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Caps beat Red Wings 1-0 thanks to Grubauer

By Peter Hassett

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March 22, 2018 10:12 pm

The Caps sleepwalked (…sleptwalked?) through a Thursday night date in Detroit. The Wings, playing with stubborn futility for their postseason lives, outworked Washington, but solid work in net by sole-surviving goaltender Philipp Grubauer saved the Caps’ bacon.

The first and second periods were scoreless and sloppy, but Brett Connolly got a breakaway in the third to beat Jimmy Howard.

Caps beat Wings! Grubauer with a 39-save shutout!

  • This was a tough one. The Caps had trouble establishing a net-front presence and generating any sustained offense. The Wings certainly worked harder, which shows up in the shot attempts, but they really struggled to give Philipp Grubauer a lot of challenges, though they definitely gave him volume.
  • That shouldn’t detract from Grubi’s performance. While the team in front of him lost puck races and duffed passes, Grubauer was dialed in from the drop. With Holtby on the shelf (hopefully briefly), the Caps and their fans should have zero anxiety about their net being in good hands. 39 saves for his third shutout of the season.
  • Grubauer was beaten once in the first period, a dart from Andreas Athanasiou, but Tyler Bertuzzi’s contact with the goalie got the call reversed. One of those rare “hey, nice goalie interference call, ref” situations.
  • The Red Wings missed defenseman Mike Green, who is done for the season with imminent cervical spine surgery.
  • It felt to me like the third line was the only one creating any danger. Maybe Jakub Vrana and Brett Connolly were feeling some pressure to avoid a healthy scratch, and maybe that’s what motivated them to play well and actually score.
  • Actually, I wonder if Washington’s depressed performance was driven a bit by the “sickness” that Barry Trotz described as going around the team lately. Everyone I know has got the bug a little bit lately, and I know I’m way off my game, so it follows that the Caps would suck too.

I have no idea who the broadcasters were, and their suits were unremarkable so…

There’s John Carson looking goofy of the night.

The Caps played badly, but they got one good goal and about 40 good saves, and that’s enough to get two standing points and to eliminate Detroit from the postseason.

Full Coverage of Caps at Red Wings

Headline photo: Dave Reginek

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