Michael Sgarbossa give his thoughts on the loss to the Red Wings

The Washington Capitals pretty much lost with a touchdown and two point conversion by the Detroit Red Wings. The final was 8-3 like a typical Lions vs. Commanders game. Here's what some of the players had to say with quotes coming from the official pressers on WashCaps.com:

"Yeah, we didn't start great", said Michael Sgarbossa. "I didn't like the way we played defensively in the first. I think we left kind of their high of the defensive zone quite open a bit and they capitalized on that. We talked about at the start of the game that they don't need many shots to score. I think they lead the league in shooting percentage or something like that but we saw that tonight. They put up eight."

He also would add, "we had a little bit of a push back but by then it was too late."

Sgarbossa, who was recently called up from the Hershey Bears is correct in that regard. The slow start was what did the Capitals in. The Caps were outshot 12-5 in the first period and 11-6 in the second period. While they outshot the Red Wings 10-8 in the final period they still ended up being outshot 31-21 making it a long night for Charlie Lindgren, who was the team MVP in my opinion in the first half of the season.

Lindgren was 18 for 24 on even strength while stopping four or five shots on the power play while one for two shorthanded, making his numbers 23 of 31 for a .742 save percentage. Overall just a bad night and the Red Wings led in the takeaway category 10-4 while blocked shots were 23-14 in favor of the team who plays at Little Caesars Arena. In short, the Red Wings were "hot n ready" while the Capitals were not.