Red Wings-Capitals Tweetcap: Wings steal one point, Caps steal two in a 4-3 shootout loss to Washington

The Detroit Red Wings looked to rebound from an underwhelming performance against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday as Detroit hosted the high-scoring Washington Capitals at Little Caesars Arena.

With four final games left before of the Olympic break, and a “flu bug” going around the Wings’ locker room, there were legitimate concerns that Detroit would dress a patchwork lineup on Thursday evening.

Washington was wrapping up a 6-game road trip, boasting a very unpleasant 1-1-and-3 record, and on Thursday morning, they lost starting goaltender Logan Thompson to an upper-body injury, so they were no less desperate to win than Detroit.

But there are no excuses when you’re trying to remain ahead of the Sabres, Canadiens and Bruins in the Atlantic Division.

On Thursday night, history happened, of course…

And from there, the Capitals stole two points, and I am FURIOUS as to how they won the 4-3 SHOOTOUT victory.

Sure, it was great that after the Chiarot goal, with Washington up 3-1, Alex DeBrincat scored goals #29 and #30 (and a wild goal at that) at 18:20 and 19:07 of the 3rd period…

But Washington REFUSED to ENGAGE in overtime, looping BACK AND BACK AND BACK OVER AND OVER AGAIN, SIMPLY DEFERRING TO PLAY ANY OFFENSIVE HOCKEY UNTIL THEY COULD GO TO THE SHOOTOUT, where the Caps went 3-for-3 vs. Detroit’s 2-for-3–thanks to a crossbar by Dylan Larkin.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Charlie Lindgren led their respective teams out onto the ice at LCA:

The Capitals post their lines as soon as the team hits the ice for warm-ups…

And the Wings were healthy enough to sit Sheldon Dries, Justin Holl and Erik Gustafsson, at least:

1ST PERIOD:

The teams dressed the following starters and lineups:

PENALTY: John Carlson flipped the puck over the glass at 1:06, yielding a delay of game penalty.

GOAL? Alex DeBrincat scored his 25th of the season at 2:25 on the power play, but WASHINGTON CHALLENGED THE GOAL AND IT WAS OFFSIDE.

GOAL: Off a big Nic Dowd hit on Ben Chiarot, the Capitals cycled the puck to the right wing half boards via a Jakob Chychrun bomb that went wide. Connor McMichael found Dowd in the faceoff circle, and Dowd ripped a shot through Chiarot to make it 1-0 Washington at 6:27.

Washington 1, Detroit 0: Dowd (3) from McMichael (23) and Chychrun (21) at 6:27 1st period.

PENALTY: Trevor van Riemsdyk got called for tripping Lucas Raymond at 17:58 of the 1st.

And it’s not like Buccigross was playing up the, “It’s the most important game of the season for the Caps, and it’s Kane vs. Ovi vs. the World” angle.

2ND PERIOD:

PENALTY: Charlie Lindgren got called for tripping up J.T. Compher at 4:45. Soft call.

GOAL: Off a fine center ice drive from Andrew Copp, Patrick Kane fed the puck to Alex DeBrincat on the left wing, Ben Chiarot called for it from the point, and blammo, Chiarot tied the game with a slap shot at 9:52 of the 2nd.

Washington 1, Detroit 1: Chiarot (5) from DeBrincat (27) and Kane (24) at 9:52 2nd period.

INJURY: Travis Hamonic got a skate cut to the right wrist from Alex Ovechkin, very much so inadvertently…

RETURN: But Hamonic would return to the bench about 8 minutes later.

3RD PERIOD:

PENALTY: Ben Chiarot got called for delay of game at 6:12 of the 3rd period.

GOAL: Washington would un-tie the game at 9:36 of the 3rd period. Jakob Chychrun ripped a shot on John Gibson, it was tipped by Ovechkin through John Gibson’s glove, and Dylan Strome wrapped the puck around the goal to make it 2-1.

Washington 2, Detroit 1: Strome (15) from Ovechkin (24) and Chychrun (22) at 9:36 3rd.

TIMEOUT: Detroit called timeout to determine whether Gibson’s glove was pushed by Strome, and the Wings CHALLENGED THE GOAL.

PENALTY: Detroit was called for delay of game at 9:36 of the 2nd period. The goal stood.

PENALTY: At 11:52, Washington was called for too many men on the ice.

GOAL: Off a good 3-on-2 rush, Dylan Strome pumped the puck back to Jakob Chychrun, he fired the puck on net and Declan Chisholm scored at 14:44 to make it 3-1.

Washington 3, Detroit 1: Chisholm (1) from Chychrun (23) and Strome (29) at 14:44 3rd.

GOALIE PULL: Detroit waited a long time to pull Gibson, with 2:45 remaining.

GOAL: A bouncing puck off a Moritz Seider shot found its way to Alex DeBrincat with Gibson out of the cage, and DeBrincat jabbed the puck through Charlie Lindgren to make it 3-2 at 18:20…

Washington 3, Detroit 2: DeBrincat (29) from Larkin (23) and Copp (25) at 18:20 3rd period.

GOAL: And DeBrincat put it off the photographer’s hole and in past Lindgren at 19:07 to make it 3-3.

Washington 3, Detroit 3: DeBrincat (30) form Seider (30) at 19:08 of the 3rd.

CHALLENGE: The NHL challenged the goal. It counted.

IN OVERTIME:

NOTHING HAPPENED because the Capitals did a terrible job of peeling back and peeling back and peeling back.

SHOOTOUT:

UTTER GARBAGE. Lucas Raymond scored, Patrick Kane scored, and Dylan Larkin shanked it off the crossbar…

While Dylan Strome, John Leonard and Nic Dowd scored on Gibson…And Washington stole a point.

STATISTICS: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!