April 2 vs. New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN+, HULU
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (38-28-9)
New Jersey Devils (38-34-2)
The Caps take to the road again on Thursday when they head up I-95 for a Thursday night date with the New Jersey Devils. Thursday’s game is the first of seven April games for the Caps, who woke up on the first day of the new month three points out of an Eastern Conference playoff berth. The Caps are still in 12th place in the East, but this is the closest they’ve been to eighth place in about a month, in terms of raw number of points.
Washington carries a three-game winning streak into Thursday’s game, its third three-game winning streak since late January. But with the season down to seven games and ground to be made up to get where they want to be, the Caps have an extreme need to extend that winning streak to four and beyond, which would be their longest spree since a season-high six-game winning spree from Nov. 24-Dec. 3.
On Tuesday night at Capital One Arena, the Caps took down the Philadelphia Flyers by a 6-4 count to close out the March portion of their schedule. It was the third straight high-event hockey game for the Capitals, who scored their six goals on a mere 18 shots on net, in one of the most efficient examples of offensive prowess in franchise history.
Back on Jan. 19, 2017, in St. Louis, the Caps struck for seven goals on 18 shots in a 7-3 win over the Blues. It’s the only other time in franchise history the Caps have scored as many goals with as few shots.
Playing in his 900th career NHL game, Tom Wilson had a pair of goals, as did captain Alex Ovechkin in the win over Philadelphia. Wilson opened and closed the scoring in the game, and Ovechkin struck early in the second and early in the third, with the second of those goals being the 141st game-winning goal of his NHL career. Ovechkin also reached the 30-goal plateau for the 20th time in his 21-season NHL career. He has seven goals in his last seven games.
Wilson, Ovechkin, Jakob Chychrun (one goal, two assists) and P-L Dubois (four assists) paced the Washington attack and led the way, but the Caps have had contributions from up and down their lineup in winning their last three games.
Of the 17 players who have played in all three games, all have registered at least a point.
“I think the great thing about our group the last week or two has just been everybody's been chipping in,” says Wilson. “It's a fun group, and guys are working really hard, and we want to stay in this thing. And on the road trip, different guys were stepping up and we come home and obviously get a big win.
“So, on any given night, it can be anyone. But obviously, as leaders, you want to be battling. You want to be dragging your team into the fight as much as you can. So, it's a big win, but I think everybody's been doing a good job to compete and stay in the fight.”
Midway through last week, the Caps hadn’t managed to score more than two goals – excluding those of the empty-net variety – in 10 of their previous 11 games. With 25 goals in those 11 games, Washington ranked last in the NHL, and its 9.12% shooting pct. ranked 28th.
Across a much smaller sample size of three games since then, the Caps have scored 17 goals to rank second in the League, trailing Pittsburgh (19), which has played four games across the same span. Washington’s gaudy 26.52% shooting pct. is far ahead of the Penguins’ second-place figure of 16.52%.
Washington’s power play has played a significant role in juicing the team’s attack recently; the extra-man unit has scored multiple goals in consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 29-20, 2024. Five of the Caps’ 17 goals in the last three games have been scored with the man advantage, and they’ve come off the sticks of five different players: Anthony Beauvillier, Justin Sourdif, Dylan Strome, Jakob Chychrun and Ryan Leonard.
“I think we moved the puck quickly tonight,” says Wilson of the power play. “I think we were just keeping it simple, getting pucks to the net and moving the puck. Nothing too creative, two units that are going to work hard and retrieve pucks and just show a little bit more desperation and throw everything we have at them.”
Since March 3, the Washington power play is clicking at a rate of 28.9 percent, eighth in the League across that span.
Tuesday’s win over the Flyers combined with an optimal night on the out-of-town scoreboard lifted the Caps’ playoff hopes from a 6.3 percent chance on Tuesday morning to a 15.1 percent shot a day later. No Eastern Conference clubs are in action on Wednesday night, so the Caps will go into Thursday’s game in Newark in the same position.
“Before the game, it’s easy to concentrate on the game and what you have to do,” says Dubois. “Because the standings are the standings, and you have to win for it to matter. And once the game is over and you’re going home, then it’s a different story. But as long as we take care of what we need to do, that’s all we can control. We can’t control who’s winning and who’s losing around the League, we can only control what we can do.”
New Jersey started the season on an 8-1-0 roll, and it led the Metropolitan Division standings in late November with a 16-7-1 mark through 24 games. But the Devils dropped off precipitously thereafter, winning just 12 of their next 35 games (12-22-1) to fall far off the pace in the division and the conference standings.
After dropping their first two games after the Olympic break, the Devils have straightened and played well since, going 10-5-0. New Jersey is averaging 3.73 goals per game across that span, the fourth best rate in the NHL.
Devils center and Team USA Olympic hero Jack Hughes has had one of the hottest sticks in the NHL since returning from Milan. With 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in 17 games since the break, Hughes ranks fourth in the NHL, behind only Martin Necas and Nikita Kucherov (30 points each) and Connor McDavid (29).
