A Wild Bounce, a Historic Night, and One Point Earned: DeBrincat’s Unbelievable Goal Headlines Red Wings’ Shootout Loss
Sometimes in hockey, the puck takes a bounce so strange, so improbable, you almost have to laugh-unless you’re the goalie on the wrong end of it. That’s exactly what happened Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena, when Alex DeBrincat’s hopeful dump-in from just outside the Capitals’ blue line turned into one of the most bizarre tying goals you’ll see all season-or maybe ever.
With the Red Wings trailing 3-2 and the clock ticking under a minute in the third, DeBrincat flipped a routine wrist shot into the Washington zone. It looked like a standard play to gain possession deep, but instead, the puck redirected off a camera hole along the boards-yes, that camera hole-and bounced past a stunned Charlie Lindgren in net. Just like that, it was 3-3.
Even DeBrincat was surprised.
“I was just trying to rim it around,” he said postgame. “I’m not sure what it hit-maybe the dasher or whatever.
But I saw it come off and kind of go in his stomach and I knew it had a chance to go in. Obviously a lucky bounce.”
Lucky might be an understatement. The puck caromed off the sliding plexiglass cover of a camera opening where longtime Red Wings photographer Dave Guralnick has been shooting games for nearly three decades. Guralnick himself didn’t even realize the puck had gone in until the crowd erupted.
“I was too shocked to really understand what just happened,” Guralnick said. “The puck hit the hole square-on.
The force knocked the glass into my lap. It just careened in a weird way that caught the goalie off guard and slipped under his pads.”
The goal, officially credited at 19:07 of the third period, earned Detroit a point in the standings-a valuable one as they continue to jockey for playoff position in the Atlantic Division. The Red Wings ultimately fell 4-3 in the shootout, but the surreal nature of DeBrincat’s equalizer quickly became the talk of the night.
Even ESPN+ color analyst and former NHL defenseman Erik Johnson couldn’t believe what he saw.
“This is a nothing play,” Johnson said on the broadcast. “You’re throwing it in, hoping to get possession, and poor Lindgren-he doesn’t even leave his crease.
It just hits him in the back of the leg. That’s a funny carom.
You’re going to see that, maybe one out of 5,000 times.”
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery echoed the disbelief.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Carbery said. “There’s a camera hole that’s covered with plexiglass so photographers can shoot without the glass in the way.
We watched it in slow-mo. The piece that slides in to close the hole-it hits right there and explodes behind the person, right into the net.”
According to Carbery, the NHL confirmed the goal was legal. If a camera had been sticking through the hole and the puck had deflected off it, the goal would’ve been called back. But since it hit the sliding cover-partially open or not-it stood.
Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan admitted things looked grim late in the third when his team trailed by two. But back-to-back goals by DeBrincat, including the now-infamous bounce, gave Detroit a lifeline.
“The bounce, that reminds me of Joe Louis [Arena] sometimes,” McLellan said. “I don’t think we’ll see many more goals like that, but we’ll take it.”
And while DeBrincat’s goal stole the spotlight, Thursday night also saw Patrick Kane make NHL history. With an assist earlier in the game, Kane recorded his 1,375th career point, setting the all-time record for the most points by a U.S.-born player. It’s a milestone that cements Kane’s legacy as one of the greatest American players the league has ever seen.
Meanwhile, the Red Wings remain in second place in the Atlantic with 70 points through 55 games, just two points behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. As the playoff race tightens, every point matters-and sometimes, it takes a little luck to keep pace.
For Guralnick, the man behind the lens, it was a moment he won’t soon forget-even if he didn’t see it coming.
“Someone on Washington was extremely angry, yelling at me that I needed to close the photo hole,” he said. “It was closed. If it wasn’t, I’d probably be on the way to the emergency room right now.”
Instead, he was part of one of the most unexpected goals of the season-and a reminder that in hockey, you never know what might happen when you throw the puck on net.