POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 2, Wings 0

Back To Zero Now -Just before boarding the team plane for Detroit on Wednesday, Caps goalie Zach Fucale learned he would be the starting goaltender for Thursday's game against the Red Wings in Motown. He quickly alerted his parents in Quebec that he would be in net for his NHL debut the following day in Detroit, and the wheels were set in motion for an impromptu family reunion in Motown.

When Fucale blanked the Red Wings on 21 shots in his NHL debut to become the first goalie in Caps franchise history to achieve the feat, it became a joyous family reunion.
"My dad drove down," said a beaming Fucale after the game. "My mom was already in Toronto for work, so they kind of just met here [in Detroit]. Family friends made it as well. I'm real happy; I'm going to go see them in a little bit. This is really cool that they're here."
Even cooler though, that Fucale himself was able to make that call to them. For seven years, it had been a life of more miles than money and more cities than success for Fucale, the first goalie drafted (second round, 36th overall by Montreal) in the 2013 NHL Draft. His junior career was highly successful and well decorated; he rolled up a staggering - and swaggering - 113-32-12 record in his first three seasons in the QMJHL with Halifax, including a 45-5-3 record followed by a near perfect 16-1 playoff run in his draft year, when he helped lead the team to a Memorial Cup title.
Fucale also helped lead Team Canada to a gold medal finish at the World Junior Championship in 2015 and landed a number of individual awards and accolades over the course of his junior hockey career.
Once he turned pro in 2015-16 however, Fucale began to encounter some adversity. Wins weren't as frequent. He spent most of his second pro season with Brampton of the ECHL while the Habs had undrafted journeymen Charlie Lindgren and Yann Danis manning the crease for their AHL affiliate. By the time his entry level contract expired after the 2017-18 season, Montreal wasn't interested in retaining his services, and he moved on, inking a one-year deal with Vegas where goaltending guru Dave Prior was the team's director of goaltending and NHL goaltending coach.
During his season with Vegas, he again played many more games in the ECHL (34) than the AHL (5). Fucale moved on to the Tampa Bay organization in 2019-20, but he was only in one game as high as the AHL level that season.
When the pandemic hit, Fucale thought he had a deal worked out to play in the KHL in 2020-21. But that deal fell through, which may turn out to be one of the better things that has happened to Fucale since turning pro. He ended up signing with Washington and putting together the best stretch of his pro career in 16 starts scattered over two seasons with AHL Hershey, leading him to his first NHL opportunity, some eight and a half years after the Habs called his name on the draft floor in New Jersey.
"There were some people that helped me for sure over the last few years," reflected Fucale a day ahead of his Detroit debut. "Mental skills coaches have helped me, my goalie coaches in the summer and [Caps goalie coach] Scotty [Murray] the last two years and [Bears goalie coach Alex Westlund] in Hershey have helped me for sure in the last two years.
"But prior to that, there was a lot of trial and error. I made a lot of mistakes, man. I got scored a lot of goals [against me] before getting here. That's my biggest learning stuff, my mistakes I use."
There weren't any mistakes and there was no trial and error on Thursday in Motown. Fucale made eight of his 21 stops in the first eight minutes of the game while the Caps struggled to get started. Once they did, goals from Dmitry Orlov and Lars Eller just 10 seconds apart gave Fucale all the offensive support he would require. The Caps' defense kicked in, limiting the Wings to just 10 shots on net in the game's final 40 minutes, and none in the last 9:55 of the third.
Fucale's reception in the locker room following his whitewash of the Wings was both warm and cold; the emotions and feelings were warm while the water his teammates doused him with was cold.
"It was awesome," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "It was awesome just watching him come back into the locker room and the guys showering him with water and cheering for him. You know, you always have roads and paths that you can take in life and his road was long. But he stayed on the right road, and he gets to start the game tonight and get rewarded with a big win. It's pretty awesome."
Quick As Dreams - Orlov's goal came at 12:43 of the first period, and Eller's followed 10 seconds later at 12:53. It marked the 11th time in franchise history that the Caps struck for a pair of goals 10 or fewer seconds apart. The most recent occurrence prior to Thursday came on April 3, 2009 when Alexander Semin and Sergei Fedorov struck just nine seconds apart in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Sabres in Washington.
Cold Shot - Six years ago almost to the day, Caps captain Alex Ovechikin poured 15 pucks at then-Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek in a Nov. 10, 2015 game against the Red Wings at the old Joe Louis Arena in Motown. Despite Ovechkin matching his single-game career high in shots on net, the Caps lost that game 1-0.
Ovechkin entered that game with 483 career goals, tied with Fedorov for the most by a Russian player in NHL history. He was determined to pass Fedorov that night in the city where Fedorov had starred for so many years, but it wasn't to be; the goal came a few nights later against Dallas after the Caps returned home from the road.
In Thursday night's game against the Wings, Ovechkin was held without a shot on net for the first time this season and the first time since May 3 of this year against the Rangers in New York.
Washington has now won five straight games in which Ovechkin has failed to record a shot on goal. The last time the Caps lost a game in which their captain was held without a shot was before they won the Stanley Cup, on Feb. 17, 2018 in a 7-1 shellacking at the hands of the Blackhawks in Chicago.
Winging It - The Caps have now earned at least a point in 14 straight games (11-0-3) against Detroit, a streak that dates back nearly six years to Nov. 18, 2015.
By The Numbers -John Carlson led the Caps with 24:13 in ice time … Evgeny Kuznetsov, Connor McMichael and Daniel Sprong each had four shots on net and five shot attempts to lead the Capitals … Martin Fehervary led the Caps with four hits … Orlov led Washington with five blocked shots … Aliaksei Protas won three of five draws (60 percent).