Red Wings move on after tough loss to face Capitals (Feb 10, 2018)
WASHINGTON -- The Detroit Red Wings travel to Washington on Sunday hoping to put Friday night's debacle behind them.
The Red Wings led the New York Islanders 5-2 when Tyler Bertuzzi got a major game misconduct penalty for slashing New York's Cal Clutterbuck and the Islanders scored four goals during the ensuing power play.
Mike Green's goal with 29 seconds forced overtime, but New York's Brock Nelson completed his hat trick to end Detroit's see-saw night on the downside.
"It was more or less sticking up for myself and not taking stuff from anyone. A young guy in the league, in the heat of the moment, obviously I regret it," Bertuzzi told The Detroit News. "But at the end of the day, I don't think it was a five-minute penalty."
Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill also did not think a major penalty was warranted but bemoaned his team's performance on the penalty kill.
"We have to bail the young guy out," Blashill told the News. "He's played real good hockey for us, he's a heart and soul type of guy, and you have to bail him out.
"We didn't do it. They got into the zone too easy and once you're in the zone in the NHL, it became a bit of a shooting gallery and we need better execution than that."
Anthony Mantha scored twice and Petr Marzek made 22 saves as the Red Wings (21-23-9) dropped their third straight game. Henrik Zetterberg had a goal (his first in 16 games) and three assists.
The Red Wings fell nine points behind the Islanders in the race for the second wild card.
"Every point is important, and losing one tonight like that hurts," Mantha told NHL.com.
Metropolitan Division-leading Washington (32-17-5) completed a sweep of back-to-backs Friday night with a 4-2 home win over the Columbus Blue Jackets despite being outshot 37-17. Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson, Jay Beagle and Lars Eller scored, and Braden Holtby stopped 35 shots.
"It tells you a lot about the depth we have on the team," Eller told The Washington Post. "When guys like (Nicklas Backstrom) and (Alex Ovechkin) are not scoring, we can still win games and we can still score four goals or whatever. That speaks to how deep this team is."
Eller, Washington's third-line center, is a big part of that depth and on Saturday the Capitals re-signed him to a five-year, $17.5 million contract extension.
The 28-year-old Eller has registered 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) in 53 games this season. He is three points shy of establishing a season high, set in the 2012-13 season with the Montreal Canadiens, who dealt him to Washington in June 2016.
The Capitals' top three centers (Backstrom, Kuznetsov and Eller) are signed through the 2019-20 season.
"I think every good team, it doesn't matter what sport, if you're strong up the middle, you've got a chance," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "We're strong at the center position and we're strong at goal, and if you give us a year or two to get some young guys coming in at defense, that'll be a strength for us as well."
Washington won the first meeting this season 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 20 at Detroit. Ovechkin scored the winner and Andre Burakovsky -- a healthy scratch Friday against Columbus -- had a goal and an assist. Holtby made 24 saves.
Tomas Tartar scored twice for Detroit and Mrazek stopped 37 shots.
