Alright. Welp. The Washington Capitals were defeated utterly by the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday evening. It was never close. It was never fun. It was penance for something bad we all must have done. Surely we deserved this.
Goal 1? That was Alex DeBrincat getting last touch on Ben Chiarot’s shot. Goal 2? Obviously Patrick Kane on the power play. Alex Ovechkin got the combobreaker off a pass from Chychrun, but the Wings got right back to work. Goal 3 came thirty seconds later: DeBrincat again on a fast passing sequence. Goal 4, you ask? Gotta be Lucas Raymond, who is good, outworking the Washington defense.
The second period was bereft of goals, mercifully. Had any been scored they would have been scored against the Caps. This I know.
Nic Dowd got a goal in the third period. That was nice.
Caps lose.
- Charlie Lindgren got lit up like Buckcherry in the first period. He allowed 4 goals on 1.3 expected goals. I was mildly shocked and moderately flummoxed and somewhat astonished that Spencer Carbery kept him in the game after intermission, but perhaps like me he knew that…
- The Caps defense was abysmal. Roy got beat by Kane, Chychrun got beat by Raymond, TVR got beat by pretty much everyone. It was a collective failure, and I expect Carbery to defend his goalie in the post-game media time better than the blue line did during play.
- Detroit had seven high-danger chances in the first period alone. The heatmap looked like Predator looking at Dutch in the rainforest. But the Caps played respectably after that first period – with some exceptions. The Wings got no high-danger chances during five-on-five in the second period.
- Lars Eller returned to play after ten days on the shelf due to illness. He did a high-sticking against Patrick Kane 85 seconds into his return. Speaking of, I don’t see why this needed to happen today:
Patrick Kane notched his 1,300th career point and joined Mike Modano (1,374) as the second U.S.-born player in NHL history to reach the milestone.#NHLStats: https://t.co/7Bs7pRFrzo pic.twitter.com/qRsh9ZpI2l
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 29, 2024
- A sloppy line change halfway into the second period earned the Caps a bench penalty for too many men. That was their league-leading seventh supplementary lads of the year. No team has more excessive dudes than the Caps. Colorado and Philadelphia trail Washington with six penalties for extraneous blokes.
- How did I make it so far into the recap without mentioning that Alex Ovechkin scored his 17th goal – his second in as many games, his two-th in twenty-six hours.
- Brandon Duhaime got assessed a penalty at the close of the second period. At first it was an unsportsmanlike conduct, but then it got changed to “removing opponent’s helmet.” I couldn’t figure it out exactly, and neither could Alex Ovechkin, who back-sassed the officials about it.
- Yet again, Nic Dowd did not commit a penalty. He did commit a goal however. He’s got the same streak going as Ovi.
- Way way way off-topic but also way way on-brand, John Waters was at the Trapped Under Ice show at the Ottobar today. I love Baltimore.
Is that John Waters at the TUI show? pic.twitter.com/KjNI0w3osb
— Carl (@CarlGeneMusic) December 29, 2024
- Honestly, the Caps were somewhere between just fine and pretty good in the second and third periods. But when you start that bad, the contest is over before you can even, uh, contest it.
JMU colors #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/uYgDfuiLdx
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 29, 2024
I am in complete control of my thoughts, and I choose to chalk this up – entirely – to back-to-back-itis. Everyone made mistakes with and without the puck, and the pace of the game was just plain too high for the Caps. I refuse to learn anything from this loss. This is my choice.
One more game left in 2024. It’s a matinee on New Year’s Eve against Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins. See you there.
