DETROIT _ Of all the things that might be distressing Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill through this brutal stretch, Dylan Larkin's scoring slump was way down the list.
"To be dead honest with you, I am not one bit worried about Dylan's offensive production," he said before Alex Ovechkin posted a hat trick and the Washington Capitals extended the Red Wings' winless streak to nine with a 5-2 victory at Little Caesars Arena Saturday. "I want to make sure that he continues to be a great defensive, two-way center.
"Sometimes when you have offensive slumps, you start to get away from the defensive side to try to score points _ that would be a mistake and he hasn't done that."
Fact is, though, Larkin entered play Saturday pointless in seven games and goal-less in six.
"We haven't scored a lot of goals lately period, and he's a big piece of that," Blashill said. "But on a nightly basis he shows up on a lot of our positive offensive clips. He's still generating offensive chances."
The Red Wings had scored 12 goals over the last six games and were 0 for 18 on the power play over the previous eight.
But those streaks stopped abruptly just 10 seconds into their second power-play chance in the first period. Larkin made a sharp pass to Robby Fabbri in front of the net and Fabbri neatly tucked it top shelf over Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov.
It was a good start, especially for a team that had been drubbed 6-0 and 6-1 by the Maple Leafs and Flyers in their previous games.
But, alas, it ended up being the Wings' best period.
The Capitals scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the second period to wrest control of the game. T.J. Oshie tied it with a power-play goal 2:19 in. With Larkin in the box for hooking, Oshie was the beneficiary of a pretty passing play between Jakub Vrana and Evgeny Kuznetsov, that after Wings defenseman Dylan McIlrath failed to clear the puck up the boards.
Ovechkin scored his 18th goal of the season seven minutes later. He skated the puck around the net. Wings defenseman Filip Hronek was screened off the play by John Karlson, which allowed Ovechkin room to skate out in front and rip a shot past a sprawling Jonathan Bernier.
The Wings, after a mostly clean first period (one giveaway, holding both Ovechkin and Kuznetsov without a shot), made six turnovers and were outshot 13-5 in the second.
The Red Wings' best chance to tie the score came early in the third. Valtteri Filppula first deflected a bouncing puck off the crossbar. The puck bounced back in front but before Filppula could knock it into the open net, Carlson swept the puck out of harm's way.
Later in the third, with seven minutes left, Luke Glendening set up Tyler Bertuzzi in front of the net, but Samsonov held his ground.
Two minutes later, the teams exchanged goals nine seconds apart.
First Capitals forward Tom Wilson sped down the right boards, past defenseman Patrik Nemeth and beat Bernier to make it 3-1 at 14:23.
Glendening, using a screen from Larkin, buried a shot past Samsonov at 14.32.
Blashill pulled Bernier at 18:41. Ovechkin then scored two empty-net goals in less than a minute. He now has 20 goals on the season.
The Wings have now endured seven straight losses in regulation.
