The Capitals left New Jersey with the kind of result that makes a coach shake his head: better hockey, worse outcome.
After stumbling through one of their roughest periods of the season and still finding a way to beat Ottawa 3-2 on Tuesday, Washington looked far sharper two nights later against the Devils. It still wasn’t enough. A couple of untimely bounces helped turn a 5-2 loss into the final score, and the Caps came away empty despite spending long stretches in a game they had a real chance to steal.
They opened the night slowly, though. New Jersey jumped in front just 2:20 into the game when, with Cole Hutson in the box, Evan Rodrigues took a pass and beat Logan Thompson just under the corner of the net. The Devils were ahead in shots 8-1 early, and Washington looked a lot like the team that had been chasing the game in Ottawa.
This time, though, the Capitals found their footing. Ryan Leonard tied it with 5:50 left in the first, poking the puck past Connor Hellebucyk for his 6th goal of the year. Then Washington grabbed its first lead of the night just 2:11 into the second period when Pierre-Luc Dubois buried a feed from Aliaksei Protas, holding and firing past Hellebucyk.
But the lead didn’t last. Brenden Dillon’s shot was redirected by Lenni Hameenaho and slipped past Thompson just before the midpoint of the period on a strange deflection, and that swing proved costly.
“We end up cracking after a great penalty kill, we grab momentum, and then we end up cracking,” Spencer Carbery said afterwards. “And when you talk about margins in the night, the games, and how they’re decided, especially when consistently night to night, if you talk about two good teams, the margins are like this, right? So it’s one play here, one play there, one missed icing, whatever it might be.
“And tonight, we’re on the wrong end of it, and we crack.”
Washington kept pressing after that goal, but Hellebucyk held firm and improved to 6-0-0 since joining the Devils. The Caps couldn’t get the equalizer, and New Jersey closed it out late with Stefen Noesen making it 4-2 with 2:53 left before Jack Hughes added an empty-netter.
“I thought two solid periods, and, we played pretty well in the third, and then that face off goal was kind of lucky … but it happens,” Leonard said. “I don't know, then we try to chase the game a little bit, and then they get the breakway. So, it’s unfortunate.”
Hutson, who was on the ice for the Noesen goal, didn’t hide from his own mistakes.
“I’m just not playing well enough,” he said. “Simple as that.
I can make some plays offensively, but it doesn’t matter when you’re here. making mistakes, defensively, constantly. So, gotta be a little bit better.”
Carbery said that kind of night is part of the learning curve for a young defenseman.
“Young players like Cole, that’s just part of learning to play in the National Hockey League, especially as a defenseman that’s spent no time in the American League, so there’s gonna be great nights, and there’s gonna be not so great nights,” Carbery said of his young blueliner. “It’s about him learning and continuing to develop, and that’s when he’s done a tremendous [job].”
Tom Wilson saw the bigger picture as Washington heads into the rematch.
“We're confident in our group,” Wilson said afterwards. “I think we clean a few things up.
You know, they’re a good hockey team right now. They’re one of the hottest teams in the league. ...
They’re built well and we were going toe-to-toe with them and did a lot of good things, and we’ll learn from it and keep moving forward and keep meshing as a group and hopefully take the next one.”
He also said the Capitals are still sorting out what they want to be night to night.
“I think we’re figuring out our identity right now,” Wilson said. “I think we’re figuring out, you know, Ottawa brought the game to the trenches.
We were kind of caught off guard once we adjusted to that. We were right there and right in the game.
“Tonight’s a completely different style. It’s run-and-gun, high skill.
So I think we just gotta be a little bit more consistent with our play, figure out what type of team we’re gonna be. You know, we’re versatile.
We can play different styles, but coming into a game like tonight, we gotta just be a little bit better and more consistent and we’ll be all right.”
The loss dropped Washington to 10-7-0 and 3-3-0 in the road white uniforms. The Capitals now head back home for a one-game homestand against the same Devils on Saturday. Washington beat New Jersey 4-2 at Capital One Arena in the first meeting between the teams last month, and the season series wraps up at Prudential Center on January 24 with Alex Ovechkin’s last regular-season game in the Garden State.
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