The Detroit Red Wings gave all they had Thursday night and still came up a goal short in a 1-0 loss to the visiting Washington Capitals.
Brett Connolly scored midway through the third period for the only goal of the game.
Philipp Grubauer made 39 stops to pick up the win for the Caps.
“I know they had a lot of shots but this was a pretty easy game,” Grubauer said. “The guys did a great job of keeping the front of the net clear, so I was seeing every shot.”
The Caps improved to 43-24-7 and lead the Metropolitan Division by four points.
“The Red Wings weren’t playing like a team that is out of the playoffs,” Lars Eller said. “They were flying, but [Grubauer] kept us in the game. He’s the reason we got the win.”
The Red Wings are now 1-10-1 in their 12 games.
“This game isn’t any different than a lot of games this season,” the Red Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg said. “We were in the game and we played solid defensively, but we can’t score.”
Detroit has not thrown in the towel on the season but they simply don’t have the horses to compete,
“Every time we put on the Red Wings logo we want to go out there and do the best we can. I think we’ve been doing that, but it is hard when we’re really trying hard and we keep losing games,” Zetterberg added.
[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Red Wings highlights]
Jimmy Howard made 25 saves in taking the loss.
“We didn’t execute well enough because that’s got to be a goal,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “You have to find a way to score on a full two-minute 5-on-3, 100 percent of the time.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.