The Capitals traveled to MoTown Tuesday night, where they still make cars just ones that are a little more Italian. It was a night of reunions and celebrations. But somebody forgot to invite the Caps. The fairy tale was not to be.
The Caps had a torrid pace through much of the first, Alex Ovechkin especially, but they couldn’t crack Petr Mzarek. In fact, the Wings actually scored the game’s opening goal, but Braden Holtby slipped the cookie out of the cookie jar with aplomb.
In the second, the Wings turned the nerd graphs upside down but the Capitals managed to keep the dam from overflowing.
That was until Andreas Athansiou (?) notched his first NHL tally on a fluke sharp angle shot. That was all. Ho hum. Wings blank Caps, 1-0.
- Alex Ovechkin, a current NHL player, has 483 career goals while Sergey Fedorov, a former player, also has 483 career goals. That means Ovi will surpass Fedorov soon to become the highest-scoring Russian player of all time It would have been sublime if it happened Tuesday, as Fedorov was in attendance at Joe Louis Arena after being inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday.
- Ovi tried his hardest to break that record. He was a monster, attempting eight shots in the opening frame, six on goal. He finished with 15 (!) shots on goal, tying a personal record for the Great Eight in an NHL game. That is just ridiculous.
- The Capitals played without Brooks Orpik for much of the night. Orpik skated a 1:23 shift early in the second before calling it a night. That’s when the Capitals started to flatline. According to the Caps, Orpik has a lower-body injury and will be re-evaluated on Veteran’s Day after the Capitals land in Philly. Capitals head coach Barry Trotz has said Orpik has been “hurt,” not injured. Perhaps he will be merely “incapacitated,” but not injured after this one. Orpik stayed 6:49. He had failed to register a hit.
- Washington has now given up the opening (and in tonight’s case only) goal in five straight games. Here’s where I should explain why I think that’s happening. I have no idea why that’s happening.
- Jason Chimera and Jay Beagle were horrendous. After 40 minutes of play, the pair was on the ice for 52% (17) of Detroit’s total number of shot attempts (33). Between them, they had just one of their own. Chimera and Beagle finished minus-18 and minus-17 in unblocked even strength shot attempts. In their defense, about two-thirds of their starts were in the defensive zone.
Remember in The Office when Jim came back to Scranton and Pam said it felt like he still wasn't back? I'm Pam and 2015-16 Burakovsky is Jim
— Pat Holden (@pfholden) November 11, 2015
- The Caps had earned a point in 20 straight games against Atlantic Division teams. But they lost tonight, which means they got no points.
- Mike Green played for the Red Wings, I guess. He wasn’t really noticeable. And he’s 30. WASHED UP!
- Mzarek was brilliant while Holtby made a bo-bo. Story of the night.
You can’t win ’em all. Don’t stop believin’.
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