The Washington Capitals did not have their best for the first half of the game in Detroit on Sunday evening, and by the time they got it together, it was too late. The Red Wings were up 4-1 after 20 minutes and held on for a 4-2 victory.
If I was the Capitals’ top brass, I would be fuming about their schedule after the break.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2024-12-29
#ALLCAPS
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) December 29, 2024 at 7:45 PM
- Washington was clearly lapped by Detroit in the early goings, last to pucks, and making mental error after mental error. They allowed seven five-on-five high-danger chances with most coming early in the frame, as Charlie Lindgren was left spinning like a top in his crease. They recovered well in the back half of the game, but the damage had been done, and Alex Lyon stood on his head in the Red Wings crease.
- We don’t love excuses, but I’m going to give the Capitals one. Their early-game blunders could be explained by the fact that the NHL had them start the back half of a back-to-back with travel less than 24 hours after their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs started on Saturday. I feel like that is an incredible disadvantage. Oh, and when does their next game start? Just 12:30 pm on Tuesday. In my opinion, that is pretty not great stuff for player safety nor for a watchable hockey product.
- Hey, Alex Ovechkin scored again, though. The Great Eight blasted his 870th career marker by Lyon and moved 24 goals away from a share of the all-time goals record with Wayne Gretzky. Despite missing 16 games with a broken leg, Ovi is still unfathomably on pace for 56 goals if he plays the entirety of the rest of Washington’s schedule.
Dowd scored his 10th goal in his 36th game of the season. It's the fastest Dowd has reached the 10-goal mark in his career (previously 10g in 39 GP in 2022-23). https://t.co/OAMEBqw8wd
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 30, 2024
- Ovi was super busy outside of his goal, recording 14 individual shot attempts, eight shots on goal, and three individual scoring chances. The next closest Capitals forward in individual shot attempts was Taylor Raddysh, who recorded five. Raddysh added an assist on Nic Dowd’s third-period goal.
- We talked about how the Capitals struggled early, but I also think Lindgren’s inconsistent play in net definitely did not help. Per Moneypuck, he gave up 1.42 more goals than expected. Lindgren has lost three of his last four decisions. Logan Thompson hasn’t lost back-to-back starts the entire season.
- The special teams battle proved big as the Capitals went 0-for-3 on their power-play attempts while the Red Wings went 1-for-4. Detroit’s penalty kill was operating under 60 percent at home coming into this game.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
