Recap: Detroit Red Wings 4, Washington Capitals 3 (SO)

Bleacher ReportDec 17, 2007

Detroit beat the Washington Capitals at home last night, 4-3 in a shootout.

The Red Wings continue to play below their own high standard, but it’s difficult to complain as long as they keep winning. If this is the worst downswing we see this season, we’ll be lucky.

Some thoughts on the game...

- The Caps were much better than I thought they'd be.

Prior to the game, I'd read that they’d been playing better since the coaching change, but I was still surprised to see them stay neck-and-neck with the Wings all night.

Of course, Detroit's not playing its “A” game was part of it—but a larger part, I think, was the Caps’ own effort. Though it’ll be very tough for them to make the playoffs, they’re at least setting a good tone for next season.

- I thought the Wings could have been a bit more disciplined.

You can say what you want about the equity of the officiating, but the Wings handed Washington seven power plays. It’s no wonder they gave up two power-play goals.

Six of the Caps’ 30 shots came with the man-advantage. Especially in the third period, the Wings were on their heels because of penalty trouble.

-Tonight was a night where Detroit really missed Kirk Maltby.

HockeyTownTodd pointed out in the A2Y liveblog thread that the Wings were using four pairs of forwards on the PK—which means six forwards who were killing penalties before are still killing them now.

That explains why the PK hasn’t dropped off in the absence of Drapes and Malts—but tell me things wouldn’t have gone differently on the Caps’ first power-play goal, which came right off the faceoff, if Draper had taken the draw.

-Tomas Holmstrom wasted little time making an impact in his return.

He redirected Nick Lidstrom’s shot with his skate to put the Wings up 1-0 at 3:57 of the first period, and scored the go-ahead goal at 15:17 of the third.

A solid night for Homer, though one of the Caps’ goals went in off him.

-Pavel Datsyuk looked strong.

Two of his three assists stood out as great feeds, while the other was a good one that found Nick Lidstrom wide open on the backside.

Pavel was dangerous throughout the game, and I thought he was more noticeable than Ovechkin. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a flawless night for Pavel, as his accidental clearing of the puck into the stands in the third period led to the Caps’ second power-play goal—and a tie game at 18:26.

He made up for it with a goal in the shootout, but it would've been better if the delay of game penalty had never happened.

-The Wings’ passing on Henrik Zetterberg’s goal was something special.

The play started with Hank along the right wing boards. He passed the puck to Lidstrom on the point, who took a shot that was blocked out front. Datsyuk picked up the rebound and immediately threw it back to Zetterberg, who had stepped up to the circle.

Hank’s one-timer beat Kolzig glove-side.

-At 9:41 of the second period, Donald Brashear was given a roughing penalty for a nasty hit on Mikael Samuelsson along the center ice boards. Sammy’s head smacked the glass pretty hard, but he didn’t miss much time.

It looked like Aaron Downey would have to call out a guy a couple weight classes above him, but he didn’t play after 3:32 of the second. Mike Babcock obviously didn’t want the distraction.

-Alexander Ovechkin got his point, but didn’t stand out on every shift.

He remained dangerous, however, and had a great chance to put the game away in overtime when he found himself all alone in front of Hasek.

Dom laid out and stopped the puck virtually on the goalline. He’s fortunate Ovechkin couldn’t get the puck up.

The Wings can thank Ovechkin for his tendency to try to do everything on his own, as Holmstrom’s second goal came as a direct result of a solo rush by the Russian. Ovechkin lost the puck and fell, allowing Datsyuk to take it the other way and make the play to Holmstrom at the goalmouth.

- Olaf Kolzig is still a solid goaltender, but he looked a little foolish when he was beaten on the same move by all three Red Wings scorers in the shootout.

Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Jiri Hudler all gave a bit of a shoulder fake and deked to the backhand before putting the puck over Kolzig’s left pad.

-Dom played a solid game, given the number of Caps scoring chances. I thought he could have done a better job on the first and last Washington goals, but both were good shots and good plays.

He had little chance on the second goal, which was deflected at least twice on the way to the net. In the shootout, he was beaten twice, but only one went in. He can thank the post for the other one.

His save on Ovechkin in overtime was the save of the game.

-The Wings are going to have to improve their play as they embark on a five-game road trip against St. Louis, Minnesota, and Colorado.

They’ve been playing “B”-grade hockey lately, and while that may be good enough against teams like Florida or Washington, it won’t be against the Blues, Wild, or Avs.

They have one chance to get back to top-flight hockey before they leave—Wednesday against the Kings.

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