The Washington Capitals, with most of their varsity squad in the lineup, shutout the Detroit Red Wings 2-0 last night at Little Caesars Arena.
The first period was scoreless but the Caps outshot the Red Wings 9-4. Overall both teams went 0 for 2 on their power play chances while the Caps had the edge on the face off dot 56 percent to 44 percent.
The Caps finally got on the board at 13:35 in the second period. It was a tic tac doe goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov, to Marcus Johansson who fed it to John Carlson for the score.
The feed(s) b good.
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 1, 2022
The finish b good.
Johnny b good. pic.twitter.com/sbkE3pWCSo
1-0 was the score after two periods as the Caps outshot the Red Wings 10-9.
In the third period Lars Eller added an empty net goal. It was assisted by Martin Fehervary and Carlson at 18:54. The Caps outshot the Red Wings overall 31-19.
Darcy Kuemper made his unofficial Caps debut and stopped all nine of his shots. Charlie Lindgren relieved him and made 10 saves the rest of the way.
Kuemper talked to the media about his preseason debut:
"“It was just nice to get some game action again. First real action with this group in front of me. I loved the structure we played with today. We played tight and it wasn’t a ton of work but nice to get back out there for sure.”"
Although Aliaksei Protas didn’t score, he continues to be noticeable on the ice throughout training camp and the preseason. He had a plus minus of plus one as well as a shot on goal in 19:53 minutes of ice time.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said this about Protas:
"“Really good. He’s been good. He’s been really strong. You notice his skating, you notice his physicality, you notice his work ethic, now he’s makin things happen out there.”"
The Caps finish off their back to back and the road portion of the preseason tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. You can stream the game on WashCaps.com.