Trending: Tired Wings can't overcome rested Capitals, 6-2

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Facing the rested Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals in their building in the second game of a back-to-back would be a tough challenge for most teams.
But for the Red Wings playing on the road after a tough 3-1 win at home Monday against the heavy Los Angeles Kings, it was too tough a row to hoe.

The tired and banged-up Wings made a push in the third but couldn't tame the Capitals, falling 6-2 at Capital One Arena Tuesday night.
Dylan Larkin and Gustav Nyquist scored for the Wings. Nyquist also assisted on Larkin's goal.
Brett Connolly (power play), Travis Boyd, Alex Ovechkin (three) and T.J. Oshie (power play) scored for the Capitals.
Ovechkin extended his point streak to 12 games and has 13 goals and six assists in that span.
Detroit goaltender Jonathan Bernier made 10 saves on 15 shots before being replaced by Jimmy Howard. Howard finished with nine saves.
Washington netminder Braden Holtby had 35 saves, including 14 on 16 shots in the third.
The Wings fell to 14-14-4 while the Capitals improved to 18-9-3.
Up next for the Wings is another home-road back-to-back set against the Ottawa Senators and at the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on Friday and Saturday.
The Capitals do the reverse of the Wings, traveling to Carolina to face the Hurricanes on Friday and then hosting the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday,
1. Dylan Larkin: You need your young legs to be going on a back-to-back and the Wings rely a lot on Larkin's speedy set. At 1:03 of the third period, Larkin went to the net and cleaned up a rebound, cutting the Washington lead to 5-1. Larkin increased his team lead to 13 goals, two more than Andreas Athanasiou. Gustav Nyquist picked up his team-leading 21st assist and Nick Jensen had his fifth assist of the season. The goal extended Larkin's point streak to five games. He has three goals and five assists in that span. Larkin finished with 23 shifts for 21:20, had six shots, one hit, four takeaways, was 14-for-23 in face-offs and was plus-1.

Quotable: "We talked about the Boston game and then going on to Montreal. We needed to make sure our details were - that we were playing the right way, a detailed game. we changed up our forecheck a little bit to minimize their neutral zone and make it harder for them. I thought we did that and we jammed them up a little bit and we started forechecking as units of three and five." -- Larkin
Quotable II: "We talked about that. Last time we were in this spot in Boston I thought we started cheating like crazy and lost our game and the next thing you know you have to dig yourself out and did the same thing in Montreal. You're digging out. We felt like going into the third period it was real important that we play the right way and I thought for the most part we did a decent job of that. We got some stuff we got to get corrected for sure. But we got to put it behind us. At the end of the day, if you play the right way in the third, which we did not bad of, then all the sudden it's just one loss and you move on and find a way to get better come Thursday in practice." -- Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Lots of games: Not only was it a back-to-back but the Wings were playing in their seventh game in the last 11 days. It does not afford them much time to practice and very little time to rest. Detroit fell to 3-3-1 in that span with another difficult stretch coming up. Friday the Wings host the Ottawa Senators and then have to head to New York to play the Islanders on Long Island for another home-road back-to-back set. They then play Tuesday and Thursday on the road in Philadelphia and Carolina before returning home to play the Florida Panthers on Saturday, followed by a game in Toronto the following night.
Quotable: "The schedule definitely didn't do us any favors, but there's opportunities you get that you can take advantage of. We just got continue. I think we won enough puck battles. We weren't (inaudible) guys enough, we gave them a lot of odd-man rushes and a lot of speed through the neutral zone. They're a team that skates well and can create a lot in the offensive zone. We could n't sustain puck pressure, as you saw when they started rolling around. No one was really getting on the puck and they can make it really tough on you. You can look at the schedule, but we're not using that as an excuse. We got to make sure that the details in our game is really good. We're going to have to get back to work here for Friday." -- Abdelkader
Quotable II: You can't make excuses in this league. You've gotta be ready every night. It's tough coming in, playing the defending champs. We just have to find a way to battle that first period and get our legs going and see what happens the rest of the game. That's all I could think we could change." -- Larkin
3. Jonathan Bernier/Jimmy Howard: On a back-to-back after Howard made a season-high 42 saves in Monday night's 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, it made sense for Bernier to get the start. But the Capitals' offensive firepower was on full display in the game, which saw Oshie return after missing 11 games with a concussion. Connolly opened the scoring with a deflected power-play goal at 3:39 of the first period, assisted by John Carlson and Evgeny Kuznetsov. At 10:50 of the first, Boyd scored on a 2-on-1 with Nic Dowd. Alex Ovechkin made it 3-0 at 12:59 of the first when his shot from the left point went off Niklas Kronwall's skate past Bernier. The Capitals extended their lead to 4-0 when Ovechkin scored his second of the game, 24th of the season, at 9:05 of the second on a 2-on-1 with Oshie. At 10:06 of the second, Oshie got a power-play goal from the low slot, ending Bernier's night. At 9:33 of the third, Ovechkin's shot from below the left circle beat Howard to complete his hat trick.
Quotable: "I don't know if I've been in a 5-0 game where the goalie had as little chance as he had. On five goals, he had no chance. The only two he really has a chance on was Ovechkin coming down on a 2-on-1, one of the best goal-scorers of all-time, and Oshie wide open in the slot, one of the premier goal-scorers of today. Come on. I feel bad for him but what he's got to do is just put it behind him and move on." - Blashill
Quotable II: "That fourth goal was a tough one that they scored. But we didn't quit. It was tough seeing Bernie get pulled because of our play. He's been so good for us all year. We gotta come out and just battle the first period. We played last night and we traveled. We just have to find a way to battle that first period and come in with it tied up. We had our chances with breakaways and minimize some of their chances." - Larkin