After a nice 5-2 win over Toronto yesterday (Saturday), where we saw the long awaited return of our Captain Alex Ovechkin where he got easy empty net goal as the cherry on top and the continuation of the #Gr8Chase.
The Caps headed to Detroit in a quick back to back.
The Red Wings got on the board first where they made the Caps look like they never placed defense before with some easy cycling of the puck by Seider to Ben Chiarot who shot a wrister from the point infront of a crowed net that Lindgren couldn’t see 1-0 Wings.
The Wings then went on the power-play off a Lars Eller high sticking call. The Wings some non defended passing by Detroit found Patrick Kane who beat Lindgren to make it 2-0 Wings.
https://twitter.com/DetroitRedWings/status/1873496242904326559
Then after a great breakaway save by Lindgren, the Caps were able to get on the board off a nice offesive rush and some great passing from McMichael and Chychrun who found a streaking Ovechkin from his office for a nice one-timer 2-1 in favor of the bad guys.
This was Ovi’s 17th of the season in only TWENTY games and goals in back to back games. Ovi’s goal gives him 870 in his career and only 25 away from Gretzky.
Detroit answered back in 31 seconds off a defensive breakdown behind the net where Kane found a wide open DeBrincat in-front for an easy tap in to make it 3-1 Wings.
The 1st period from hell continued where Lindgren made a nice sliding save off a backhand attempt but left a juicy rebound and put him in a bad position till laying on his side where Lucas Raymond had essentially an open upper half of the net and finished it to give the Wings a 4-1 lead.
The Red Wings had 4 goals on their first 10 shots (not great). Just straight bad defense from the boys in the first.
https://twitter.com/DetroitRedWings/status/1873501349549072584
The Red Wings started the 2nd on a power-play which was killed by the Caps which was huge for momentum to start this period.
The Caps then went on a power-play but the remaining 19 seconds was canceled out due to a too many men penalty just shooting ourselves in the foot.
The 2nd ends with no goals and much better defensive play and effort by the boys in white.
The 3rd period starts with a nice chance by Ovi but could not put it home.
Not to long after Nic Dowd brings the Caps back within two after a nice battle in-front and the loose puck found his stick and shoves it in for the goal past the diving Wings goal and defender.
This was Dowder’s 1oth goal of the season and has reached 10 goals for the 5th straight season.
The Caps went on the power-play with around 1:25 left in the 3rd after Taylor Raddysh had a wide open rebound chance for a goal but was crossed crecked by Simon Edvinsson (smart penalty imo). The Caps then pulled Lindgren for one last effort to shorten the lead by the Red Wings.
After a bunch of great chances on the power-play the Caps couldnt get one with two many shots that went wide as well as some whiffs that allwoed the Red Wings to clear the puck to waste time.
The Caps finished a lot better than what we saw in the 1st but it was too little too late. Capitals lose 4-2. They also got out shot 50 to 37 during 5v5.
The Capitals are back in action on New Year’s Eve against the Bruins at home.
The Morning Skate 