing overwhelming save the Panthers’ time of possession in the Wings’ zone–and their SPEED. Detroit was getting out-skated by a fair margin.
  • At 6:51, Detroit was out-shot 4-3, out-attempted 8-4, out-hit 8-2, giveaways and takeaways were 1-1 and 1-1, blocked shots were 2-0 Detroit and the faceoffs stood at 6-5 Detroit (55%). Zetterberg’s line was the one that got walked through on the Ekblad goal.
  • Detroit took a long time to regain their footing–and it was weird to see the Wings struggle so much against an opponent they led by 2 points.

Trevor Daley got tagged for holding at 7:28 of the 1st, giving Florida a power play.

  • Right off the hop, the Panthers worked the puck back to Yandle, who fired a sneaky snapper into Mrazek;
  • Ericsson, DeKeyser, Abdelkader and Glendening worked together on the first PK unit, and the quartet afforded the Panthers the slot too easily, with Dadonov nearly penetrating the Wings’ hash marks in tight;
  • With 45 seconds remaining in the PK, the Wings were able to scramble their forwards over the boards and bring Helm and Nielsen out, with Jensen and Kronwall to follow…

And Jensen got high-sticked by Bjugstad at 9:10, giving Detroit 18 seconds of 4 on 4 time and 1:42 of PP time.

  • Detroit won the deep offensive zone faceoff but pushed the puck back to Jensen, whose shot was blocked, and the Wings started the PP in their own zone.
  • Slowly but surely, Zetterberg drop-passed the puck to Nyquist and got it working up ice, and Frk nearly set up Nyquist, but Florida cleared the puck once, twice, Detroit changed PP units, Larkin, Bertuzzi, Athanasiou, Green and Tatar watched the Panthers clear the defensive zone via a flipper off the glass, and the Panthers won another faceoff, and a bad turnover yielded a rush for Aleksandr Barkov off a stupid line change.
  • Florida just looked like a smarter team as the Wings crawled right back into their defensive shell and surrendered multiple shots. I hate dumb hockey, and the Wings were playing dumb hockey.
  • At 11:49, Detroit was out-shot 7-4 and out-attempted 14-6; hits were 9-3 Florida; giveaways 2-1 Detroit, takeaways 2-2; blocked shots 3-1 Detroit; faceoffs 10-8 Florida (44%).
  • Out-skated, out-hustled, out-competed, out-decision-made, it was like the Red Wings that beat the Hurricanes got lost with the baggage.
  • Detroit actually managed to generate some offensive pressure from time to time, but bad passing decisions = Sateri was only challenged by a Jensen pinch and an Athanasiou rush.
  • Mrazek had to make a good blocker squeeze on Nick Bjugstad as he “power moved” toward the net, and with 5:44 remaining in the 1st, the shots were 7-6, Florida, but the attempts were 16-8.
  • Barkov, Bjugstad and Dadonov did a good job of forcing the Glendening line to not only shovel Panthers players toward the side boards, but also ice the puck, and 15 minutes into the 1st period, Abdelkader and Frk fed Nielsen coming off the bench for the Wings’ 7th shot, and again, the Wings surrendered a Panthers rush, simply surrendering the slot in shocking fashion.
  • Thankfully, Florida took its foot off the gas a little bit, and they started to set up and pump point shots at the Wings’ goal instead of simply driving the middle lane to the Wings’ crease.
  • Florida was still getting the bounces on bad ice.
  • Glendening and Abdelkader at least made a mess in front of the Panthers’ net, pissing off Florida’s defense with some genuine grit and determination. They had a good shift together, generating some actual puck possession.
  • Abdelkader got angry at Pysyk and started shoving him…

And when Vincent Trocheck came in and popped Abdelkader’s helmet off, both players went off at 18:08, yielding some 4 on 4 time.

  • Zetterberg, Nyquist, Jensen and Kronwall worked together on the first 4-on-4 unit, and they were on the defensive side of play, but not passively so;
  • Daley, Ericsson, Larkin and Athanasiou were all flash and no dash, and the first period expired before the 4-on-4 did.

The 1st period in summary: The Red Wings just got jumped on early, and Florida’s early goal was the product of a poor overall period by a Wings team that only found itself very late in the period. Mostly, Detroit played dumb hockey, and they were down 1-0 because of it.

Statistically, Detroit and Florida tied 10-10 in shots, but Detroit was  out-attempted 20-17; hits were 12-6 Florida; giveaways 5-3 Florida, takeaways 3-3 (possession changes 8-6 Detroit); blocked shots 5-5; faceoffs 13-13 (50%).

Individually, 8 different Red Wings players had 1 shot, and Larkin fired 2 shots into Panthers shin pads; Ericsson led the Wings with 2 hits; Tatar had 2 giveaways; Jensen, Nyquist and Helm had 1 takeaway; Green and Glendening blocked 2 shots apiece; Zetterberg’s 3-and-2 (60%) led the Wings in the faceoff circle; Detroit was -5; Kronwall led the Wings with 8:25 played; Jensen played 7:14; Green 6:57, Zetterberg 6:20, DeKeyser 6:09, Nyquist 6:08, Glendening 6:05.

The 2nd period

2nd period observations:

  • In front of a crowd that would make Little Caesars Arena look full, Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou started the 4-on-4 and won the draw to Ericsson, who got chased out of the puck by Dadonov, who then stripped Daley of the puck and set up Barkov for a fine scoring chance.
  • When 5-on-5 play resumed, Nielsen, Helm and Tatar worked the puck down low in the Panthers’ zone, and they actually looked sharp as they ground out the puck against the Panthers’ defense before going off for a change.
  • 1:25 into the period, Zetterberg’s line came out, and ultimately iced the puck, cleared the zone, and gave up a rush to Mike Matheson, who was stoned by Mrazek;
  • Larkin’s line managed to cycle a bit, and they didn’t even give up a shot against. Progress?
  • Florida was playing a mean game and getting away with it, so some 5 minutes into the 2nd period, Detroit was not only chasing the Panthers’ puck possession, but it was also getting smeared, smashed and otherwise smooshed when Detroit held the puck.

Ultimately, the Panthers did take a penalty, with MacKenzie Weegar going to the box for slashing at 6:02 of the 2nd.

  • At 6:02 of the 2nd, Detroit was out-shot 2-1 in the 2nd and 12-11 overall; attempts were 24-19 Florida; hits 14-8 Florida; giveaways 8-7 Florida, takeaways 5-5; blocked shots 7-5 Detroit; faceoffs 16-15 Detroit (52%).
  • Detroit’s initial power play unit got some marginal zone time before Athanasiou, Larkin, Bertuzzi, Tatar and Green had to re-set and re-enter the Panthers’ zone, and they didn’t get set up until a minute of power play time had passed.
  • With 54 seconds remaining in the PP, Zetterberg, Mantha, Nyquist, Kronwall and Frk took over, lost the initial faceoff, re-entered the zone and over-played the Frk one-timer, though Kronwall got an OK chance sans traffic.
  • That was it for the PP and all things considered, the Wings were fairly lucky that it was 1-0 Florida.

Off a non-call against Detroit, Frans Nielsen gave-and-went with Daren Helm, charged into the Panthers’ zone, and Nielsen slid the puck into the slot, where DeKeyser leaned into a slapper and scored the 1-1 goal.

DeKeyser scored the 1-1 goal at 8:51 from Nielsen and Helm.

  • Athanasiou charged up and in on a near-breakaway on the post-goal shift, but he was not able to score on Sateri, who patiently stayed with the Wings’ #72 as he split the defense.
  • Detroit still struggled to keep the Panthers from peppering Mrazek with pucks, and even Mickey Redmond suggested that the Wings were getting out-thought.
  • Blashill engaged the line blender at 10:30, throwing Glendening, Tatar and Bertuzzi over the boards…
  • And they gave up a massive attempt to the Panthers, with the goalpost making another save for Mrazek.
  • At 10:41, Detroit led in shots 5-4 in the 2nd, and 15-14 overall; attempts were 30-24 Florida; hits 15-9 Florida; giveaways 9-7 Florida, takeaways 5-5; blocked shots 7-6 Detroit; faceoffs 19-17 (53% for Detroit).
  • As play resumed, Zetterberg got kicked out of the faceoff dot, Mantha lost the draw, and Detroit re-entered the zone, got tied up along the end boards, and DeKeyser and Jensen were only able to mop up so much at their respective blueline positions.
  • So it was a rope-a-dope game for the Wings.
  • To their credit, the Wings’ defense was moping up quite a bit of Wings back-to-the-defense-you-figure-it-out play, and the Wings got grittier as play continued, really biting down on the Panthers’ nasty stick-work with some hacking and whacking of their own (mostly on the puck, partially on Panthers’ sticks).

Regrettably, it only takes one false move to screw things up, and Aleksandr Barkov took a pass betwixt the Wings’ defense, via Dadonov, and Barkov slipped behind Henrik Zetterberg, fired the puck and beat Petr Mrazek between blocker and body.

Barkov made it 2-1 at 13:38. Dadonov and Bjugstad had the assists.

  • At 14:01, Florida led in shots 6-5 in the 2nd and 16-15 overall; attempts 34-25 Florida; hits 17-9 Florida; giveaways 9-8 Florida, takeaways 6-5 Detroit; blocked shots 10-6 Detroit; faceoffs 20-20 (50%).
  • Larkin’s line did a good job on the post-goal shift, but Detroit remained on its “back skate,” and Florida flooded the Wings’ zone with shot attempts and big, heavy bodies.
  • Glendening’s line was honestly the best Wings line. He and Abdelkader were physical and hard…
  • The last few minutes of the 2nd period slipped by quickly and without much incident. Trevor Daley got a couple of good shots off with both Nielsen and Larkin’s lines on the ice, and Zetterberg and company managed to actually win an offensive zone faceoff as the period expired.
  • The period expired twice due to poor clock work, but I can tell you that the stat sheets were as screwed up as the clock, and that was very frustrating for this observer.

The 2nd period in summary: Darren Eliot said, “It was about the same,” and it was about the same. Detroit managed to score a goal, but the tie did not stand, and the rope-a-dope play was led by a far more assertive blueline than the forwards should hope to play with given how crappy they were playing on the night.

😐 <–This is the face I was making during the game.
Like this:

Statistically, Detroit and Florida were tied 9-9 in shots in the 2nd period and 19-19 overall; attempts were 42-29 Florida; hits 22-11 Florida; giveaways 11-10 Detroit, takeaways 9-6 Florida (possession changes 19-17 Florida); blocked shots 13-6 Detroit; faceoffs 23-23 (50%).

Individually, Glendening led the Wings with 4 shots, and Kronwall and Athanasiou had 3 shots apiece; Ericsson led the Wings with 4 hits, and DeKeyser had 2; Tatar had 3 giveaways; Nyquist had 2 takeaways; Glendening blocked 4 shots, Green 3 and Helm 2; Larkin’s 5-and-4 (56%) faceoff record led the team, which was -5; Kronwall led the team with 15:34 played; Green played 14:28, Jensen 12:39, DeKeyser 12:35, Zetterberg 12:18, Ericsson 11:16, Nyquist 11:05, Daley 10:38.

The 3rd period

3rd period observations:

  • Nielsen’s line took the third period’s opening faceoff and lost it, but the Wings dumped the puck in and chased it, with Helm kicking and jabbing down low.
  • Detroit looked like it finally had a leg up on the Panthers skating-wise, but the Wings also surrendered 2 shot attempts to Barkov before Bertuzzi slithered a sneaky shot attempt wide of Sateri’s blocker.
  • Florida had continued to crash and bang more than the Wings, too, and that was taking its toll on Detroit’s attempts to rally.

The Red Wings then got into a kerfuffle when Frans Nielsen cycled the puck toward the net, the puck went off Darren Helm to Danny DeKeyser, and he kind of sort of kicked the puck into the net.

The goal counted, at 3:00, so DeKeyser scored from Helm and Nielsen. 2-2!

  • Weird bounce on the 1-0 goal, weird bounce on the 2-2 goal, tied up.
  • The Panthers did push back, but not with nearly as much enthusiasm as they had displayed prior to the Wings’ 2-2 goal, and Detroit simply had a quiet edge on the Panthers by possessing the puck with more control when the puck was on their sticks.
  • At 6:15, shots in the 3rd were 3-3, 22-22 on the night; attempts were 49-33 Florida; hits 24-13 Florida; giveaways 13-10 Florida, takeaways 12-7 Florida; blocked shots 13-6 Detroit; faceoffs 28-25 Detroit (53%).

Jonathan Ericsson got too physical at 6:45, yielding a hooking penalty because he was trying to swipe the puck from Barkov, and his stick got hooked up in Barkov’s elbow.

  • Detroit managed to win the defensive zone faceoff and clear the puck to center ice, and Luke Glendening was tripped trying to break away from the pack…

So, 23 seconds into the PK, Barkov went for tripping, yielding a penalty at 7:08 and 1:37 of 4-on-4 time.

  • The Wings threw Nielsen and Tatar over the boards with DeKeyser and Jensen, and they went offside; Larkin, Athanasiou, Kronwall and Green fumbled the puck into the hands of Pysyk, and Mrazek had to make a superb stop…

But Niklas Kronwall went off for slashing Trocheck in the hands, and Detroit headed to a 4-on-3 PK for 25 seconds (penalty at 8:20).

  • Glendening, DeKeyser and Daley started off the PK, lost the faceoff, and Trocheck poked the puck down and off the goalpost;
  • Glendening did skate away and into the Panthers’ zone, affording Detroit a bit of a 4-on-4 that they could not take advantage of, and the Panthers went back to the PP.
  • Mrazek was aided by Frans Nielsen off a strange shot, the Wings changed units, and Ericsson made a superb clear to diffuse some Panthers pressure;
  • Mrazek also made a couple of good stops, as did Nick Jensen, and that killed the penalty.
  • Off a rush, Nyquist slid a puck off Sateri that Mantha nearly steered into the net, and on the next exchange, Mantha put a puck into Sateri that Nyquist almost put into the net…but the Finnish goalie was up to the task of stoning the Wings!
  • With under 10 minutes remaining, the Wings needed the point, if not two, to keep the Panthers behind them.

Off an excellent rush, Tyler Bertuzzi was challenged by Maxim Mamin, and the pair had a spirited fight. They sat down at 13:40 of the 3rd.

  • Mrazek made some SUPERB stops on Bjugstad as the big Panthers winger tried to hammer the puck in past Mrazek from below the goal line…
  • Ekblad got away with quite the hook on Mantha as Mantha and Nyquist raced in 2-on-1…
  • Florida’s Barkov then set up the other way and nearly scored a 3-2 marker, with the puck fluttering past him at the Wings’ net…
  • The final TV timeout of regulation time hit with 4:20 remaining in regulation time.
  • At 15:40: Detroit had been out-shot 9-6 in the 3rd and 28-25 overall; attempts were 57-39 Florida; hits 27-17 Florida; giveaways 15-11 Florida, takeaways 13-8 Florida; blocked shots 13-6 Detroit; faceoffs 31-29 Detroit (52%).
  • As play resumed, Mantha actually won a faceoff that Zetterberg had been kicked out of, and Nyquist deked and flipped a backhander over Sateri;
  • Up came the Panthers, who picked off Kronwall and sent Barkov in on a rush that he blasted over the net;
  • Detroit was narrowly out-skated over the final couple minutes of regulation play, and both teams were turning and burning with the best of ’em as they searched for a winning break.
  • Mrazek made an ASTOUNDING stop and Detroit performed a goal line stand–literally–as the Panthers pounded pucks in front of the net, and:
  • Florida went offside with 1:05 remaining in regulation, and off the hop, Mrazek had to make another big stop on a wild shot…
  • Detroit set up in the Panthers’ zone, Florida then raced out, and Green and DeKeyser worked with Nielsen’s line to try to shut the Panthers down.
  • Mrazek made one more big stop…

And the Panthers’ Jonathan Huberdeau scored with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation, with Petr Mrazek furious and fuming that Huberdeau was shoved into him.


The NHL’s situation room challenged at 19:52 automatically for goaltender interference.

If it counted: Huberdeau from Yandle and Ekblad.

If it didn’t: Overtime.

With the Panthers’ faithful chanting, “Goal, goal, goal!” we all waited…

And they called it on the ice as a goal, so it was a goal. 3-2 Florida.

  • Detroit pulled Mrazek for the final 7.9 (screwed up the clock again).
  • Blashill got tossed as well.
  • Detroit tried a Hail Mary, but Florida blocked the Wings’ attempts, Sateri stopped Green, and the teams were tied in points.
  • Detroit refused to leave the ice, with Zetterberg protesting, Mrazek protesting, and the bench furious.

The 3rd period in summary: The Red Wings either got out-worked or hosed, depending on your point of view. I think it was a little bit of both.

As Mickey Redmond duly noted on Fox Sports Detroit, the Red Wings may have been jobbed because the Gary Bettman “memo” (if you will) to his officials was that goaltender interference should not be over-complicated, but instead, that calls on the ice should stand unless there was egregious evidence to the contrary…

And this f***er was all about interpreting Jonathan Huberdeau’s body language.

I think he went into Mrazek on his own, and Petr unfortunately chose to stop playing when he felt he was interfered with. I’m a biased observer who grew up cheering for the Red Wings, so you may disagree.

Statistics:

Here’s the Game Summary…

And the Event Summary: 

Final shot attempts were 66-43 Florida. That’s the telling stat to me.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

7 thoughts on “Red Wings-Panthers quick take: Were the Wings jobbed? Maybe, maybe not.”

  2. If I live to be a billion years old and never have to hear “a doo ee doo ee dooooo” again, I will call it a wash.

    1. If I had the FSD version I would post it. They’re great with post-game clips, but not so good at posting replays.

  3. I was surprised they said the review was initiated by the league and it took so long. I figured it would be challenged but never had any question which way it would go.

    The worst part about the game is that they almost got a point with how they played in their own zone. Florida should have had at least 6 goals by that point. The other team missing the net on scoring chance after scoring chance does not equal a close game.

    Hits were 27-11? That was about what the Florida channel had after one period. And giveaways only 6-7? The Red Wings had more that on their own.

  4. I don’t think Mrazek stopped playing, honestly. I think he legitimately lost his balance after the contact. He was trying to move to gain sight of the puck, was in kind of an awkward position, and I think that is why the contact threw him off balance how it did. Completely wrong call IMO.

  5. Could have gone either way but I see no reason why PM would have flopped deliberately at this critical juncture. There is no consistency with the rules so how would he have expected to gain any advantage by it?
    The guys in front of him were not doing very good job of defending at that point, maybe from being overused and gassed from the night before.

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