A winless road trip has the Red Wings in danger of opening the postseason away from Detroit. Consecutive losses for the Capitals have prevented them from tightening their grip on the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot.
The two clubs look to get on track this evening as Washington continues a season-long road trip in Motown.
The Capitals have lost back-to-back games in Winnipeg and Chicago following a four-game win streak, which included a victory at the New York Islanders to begin the swing, and hold just a two-point edge over the Jets and Buffalo Sabres for the eighth spot in the East with 10 games to play. The Sabres visit the Lightning this evening, while the Jets are idle after a loss to the Hurricanes on Sunday.
Washington failed to extend its lead over Winnipeg thanks to last night's 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks. Michal Neuvirth yielded four goals on 28 shots, while Alex Ovechkin and Mike Knuble had the goals.
"We started the game with a few good shifts, but then they got some quick goals there and it put us on our heels," said Washington head coach Dale Hunter. "We made some poor decisions with the puck and were just never able to recover."
Ovechkin tallied his 30th goal of the season, becoming just the ninth player in league history to reach the mark in each of his first seven NHL seasons. Ovechkin also joins Ilya Kovalchuk and Jarome Iginla as the only players to score at least 30 goals in each season since 2005-06, Ovechkin's first in the league.
The Capitals fell to 13-20-3 on the road and will end their five-game swing on Thursday in Philadelphia.
The Red Wings also have a poor mark as the guest, going 0-3-1 on their recent trip to give them an overall mark on the road of 16-20-2. Detroit is 28-4-2 at home, meaning the club would probably prefer to open up the postseason as the hosting team.
Detroit, though, is tied with Nashville for the fourth spot in the West with 92 points. The Predators do not play on Monday after besting the Ducks last night.
The Red Wings were able to earn a point last time out, falling 3-2 in overtime to the Sharks on Saturday. Detroit got goals from Pavel Datsyuk and Valtteri Filppula, while Jimmy Howard made 32 saves before getting touched for the game-winner.
"We can't be satisfied with getting a point," said Howard. "We have to find a way to establish ourselves and start winning."
Detroit did not score on either of its power-play chances on Saturday and is mired in an 0-for-30 slump on the man advantage. The Red Wings' last power- play goal came on Feb. 28 versus the Blue Jackets.
While Detroit got Datsyuk back from an 11-game absence due to knee surgery, Darren Helm suffered a lower-body injury that could sideline him for the rest of the regular season.
Helm joins a lengthy injury list that includes captain Nicklas Lidstrom as well as Jonathan Ericsson and Jakub Kindl. Lidstrom (right ankle) and Ericsson (left wrist) have sat out the past nine games, Kindl (strained oblique) missed his sixth in a row and both Johan Franzen and Joey MacDonald missed the Sharks game due to back spasms.
The short-handed Red Wings will look to avenge a 7-1 loss to the Capitals in Washington back on Oct. 22. Mike Green paced Washington with two goals and two assists, while Mathieu Perreault also scored twice. Niklas Kronwall had Detroit's lone goal and Ty Conklin, currently in the minors, allowed all seven goals on 25 shots.
The Capitals have lost three straight and five of their past six in Detroit, where they haven't won since Nov. 24, 2003.
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