After being able to watch a replay of the clash of unbeaten teams at the Verizon Center on Saturday night, Red Wing fans should take solace in the fact the beating wasn't as bad as the scoreboard indicated.
Nevertheless, through two periods Detroit was outshooting Washington 26-14, yet found themselves trailing 4-1. So what gives?
First and foremost, the Wings got to see the "ugly Ty Conklin" that resided in St. Louis the past couple of seasons. After a stellar outing in his first start against Colorado in the team's second game of the season, Conklin followed that up with a sluggish outing. Most notably, the Wings were only trailing 3-1 in the dying seconds of the middle frame when Conklin failed to handle a floating wrist shot from the point and the Capitals
Mathieu Perrault was able to poke the puck into the yawning cage to give the Caps a 4-1 advantage after 40 minutes.
Bottom line, Conklin wasn't sharp while Caps goalie
Tomas Vokoun was very sharp in shutting the Wings down. The Wings were playing well in the opening period when Vokoun robbed
Pavel Datsyuk with an absolute gem of a toe save on a great opportunity out in front of the goal.
However, this loss cannot be solely pinned on Conklin's poor outing. Although the Red Wings played relatively well through 40 minutes, Washington "capitalized" on Red Wing mistakes to jump to an early advantage. Whether it was a bad penalty by
Todd Bertuzzi 200 feet away from his own goal setting up Washington's first goal on the power play OR
Cory Emmerton's poor giveaway in his own end leading to the Caps second marker, the Wings blunder's got converted. On the other hand, Detroit could not take advantage of some extended power-play time it enjoyed in the latter half of the second period when they attempted to reduce Washington's advantage to one goal.
Nevertheless, despite the blowout that ensued in the third period, the Red Wings will use Saturday's loss as a learning lesson going forward. Despite the disappointment in coming away empty handed against one of the league's best, at the end of the day it's just one game out of 82. The Red Wings will get another crack at the Caps on March 19th, when the teams meet at Joe Louis Arena.
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Congratulations to
Nicklas Lidstrom on playing his 1500th NHL regular season game on Saturday night. "The Captain" ranks 14th all-time in NHL games played behind several ex-Red Wings.
1st - Gordie Howe 1767 GP
5th - Chris Chelios 1651 GP
8th - Larry Murphy 1615 GP
10th- Alex Delvecchio 1550 GP
11th - Johnny Bucyk 1540 GP
12th - Brendan Shanahan 1524 GP
13th - Steve Yzerman 1514 GP
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The Detroit Red Wings recalled goaltender Joey MacDonald today from the Grand Rapids Griffins because Jimmy Howard is with his wife, Rachel, who is in the hospital after delivering the couple's first child. Conklin is expected to start on Tuesday night vs. Columbus. Howard is expected to return for Friday night's contest against San Jose.
This might be a blessing in disguise for Conklin, who gets a quick opportunity to bounce back and reinstill confidence in his teammates and the coaching staff by putting forth a strong performance against the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
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