In a perfect world, the Capitals and Charlie Lindgren would have gotten out of Detroit with an impressive 3-1 win over the Red Wings on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena, and they’d be on their way home after finally finishing their longest road trip in three seasons.
Alas, we all know the world is far from perfect. But if all’s well that ends well, the Caps merely prolonged their arduous journey by half an hour or so. After a remarkable and memorable last few minutes of regulation, the Caps claimed their first shootout win since last April, getting out of Detroit with the two points they so desperately needed, a 4-3 shootout win over the Wings.
Participating in his first NHL shootout in a decade, Nic Dowd – who started the scoring for the Caps in the first frame – won it for Washington. At the urging of goalie coach Scotty Murray, Dowd followed Dylan Strome and Ryan Leonard, respectively, in Washington’s three-man shootout lineup, and all three scored.
All three were needed, too.
Lindgren played an excellent game, only to clearly injure himself as the buzzer sounded at the end of overtime. Lindgren didn’t look “right” as he was beaten by Lucas Raymond and then Patrick Kane – who made NHL history earlier in the game – to start the shootout, and the Caps caught a break when Dylan Larkin’s backhander bounced harmlessly off the cross bar to start round three.
That’s when No. 26 – Dowd – skated in with a move similar to that of a previous No. 26 in Washington shootout lore, Matt Hendricks, he of “The Paralyzer” fame. Dowd came in with significantly less speed than Hendricks, deked a bit and went to the shelf with a backhander of his own, winning it for Washington and putting a better paint job (2-3-1) on a road trip replete with adversity of all types, both on and off the ice.
“I was pretty nervous,” recounts Dowd. “I didn’t want Chucky to have to take another [shot]. It was basically my first one, if you don’t count that one from 10 years ago. But Chucky gives us an opportunity to win that game, regardless of the bad bounce. The guy has been a warrior for us all year, a big-time leader.
“I think we deserved to win that game, and he deserved to win that game.”
It marked just the fourth time in Washington’s franchise history that the Caps scored in all three rounds of a shootout to win, and the first time in over a decade, since Oct. 18, 2014 against Florida.
The game itself featured a pair of coach’s challenges that both went Washington’s way, Kane becoming the game’s all-time leading scorer among American-born players, Declan Chisholm’s first goal as a Capital, one of the craziest last-minute tying goals you’ll ever see, and three delay of game penalties for pucks over the glass.
With two minutes to play, the Caps were up 3-1 and Detroit was in Washington’s end with an extra attacker. From down low on the left side, Alex DeBrincat scored with 1:40 remaining to trim the Caps’ lead to 3-2.
With less than a minute left and the Detroit net again empty, DeBrincat fired the puck hard into Washington ice from just inside the red line, and it took the wildest of caroms off a plated photographers’ hole in the corner and into the Caps net behind a befuddled Lindgren, who tried valiantly to react to the wicked bounce.
“I've never seen that before,” says Carbery. “For people that don't know, there's a camera hole that's covered up with plexiglass in the corner so that people can take live pictures without the glass in the way. So. we have it in slow [motion], he opens the hole to put his camera through, then sees that the puck's getting rimmed around, and goes,’ Uh oh.’ And there's basically a thing that slides in to close that hole, and it hits right there, and then the piece that slides there goes exploding behind the person. I don't know if you'll ever see that again. In that situation, it goes directly into the net
“I think the actual rule is, if the camera is through, and then it's obstructing, and it was to go in, then they would call it back. But because it was just the glass open or partially open, that it's a good goal.”
Fortunately for Washington, the Caps were able to overcome that crazy bit of adversity and collect an important pair of points.
At the foundation of this game, beneath all of the wild and whacky elements, the Caps engineered a bit of a return to form. They played a strong and connected game in the offensive zone, they were tight and quick in their own end of the ice, and they were notably physical in building a 3-1 lead over the formidable Red Wings – one of the League’s top three teams over the last two months – and goaltender John Gibson, winner of 17 of his previous 20 starts entering the game.
On the surface, the first frame started inauspiciously for the Capitals. John Carlson was boxed for delay of game just 66 seconds after opening puck drop, and when DeBrincat finished a pretty passing sequence on the power play at 2:26 of the first – seemingly making Kane the NHL’s all-time leading scorer among American-born players – it looked like the Caps were in an early hole on the first shot on goal of the game.
Little Caesars Arena erupted, and the Detroit game ops people began to roll the video tribute carefully crafted for the historic occasion. Ah, but not so fast. The Caps’ video coaching crew spotted Mr. Kane in ahead of the play, Carbery issued a successful coach’s challenge, the goal came off the board, and 26 seconds was taken off the clock.
About four and a half minutes later, it was Dowd and the Capitals that drew first blood.
Seconds after delivering a heavy hit on Detroit defender Ben Chiarot, Dowd took a feed from Connor McMichael from the left half wall and – from the inside of the left circle – fired a shot that eluded the glove of Gibson for a 1-0 Washington lead at 6:27.
Washington held Detroit without a shot on goal over the final 12 minutes plus of the first period, limiting the Wings to just three shots total in the opening frame. By the time DeBrincat put a shot on Lindgren from 50 feet away early in the second, the Detroit drought had reached 14 minutes and 25 seconds between shots on net.
The Caps killed off another Detroit power play late in the first and a third one early in the second period, but the Wings squared the score on Chiarot’s center point drive at 9:52 of the middle frame, a goal on which Kane actually did register his 1,375th career point with a secondary helper, passing Mike Modano (1,374).
Detroit’s bench emptied as the Wings came out to congratulate Kane on his achievement, and the video tribute rolled in full at the next television timeout.
Just ahead of the midpoint of the third, Strome pounced on a loose puck and scored on a wraparound to put the Caps back on top, 2-1 at 9:36. The Wings issued an unsuccessful coach’s challenge, alleging goaltender interference, and they then held the Caps at bay on the ensuing power play.
With just under six minutes left, Chisholm made his first goal as a Capital a big one, deflecting a Jakob Chychrun drive past Gibson for a 3-1 lead at 14:44 of the third.
That should have been enough for the Caps, but it wasn’t. In the end, maybe it’s better this way. The Caps might have a new “paralyzer” for shootouts, and if they can replicate the way they played for 65 minutes before that shootout, maybe they can deliver a strong finishing kick over the season’s final 27 games.
“I think it was really good start for us,” says Chychrun. “We felt like we were just playing the way that we've been wanting to and just haven't been for a long time. So it was nice to feel like we were kind of back on a good, solid game, obviously holding them to one goal for most of the game. Just a great team effort.”
