Mike-Babcock-10-15-14

What's wrong with this picture? Gustav Nyquist isn't in it, as Mike Babcock goes over power-play strategy with Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall, Henrik Zetterberg and Riley Sheahan in overtime.

(Mike Mulholland/MLive.com)

DETROIT – Gustav Nyquist was off to a hot start, having scored his third goal in as many games earlier in the night Wednesday.

So why wasn't he on the ice when the Detroit Red Wings had a four-on-three power play with 41 seconds remaining in overtime against the Boston Bruins?

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said it was because Nyquist hadn't worked with that unit during four-on-three practice; he worked with the second unit.

But Babcock was kicking himself a day later for not adjusting.

"It drove me crazy that I did that, even though we worked with those other guys," Babcock said. "How the heck was I dumb enough to let that happen? We even talked about it and I still did it.

"I thought it was dumb. Why did I do that?"

The Red Wings had Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Riley Sheahan and Niklas Kronwall on the ice. They managed just one shot during that abbreviated power play, before losing 3-2 in a shootout.

Why didn't Nyquist practice with that unit to begin with?

"Because we thought that was the best chance to score," Babcock said.

"But then when we scored another goal in that game on the power play, wouldn't you just put him on the ice?"

It was Nyquist's 100th game. He scored his 35th goal. That is the most goals for a Red Wing in his first 100 games since Slava Kozlov notched 37 from 1991-92 to 1993-94.

Nyquist, as you'd expect, didn't have any issues with not being on the ice.

"You put your top players out there and I thought they created two really good chances," Nyquist said. "I thought Mule's shot there at the end was in there actually. I think it went off the knob (of Tuukka Rask's stick)."

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