The 30-26-and-6 Detroit Red Wings headed to Washington, D.C. overnight to play the 40-14-and-8 Washington Capitals this evening (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Monumental Sports Network/Sportsnet Pacific/Sportsnet 360/97.1 FM).
Detroit has lost 4 straight games, including last night’s 4-2 loss to Utah HC, while the Capitals snapped a 3-game losing streak of their own this week in a pair of extra-time wins, beating Ottawa 5-4 in a shootout on Monday, and winning 3-2 in overtime over the New York Rangers on Wednesday.
Washington sits 2 points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the NHL’s overall lead in points, so tonight’s going to be one hell of a challenge for struggling Wings.
Both Field Level Media’s game preview (which focuses on what NHL.com is calling “The GR8 Chase,” a.k.a. Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record) and the Capitals website’s preview are kind of “meh” this morning, so we’re going with Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir’s succinct Tweet explaining where the Capitals are at mentally this morning…
Happy trade deadline day, hockey fans! Also: Ovi is 10 goals from breaking 99’s record w/ 20 games to go. On tap in DC tonight: DET, which has dropped 4 straight. Per https://t.co/0AsT1B4jcp, the #ALLCAPS have the 2nd easiest remaining schedule in the NHL.
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) March 7, 2025
The Red Wings, of course, have the NHL’s hardest schedule in terms of quality of competition, and they’re beginning a stretch in which Detroit plays 7 of their next 10 games away from Little Caesars Arena.
Here are tonight’s game notes, all 88 pages of ’em, in PDF form:
