Do It Again – Some 24 and a half hours after they dropped the puck in DC on Saturday, the Caps and Wings will drop it and go at it again in Detroit. The Red Wings prevailed 5-2 in Saturday’s opener of the home-and-home set of back-to-back contests between the Caps and the Red Wings, and Washington will be aiming to even up on Sunday in the Motor City.
From the hop on Saturday, the Wings took flight and had the Caps chasing them. Detroit took a 1-0 lead at 1:05 of the first period when John Leonard – brother of Caps right wing Ryan Leonard – netted the game’s first goal on a rebound from the slot. Detroit never lost hold of that lead, and the Caps never really threatened it, falling for the fourth time in their last five games (1-3-1).
Looking to bounce back, the Caps can take comfort in trying to do so against the same team. The Caps hadn’t faced Detroit this season until Saturday – the Wings were the last of the Atlantic Division foes Washington had yet to play – and the final meeting between the two teams takes place here late next month on Jan. 29; it’s the finale of Washington’s longest road trip of the season, a six-game journey.
One unique aspect of Saturday’s game was a lengthy stretch of more than 10 minutes in the first period with no whistles. It’s an unusually long stretch, and it can seem longer when the game isn’t going your way, the opponent seems to be jacked up on Mountain Dew, and you don’t have a 90-second television timeout in which to address the group at large.
“What's interesting about that is we were looking at a game – and it's going to escape me –but there was a game this year in our building, and we actually just looked at a clip from it, and it was funny. The guys all got a chuckle out of it, because it was a clip where, I want to say there was like 14 straight minutes [of play] and we there were no shovels, so the snow had built up all around the benches, and a puck hit the snow, and it didn't end up going [anywhere]. I'll get you a game that was [it was the Nov. 28 home game vs. Toronto, with no television timeouts in the first period] but it was, it was unbelievable of how long it had gone without a whistle and a TV timeout to get to get it shoveled, and it really affects the ice. And then you go back to the old school, and they didn't used to shovel the ice at the time outs and you go, ‘Okay, I have an appreciation for getting a puck deep or keeping a flat pass before they did this, the challenges that it provides.’
“It’s the same for both teams. I think for me specifically as a coach, it just gets especially – as you're trying to find your footing – really challenging, because you're trying to calm the group down, you're trying to give them little pointers to find their way out of it, but you’ve still got to call lines and you’ve still got to play. So for the team that's back on their heels, it's more difficult, no doubt. It’s difficult because you're trying to give some cues to your group that can get them out of the funk.”
Today, Carbery says that Hendrix Lapierre will jump back into the Washington lineup in place of Sonny Milano, and the Caps will have some of their extras warming up, so there may be some instances of other players ailing or under the weather.
So I Can Take My Rest – The NHL’s 25-26 regular season schedule is a marathon, as always. But to accommodate the League’s participation in the 2026 Olympic Games in February, all 32 teams are dealing with the repercussions of a condensed schedule; each team’s 82-games are jammed into a span from early October to mid-April, same as any season, but to carve out the three-week break needed for the Olympics, the schedule is tighter.
Players feel that; recovery time is shorter and many teams are dealing with more injuries than usual this season. Practice time is scarcer, and some teams – including the Capitals – are wisely altering scheduled practice days into off days on a “feel” basis.
The Caps did exactly that earlier this week, and to good effect. After a 5-1 loss in Winnipeg last Saturday, the Caps had Sunday off in Minneapolis and they practiced there on Monday, before Tuesday’s game with the Wild. Wednesday was a scheduled practice day at home, but before puck drop in Tuesday’s game in Minnesota, Carbery and his staff wisely opted to give the team Wednesday off as well. They didn’t arrive home from the road trip until after 2 a.m. on Wednesday, and they had a home game looming Thursday with Toronto.
Carbery talked about his rest philosophy given the condensed schedule on Friday morning.
“We’ve utilized more off days than we have the past couple of years since I’ve been here,” says Carbery. “And I feel like we’ve done a better job as well. I don’t know if this is just me in my own head, but I’ve just felt like the last couple of years coming off of off days, I haven’t loved the way we’ve looked. You’re inevitably going to play off of off days – and three [games] in four [nights] – it happens all the time during the season. And I just feel like it takes us a little bit to get up and running.
“But I think this year we’ve looked a lot better in games where there were no team activities, no practice. As a coach, you have to plan off days – especially given the circumstances of this year’s schedule – but it also enables you to even utilize those even more, because you have a lot of confidence that you’re going to be able to utilize that rest and then come back and look really good. And I feel like our team has done a really good job of that, of utilizing the rest and the recovery, and then being able to hit the ground running in that game immediately following it.”
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren gets the net for the Capitals this afternoon in Detroit. In his last six appearances, Lindgren is 4-1-0 with a 2.66 GAA and an .897 save pct.
Lifetime against the Red Wings, Lindgren is 5-3-0 in eight appearances – all starts – with a 3.35 GAA and an .888 save pct. Across the entirety of his NHL career, Lindgren is 6-7-1 in 15 afternoon appearances – 14 starts – with two shutouts, a 3.00 GAA and an .899 save pct.
For Detroit, we’re expecting to see veteran Cam Talbot between the pipes this afternoon. On the season, Talbot is 9-6-2 with a 3.07 GAA and an .883 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Talbot is 5-10-1 in 18 appearances – 16 starts – with a 2.85 GAA and a .902 save pct. Over the course of his 13-year NHL career with eight different organizations, Talbot is 9-3-1 in 15 afternoon appearances – 13 of them starts – with a 2.58 GAA and a .920 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Capitals and the Red Wings might look on Sunday afternoon in the Motor City:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
29-Lapierre, 24-McMichael, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
47-Chisholm, 38-Sandin
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
52-McIlrath
57-van Riemsdyk
Injured/Out
9-Leonard (upper body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
DETROIT
Forwards
58-Finnie, 71-Larkin, 23-Raymond
93-DeBrincat, 18-Copp, 43-Leonard
85-Soderblom, 29-Danielson, 92-Kasper,
27-Rasmussen, 37-Compher, 21-J. van Riemsdyk
Defensemen
77-Edvinsson, 53-Seider
8-Chiarot, 44-Sandin-Pellikka
20-Johansson, 25-Bernard-Docker
Goalies
39-Talbot
36-Gibson
Healthy Extras
52-Hamonic
Injured/Out
22-Appleton (lower body)
88-Kane (upper body)
