Detroit, MI
Caps Finish Set of Back-to-Backs in Detroit | Washington Capitals
Feb. 27 vs. Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (27-21-9)
Detroit Red Wings (32-20-6)
The Caps finish up a set of back-to-back games – and the February portion of their 2023-24 schedule – on Tuesday night in Detroit against the Red Wings. Tuesday’s tilt marks the first time the Caps and Wings have tangled this season, and they’ll meet two more times down the stretch. The Capitals will host the Wings in Washington on March 26 and the two teams will meet once more in Motown as well, on April 9.
Hosting the Ottawa Senators on Monday night in the District, the Caps got off on the good foot in the front end of the back-to-backs, doubling up Ottawa by a 6-3 count. The Caps erupted for four goals in the first period – their fourth four-goal period of the season and their second in succession at home; Washington scored four times in the third period of its previous home game – a Feb. 20 tilt against the Devils.
Aliaksei Protas started the scoring in the game and finished with his second three-point game of the season and his NHL career, and Hendrix Lapierre scored each of Washington’s last two goals for his first multi-goal game in the NHL. Beck Malenstyn also scored for the Caps, who got power-play goals from both John Carlson and Max Pacioretty in the first period.
On a night in which he was honored for surpassing Calle Johansson (983) for most games played by a defenseman in Washington’s franchise history, Carlson broke a 19-game dry spell with his second power-play goal of the season, and the 145th goal of his NHL career, pushing him past Sergei Gonchar (144) for second place among blueliners in franchise history.
The veteran defenseman’s timing was impeccable; fans had barely settled back into their seats after giving Carlson a lengthy ovation following a stirring tribute to him on the overhead scoreboard during the game’s first television timeout. Ten seconds into Washington’s power play – and just two seconds after Dylan Strome swept a draw cleanly to him – Carlson put Gonchar in his rear view mirror.
“It was a cool little moment, especially after all that,” says Carlson. “It was one of those things you can’t make up, when good things happen.”
The Capitals’ six-goal outburst enabled Darcy Kuemper (18 saves) to earn his 13th victory of the season.
Washington is now 4-0-1 in its last five games, a span in which Protas has piled up two goals and seven points.
“One of his best games of the season,” exudes Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of Protas’ Monday night performance. “He had three or four instances where he used his size, his brain and his skating to protect a puck, or to make a play, even when he had defenders draped all over him. If he can develop that, it’s such a unique skill because of his size, and his reach, and his skating ability. I was really proud of him for showing that and making a few plays. He gets rewarded offensively with the goal and two assists.
“And Lappy, coming in right away, steps right into that fourth line center role. I thought that line was arguably our best line, start to finish.”
Already missing defenseman Martin Fehervary (lower body) and forwards Nic Dowd (upper body) and T.J. Oshie (upper body), Washington also played without Nick Jensen (lower body) and Sonny Milano (illness) in Monday’s win. Pierrick Dubé, the rookie recalled from Hershey last week who made his NHL debut in Florida on Saturday, stepped in for Milano and showed well in 12:25 of ice time. He landed two hits and a couple of shots on net, and had a blocked shot.
“Dubé steps in last second,” says Carbery. “He was slated to warm up. I thought his game was solid with Sonny going down. So yeah, those guys stepping in – Pro, Dubé, and Lappy – all did a real good job for us tonight.”
Now, it’s on to Detroit, and their first meeting of the season with the Wings. With a sizeable lead for the back half of Monday’s game, Carbery was able to manage the minutes of his top players while giving some reps and experience to some of the younger players. Once again though, the Caps will need all hands on deck on Tuesday in Motown.
“Given the circumstance, I was very conscious of it,” says Carbery of managing workloads on the front end of back-to-backs. “I tried to even things out at the end of the game without taxing guys on back-to-back shifts. We were able to spread it around a little bit there.
“[Alex Ovechkin] and Stromer had the three or four minutes of power play time, so they weren’t taxed, which should help us [Tuesday] night. They had a tough night [Monday], but the luxury for us is now they’re a little bit rested and can come into a massive game [Tuesday] night on the road, and feel real fresh.”
Since their NHL record string of 25 straight playoff appearances ended in 2017, the Red Wings have missed the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of the last seven seasons, matching a dubious franchise mark. But the Wings are firmly on track to be back in the postseason this spring.
Detroit enters Tuesday’s tilt with a five-game winning streak. Although three of those five victories came in overtime, the Red Wings have outscored the opposition by a whopping 20-7 over the life of the streak. Most recently, the Wings overcame the Blackhawks in Chicago on Sunday night, spoiling the retirement of Chris Chelios’ sweater at United Center with a 3-2 overtime victory over their fellow Original Six club.
Making his first return to United Center as a member of the Red Wings, Patrick Kane bit the hand that once fed him, scoring the overtime game-winner, just over a year after he last played in the building as a member of the Blackhawks.
With its current winning run, Detroit has surged past Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division standings, and the Wings now occupy the first wild card slot in the Eastern Conference. Detroit is four points behind third-place Toronto in the Atlantic, and the Leafs hold a game in hand on the Red Wings.
DETROIT – What started as a seemingly routine home repair quickly unraveled into something far more troubling for one Detroit family.
A man appeared to be posing as a contractor — arriving in construction gear and accompanied by two teens — showed up April 7 at a west side Detroit home, offering to do brick work for about $300. But according to the homeowner’s daughter, the situation started to seem fishy — and expensive — fast.
Tameka Kelly said the trio told her 76-year-old mother they were with “State Line Construction” and began working almost immediately.
“I just felt used and taken advantage of,” Kelly said, looking back at the situation.
“They kept working — kept putting cement down, I said, ‘you might want to tell them to stop.’ He said, ‘well right now it’s $1129.’ I said, ‘my mother‘s not paying you $1000,’” Kelly said.
At one point, the man even offered to repair the bottom of the home’s wheelchair ramp — something Kelly said her sister, who lives with her mother, relies on daily. But she refused because something just didn’t sit right.
“I gave him the $300,” Kelly said, hoping they would just leave. “I thought, well, he knows where my mom lives. I don’t want him coming back trying to do something to my mom‘s house or something to our vehicles.”
Kelly later tried to confront the man, who identified himself as Brian Lopez, and called the number on the invoice.
“When I called he was like, ‘no no no brickwork no brickwork’ I said, ‘yes you did. You were just here. I said I don’t forget a voice,’” she said.
But the biggest red flag came when she looked closer at the address listed on the invoice.
The address — 70 West Maple in Troy — turned out to be a McDonald’s.
“I really got upset when I found out that address was to a McDonald’s,” Kelly said.
Initially, Kelly said when she tried to file a report with Detroit police, she said they told her the situation was a civil matter and she could not file one. She then filed a complaint with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
Now, Detroit police tell Local 4 they will be taking Kelly’s fraud report, and once that is completed, an investigation will follow.
State Line initially told Local 4 they were not familiar with a Brian Lopez, then an attorney for State Line construction told Local 4 that, after checking the company’s records, there is no Brian Lopez that works for the company. As a matter of fact, the attorney said, State Line Construction does not do cement or residential construction. He said they focus on electrical work.
Attempts by Local 4 to reach the man going by the name Brian Lopez with the number given were unsuccessful.
Kelly said she felt compelled to speak up to prevent others from falling victim.
“I’m really upset about it, and I don’t want it to happen to anybody else,” she said.
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.
Pistons vs Magic Game 1 reaction, lessons learned and what must change
Omari Sankofa II, Shawn Windsor and special guest Bryce Simon react to Detroit Pistons’ Game 1 NBA playoff loss to Orlando Magic, April 19, 2026, at Little Caesars Arena.
How in the world did things get so bad so fast for the Detroit Pistons?
In just one outing in the 2026 NBA playoffs, they went from top-seeded darlings of the Eastern Conference to punching bags punked by an 8-seed short on rest but long on resilience and toughness.
“I would say they ‘outphysical-ed’ us today,” Pistons wing Ausar Thompson said after the Orlando Magic stole Game 1 of the first-round NBA playoff series, 112-101, at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, April 19. “One, because they got more rebounds than us. They forced more turnovers.”
Yes, this was always going to be a physical series. Though you would think the Pistons, owners of the NBA’s second-best defense and playing at home, would have a sizable advantage.
It also should have helped them that they were coming off six days’ rest, as opposed to the Magic coming off winning a play-in game just 47 hours earlier.
It didn’t help that Pistons star Cade Cunnigham was playing in just his fourth game since suffering a collapsed lung and missing 11 games. He scored a game-high 39 points, but he didn’t operate as smoothly as usual, with just four assists (far off his 9.9-assist season average) while committing three turnovers.
Another indictment of the Pistons’ worrisome play: Tobias Harris (19 points) was Cunningham’s only teammate who scored in double digits. Meanwhile, all five Magic staters did so, led by Paolo Banchero’s 23 points on 8-for-15 shooting.
And just like that, the Magic came out firing, scoring 35 points in the first quarter and never trailing.
“Yeah, just that we came out a little too tight, lax, whatever the word is, maybe both for some of us, but just didn’t come out with the right energy,” Cunningham said. “Gave them life further on. And then, you know, we had to deal with that for the rest of the game. We were better in stints, but can’t dig a hole like that.”
He’s right. The Pistons can’t dig a hole like that in Game 2 on Wednesday night. Because if they do, and they lose, the Magic would not only have homecourt advantage – they got that with Sunday’s victory – but could close out the series without another win in Detroit, with three of the next four games coming in Orlando.
That’s precisely what makes Game 2 a must-win game for the Pistons. It’s bad enough they lost the opener at LCA, where they were 31-9. But now they’ve let the Magic set a hard-edged tone in the kind of the game that could lead them to steal the series.
“I know that they feel great about this game,” Cunningham said. “This was a big win for them. They came in, they handled their business and stole one on the road. That’s what you want to do in the playoff series.
“So I’m sure that they feel great about that. Obviously, we’re sick about losing this one. It’s a long series, though. There’s no confidence dropped from us. We know that team. They know us. So it’ll be a long, fun series.”
Cunningham might be right, because the Pistons are arguably the better team. They have enough talent and more depth.
What the Pistons don’t have is the advantage of desperation. They had an excellent season from start to finish, closed with a 60-22 record, and wrapped up the East’s top seed on April 4.
The Magic, meanwhile, have been playing with fire (and not always the good kind) down the stretch, while their fifth-year coach, Jamahl Mosley, entered the postseason on the hottest of hot seats after his squad went 0-7 in road playoff games over the past two seasons.
To make things even worse, the Magic lost the regular-season finale to the Boston Celtics – well, their reserves, at least – to blow their chance at the 7-seed and homecourt in the play-in tournament. Then Orlando lost to the Philadelphia 76ers (on the road, of course) in the first play-in game before beating the Charlotte Hornets (in Orlando) to advance to a best-of-seven series – featuring four road games – vs. the Pistons.
Now, it looks like the Magic have found their form, as they routed the Hornets, 121-90, and stunned the Pistons. And just like that, Mosley went from hot seat to just plain hot.
Banchero wouldn’t go so far as to say the victory set up his team to steal the series, but he didn’t deny it was exactly the kind of start Orlando needed.
“It’s just a good win for us as a team getting it on the road against a great team and 1-seed,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we got to come back Wednesday, you know, reciprocate it, you know?
“They’re not going to lay down. They’re going to turn it up. So we’ve got to be ready for that. And it’s just one-game-at-a-time mentality, you know? That’s what it’s got to be. It’s the first of four.”
Yes, it’s just the first of four wins the Magic needs to advance. If the Pistons don’t find an answer quickly, the math – and hardly anyone else – won’t be on their side when they head to Central Florida this weekend.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
After getting absolutely annihilated in his previous start on Monday in Minnesota to the tune of 11 runs in just 1.2 innings, Garrett Crochet is set to retake the mound today and convince us all that everything will be fine as far as he and his health are concerned.
Unfortunately, he won’t just be battling the Tigers. Mother Nature is once again destined to play a roll in today’s match up, and here’s how the radar looks inside of an hour from first pitch:
The good news is the initial batch of heavier precipitation has moved out and east of Boston, but more unsettled weather still lurks to the west ahead of a slow moving front. That mess will push through eastern Massachusetts over the next several hours, filling in the current dry slot. While this incoming precipitation won’t be as heavy as what fell at times earlier today, it will come attached with colder and windier conditions, so a miserable weather game lies ahead (if they even try and play through it at all — The Yankees did not and waited around for three hours before starting their game against the Royals at 4:20pm). The other option will be to just wait until after sunset when it will be dryer, but still very cold and windy.
When they do get started, today’s lineup includes Roman Anthony leading off in leftfield, Andruw Monasterio at first base, and Jarren Duran, Masataka Yoshida, and Marcelo Mayer all starting on the bench with an opposing left-handed starter on the mound in Framber Valdez for Detroit.
OTM’s own pitching guru Jacob Roy will be around later to handle the postgame wrap and tell us if we should should be freaking out or breathing a sigh a relief when it comes to Crochet.
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