Photo: Alex Brandon

The Washington Capitals didn’t play particularly well against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night, but an awful injury to Jimmy Howard, some sterling work on special teams, and some killer instinct in the dangerous zones vaulted the home team to a comfy lead over the possession monsters of the Motor City.

Troy Brouwer scored early in the first, exploiting a costly mistake by Jimmy Howard that forced him to leave the game. In the second period, Andre Burakovsky sent a perfect pass to John Carlson for a one-timer, and Joel Ward chopped at a loose puck to put the Wings in a three-goal hole. Before the second intermission, Jonathan Ericsson seized on a loose puck to make it 3-1. No change in the third, so the Caps enter the season’s back half on a high note.

Caps beat Wings 3-1.

• This was a stunningly low-shooting affair (the Caps had under 20), which was actually a good thing. The Capitals got decisively pwned in the shot-attempt differential, but precious few of those shot attempts were on target– a distinct advantage for Washington and Braden Holtby. Add a few lucky bounces to the mix and boom: win.
• Marcus Johansson went 40 games without a penalty this season. That streak ended Saturday as he batted a puck over the glass with his glove in the second period. I don’t know if he’ll ever commit a restraining penalty again.
• Unlike Brooks Orpik, whose trip in the first period makes 10 penalties for him in the last 12 games. Some of these we can look back on and say “soft call,” though there’s clearly some substance to this stat. I’ll say this for Orpik though: I saw him defuse Datsyuk expertly twice on Saturday.
• Despite the Red Wings’ overall supremacy during special teams (top 5 in both), the Caps converted on the PP and were absolutely frugal on the PK– holding Detroit to zero shots.
• Poor Jimmy Howard. He injured his groin on this Brouwer goal, and I’m not confident for a speedy recovery. Petr Mrazek took over in net for the Wings, who are gonna need to find a new G-man like tomorrow. Jill Sorenson reported in the third period that Howard’s defensemen didn’t inform him that Brouwer was on the attack.
• Tom Wilson did that thing again where he checked multiple guys, but he spent most of 5v5 in his own end (10 percent possession, 9-1 shot-attempt differential). He wasn’t on ice for a Capitals shot attempt during 5v5 through the halfway mark of the third period. Same with Jason Chimera. These lines are not working (or this lineup), despite any compelling anecdotes we might cherrypick from tonight’s game. They did, however, draw a penalty in the third period, when they saw their very first examples of offense of the entire game.
• Shout out to commenter Michael R., who totally called Joel Ward‘s goal.
• Nate Schmidt, sent down to Hershey, scored two goals and got an assist in the AHL. He would’ve had the hat trick if greedy Casey Wellman hadn’t tipped in number three. The kid’s too good for the lesser league. He’s ready for full-time NHL work– perhaps more so than any Caps D-man since Mike Green. I hope we see him soon.
• Evgeny Kuznetsov had like seventy-five scoring chances tonight and blew every last one of them. I like his play of late overall; the finishing will come.

Joe B suit of the seriously what is the deal with the wide ties lately

How did the Capitals score three goals with so little offense? That’s not a rhetorical question: the answer is luck. Or, if you wanna be a little more exacting, the answer is a non-repeatable skill.

The Caps are gonna have to right the ship when it comes to shot differential. They’ve got a couple lines that are dysfunctional and their best D-pairing no longer tilting the ice as it should. They can’t bank on wins like this one for too much longer.

But that’s way too a pessimistic note to end this game on. The Caps are now halfway through their 2014-15 campaign, and there’s a lot to celebrate. This game joins 21 others in the W column for the Capitals of Washington. This is a good team, and we’re gonna spend a lot of time discussing exactly what that means on Sunday. Join me for a supersized snapshot, and have a great night.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Red Wings