By the time the Caps summoned "a little bit of a pushback," said forward Michael Sgarbossa, "it was too late." The Red Wings had left them in the dust on their way to their sixth straight win. It was 8-3 Tuesday night at LCA, and the gap felt every bit that wide.
“Right from the start, you could see the talent through their lineup and their roster and the plays they make," said Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery. "The finish that they have was on full display.”
The first goal was evidence, which came from the third line. Andrew Copp and David Perron forced defenseman John Carlson into a turnover with pressure behind the net, Joe Veleno swooped in for the loose puck at the blue line, worked a give-and-go with Perron on the wall to find open ice in the slot, then slid a pass to the opposite circle to Shayne Gostisbere who uncorked a one-timer for a 1-0 lead.
Sgarbossa said the challenge of containing the Wings in the offensive zone is that "they got a lot of movement with their defense, their forwards fill in pretty good and it seems like they always have a high F3. We talked about it: they don’t need many shots to score. We saw that. They put up 8. That’s a lot." Most by the Red Wings, in fact, in six seasons.
The second line made it 2-0 later in the first when big Michael Rasmussen jarred a puck free behind the net, J.T. Compher came down from the slot to win a battle in the corner with defenseman Trevor Van Reimsdyk, and Lucas Raymond, the high forward, took Compher's vacated space. Compher found Raymond alone in front and Raymond rifled it past Charlie Lindgren's blocker, an all-business finish for his 17th goal of the season, matching his total from last season. That's 51 points in 59 games for Raymond, whose sophomore slump is well behind him.
"They only need a little bit and they make some high-end plays and put it in the back of the net," said Van Reimsdyk. "They were fast on pucks and they made their plays quick. They work to get open and whenever we turned it over, they seemed to know exactly where each other was and created a lot."
The Caps are not a bad team. They're far from the perennial contenders they were, but they came into Detroit having won four of five and are still within striking distance of a playoff spot. The Red Wings were just that much better Tuesday night. The third goal came early in the second off another turnover by a Washington defenseman and a really nice individual effort by Veleno, who worked his way from the wall into the slot and beat Lindgren over the blocker while fading away.
It was 4-1 five minutes later when Raymond side-stepped pressure as he gained the Caps' blue line and feathered a pass in the slot to Gostisbehere, who had joined the rush after triggering it. Gostisbehere wired a snap shot past Lindgren's glove for his ninth goal of the season; his next will give the Red Wings 13 players with double-digit goals. They already lead the NHL in that department. They're fourth in goals per game (3.58), up from 24th last season. Adding good players, while growing within, will have that effect.
"Talent wise, I think they’re as good as any team in the National Hockey League," said Carbery. "The D corps, Gostisbehere, Seider, Walman, and then you just look through their whole forward group. Whenever they get on the ice, they can make serious offensive plays. They can cause issues with their speed and skating, but then they can also make a ton of puck plays through your triangles, find a guy backdoor, hit an F3, and then in and around the net, the finish part of it, they also have that as well."
The biggest goal of the night came in the final minute of the second after the Caps had cut it to 4-2. They had a chance on the power play to shave the deficit to one, but Compher and Copp, Detroit's top two penalty-killing forwards, combined for a short-handed goal on a full-ice two-on-two rush that might have made you feel better about their lavish contracts. Compher completed the play with his 15th goal of the season, which puts him on pace for 22. Considering everything else that Compher does, you start to see why Steve Yzerman paid him like he did.
The Red Wings happily poured it on in the third. Robby Fabbri made it 6-2 on the power play without having to move a muscle in front when Patrick Kane put a one-touch shot-pass directly on his stick for the tip-in. Kane has a point in all nine games since returning after the All-Star break from a lower-body injury (unrelated to the hip procedure he underwent in the offseason) and is up to 30 points in 28 games with the Wings.
He's spent the last few games on an All-American first line with Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat, who, right on cue, made it 7-3 on a tic-tac-toe odd-man rush, Larkin to Kane, Kane back to Larkin, Larkin across the goal mouth to DeBrincat for the back-door tap-in. That's four goals in the last three games for DeBrincat, who's back on pace to top 30. Larkin finished off the rout on another rush, burying a one-timer from the circle on a set-up by Raymond. The Red Wings' captain is scoring at a 40-goal pace.
"They’re a good skating team, their D have good gaps, they turn pucks over through the middle of the ice," said Caps forward Tom Wilson. "We gave them rush offense and they got skilled players that can make things happen, so they were jumping. They were playing high-octane offense."
For the duration of the Red Wings' rebuild, we've talked about their lack of game-breaking skill, especially up front. Not so much anymore. This remains a team without a superstar (at least one at the peak of his powers) and that will likely catch up to them in the playoffs. But with an eight-point cushion on a wild card spot as the calendar turns to March, it sure feels like they're getting there. Between the continued growth of Larkin and Raymond, the additions of Kane and DeBrincat and weapons like Daniel Sprong sprinkled throughout the lineup, the Wings have the sort of depth we haven't seen in years.
"With a team as skilled, lines 1 through 4 and D 1 through 6, as they are, they took advantage (of our mistakes)," said Van Reimsdyk. "They’re a skilled, fast team, they don’t need any help with that, and we just fed right into it."
Van Reimsdyk, a 10-year vet, sort of sighed and added, "Just a ton of skill throughout their lineup." These are the Red Wings as we knew them.