With a much easier path to the playoffs on the line for each team, the Detroit Red Wings logged a season-high 43 shots against the Washington Capitals but could not solve Charlie Lindgren until the final second of the game, falling 2-1 on Tuesday night.
It’s not a dagger, but it’s at least a heavyweight shot to the kidney of Detroit’s playoff odds which, as noted pre-game, could have shot as high as 66.9% with a regulation win but now sit around 27.1%. They got a little help as Montreal drubbed Philadelphia 9-3, but didn’t get all the bounces tonight as the Islanders knocked off the Rangers.
Game Summary
Event Summary
1st period
Starts are always a point of contention, and Detroit’s been back to generally starting well more often than not after a dreadful stretch last month. It looked like Detroit was ready for this one from the jump, holding a 17-8 shot advantage for the period.
Washington had some chances, but Detroit had the best looks — the standout to me was a Christian Fischer pass that made it to J.T. Compher in the slot for a good attempt, and then a second when he collected his own rebound. It was 0-0 after 20 in a goalless, penalty-less and nearly whistle-less first period, which featured almost 10 minutes of uninterrupted play that blew right past two commercial breaks.
2nd period
The second started much the same way, but the longer the Red Wings went without solving Lindgren, the more precarious the game started to feel. Sure enough, the final five minutes of the period saw the Capitals mount their longest, and maybe even their only, stretch of significant pressure.
The DeBrincat – Compher – Kane line was hemmed in for over a minute with several failed clearing attempts, the last of which by Compher that Martin Fehervary knocked down and slid over to Dylan Strome, who rifled a puck over Alex Lyon’s pad. Another weird detail was that DeBrincat had broken his stick, and Jeff Petry handed over his (in most cases, it’s better for a forward to be stickless). Then, when the Red Wings were able to clear the zone, Kane passed to DeBrincat for what should have been an easy clear… but he mishandled it the Caps brought it right back in, maybe due to gas, maybe due to not having his own stick. Bizarre sequence, but the kind of reward that teams get after extended offensive pressure.
The Capitals extended their lead on another bad break for Detroit, as David Perron sent a cross-ice pass to Moritz Seider that he couldn’t corral, which bounced to T.J. Oshie. Seider stumbled when pivoting, and Oshie dished it to Alex Ovechkin who blasted one behind Lyon. Worth noting that Seider was questionable for this one with illness. Did it contribute to bobbling a pass? Probably not, but I’m sure it didn’t help him, either.
Washington took a 2-0 lead into the third — arguably the biggest 20 minutes of the season for Detroit.
3rd period
But the third period was much of the same. The Capitals tightened down defensively and withstood as the Red Wings’ attack continued to mount. Cruelly, the Red Wings finally solved Lindgren with just 1.1 seconds left on the clock, as Kane banged home a rebound of a hectic scramble. No time was left to mount any further threat beyond that, so the Capitals took a massive two points against Detroit for the second time in three weeks.
Takeaways
1. I consider myself an optimist, but I’m well aware that can easily slip into delusion. And while I watched this game thinking they absolutely had to have it… I’m still left with some hope. With the Islanders winning and Flyers losing, the wild card race looks like this:
It feels hopeless because the last few weeks have been this over and over — win and you’re right on the doorstep, lose and you need some help — but we keep ending up right back here, with the race virtually deadlocked. The Islanders get a little breathing room, and were it not for Philadelphia’s pure implosion, it would pretty much be over. While Detroit needs to find a way to gain one point on Washington, they have an immediate opportunity to make a statement with their next game coming against Pittsburgh. A win is a severe blow to the Penguins’ hopes, and puts pressure back on a Capitals team that has struggled of late (and frankly didn’t look good tonight). Call me crazy — especially because the 4-4-2 mark in Detroit’s L10 column shows that they’ve done plenty to hurt their own chances — but I’m not discarding my playoff hopes yet.
2. While I’d like to see the Red Wings make the playoffs, the past six weeks have done little to inspire confidence that they would do any damage should they get in. While weirder things have happened, my opinion is that making the playoffs is most important to help the team’s young leaders get some experience and reward them for a more-or-less positive season. With that in mind, as disappointing as the result was tonight, I can’t be too mad about the process. They looked like the better team. Some of the shot discrepancies may come from Washington sitting on its lead but, the Capitals didn’t look ready in the first period, and Detroit just got goalie’d. They certainly didn’t do themselves any favors in the second with a series of mistakes that led to the Capitals jumping to that 2-0 lead, but they kept the pressure on for 60 minutes (or 55, I guess).
3. If I had to pick some nits, I think the Red Wings need to get greasier. They fired 43 shots, and Lindgren looked great, but he kicked out his fair share of rebounds and it didn’t feel like the Red Wings were close to getting to enough of them. It also didn’t seem like Detroit generated a lot of traffic, taking Lindgren’s vision away and creating more opportunities for tips. Most NHL goalies will make the save when they can see the shot. It’s not been a season-long concern, but playing that way only becomes more important in the playoffs, or even the tightly-contested games like this one. Hopefully, it’s a lesson learned, because there’s no room for error left.
Detroit’s next game is Thursday at 7 p.m. in Pittsburgh.
