March 20 vs. New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
New Jersey Devils (35-31-2)
Washington Capitals (34-27-8)
The Caps head into the back half of their season-long four-game homestand on Friday night when the New Jersey Devils make their second visit of the season to DC. Washington has earned at least a point in each of the first two games of the homestand, taking a 3-2 shootout loss to the Bruins last weekend before beating the Senators by a 4-1 count on Wednesday.
Cole Hutson’s successful NHL debut as a 19-year-old defenseman was the main storyline from Wednesday’s win. Days after signing his NHL entry level deal, Hutson was on the ice and in the starting lineup for the Capitals against Ottawa. Fresh from the campus of Boston University and the conclusion of his sophomore season, Hutson logged 16:22 in ice time and looked great in doing so, from his first shift to his last. Hutson bagged an empty-net goal on his final shift of the night, becoming just the fourth Washington defenseman to score a goal in his NHL debut.
With his debut behind him now, Hutson can concentrate on learning the systems, getting to know his teammates, and just growing more comfortable in this new environment that is likely to become his longtime home.
“I think it's just going to be him continuing to get more comfortable and acclimated with the NHL game, with our systems, with our players, with his [defense] partner, and that just takes reps, just takes reps and games,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And we'll help him with little things that we see along the way, and to help him improve in areas that we see need to be addressed, reinforce some of the good things that he does.
“And it'll be a long journey, his NHL career. And so [Wednesday] night was a was a great first step, and now he just settles into being an NHL player and trying to grow and trying to develop his game, and then also trying to help the Washington Capitals win hockey games.”
And while Hutson was the focal point of the contest for many fans, the Caps do not win Wednesday’s game – a four-point contest that pulled them to within a point of the Sens in the chase for Eastern Conference playoff berths – without another stellar performance from Logan Thompson in the Washington nets.
Thompson made 34 saves in the game, including all 16 shots he faced in the first frame – when the Caps won only two of 14 draws and hardly had the puck – and seven shots that came while Ottawa was on the power play. Making his career-high 47th start of the season, Thompson came within less than three minutes of recording a shutout, happily settling for his 23rd victory of the season.
“I’m a big believer that if I can see the puck, I like my chance of saving it,” says Thompson. “I thought the guys did a really good job in front of me; they let me see everything. Yeah, [the Senators] were shooting from the outside, but guys were boxing out and making my life easier tonight, so it made my job easy.”
“He definitely bailed me out a few times, and the PK, obviously,” says Caps winger Tom Wilson, whose 25th goal of the season stood up as Wednesday’s game-winner. “He was there when we needed him, just looked calm and nothing was coming off him. He made some big saves. He’s been great for us; it was nice to get a couple of goals for him.”
Thompson has allowed two or fewer goals against in six of his last nine starts, and he has permitted exactly three goals against in each of his other three starts across that stretch, posting a 2.12 GAA and a .923 save pct. across those nine games. All that good work has led to just five wins in those nine starts (5-3-1) because Thompson has been supported with just a nightly average of 3.01 goals for in those nine games, 24th among goaltenders with at least four starts. Seven of the goals scored on his behalf – more than two games’ worth, via the recent rate – came in one game, a 7-3 victory over Calgary on March 9.
“I thought he was as dialed as I've seen him all year long,” says Carbery of Thompson’s Wednesday night performance. “[Ottawa] had a bunch of looks right on top of him, too, a lot of back door stuff. The penalty kill was tremendous tonight, and he was a big part of that in the amount of one-timers that he saw. And last [power play Jordan] Spence took three of them on his own, and they just kept shooting, kept firing, and it just looked like he was seeing everything really clearly, square to it, no rebounds. So, he plays a big part in us getting two points [Wednesday night], no doubt.”
Wednesday’s win still leaves the Caps with less than a 10 percent chance of slinking their way into the Stanley Cup playoffs. With just 13 games remaining on the season, the Caps will likely need to win at least nine – and likely 10 or 11 – of those games to have a viable chance of getting in.
Washington is 7-1-1 in its last nine home games, and the two games this weekend represent the Caps’ last multi-game homestand of the season. Once the homestand concludes on Sunday afternoon against Colorado, the Caps will have just three home games remaining, all of them solo stops in DC.
Like the Capitals, New Jersey began the season with high hopes of making the playoffs. And after dropping their season opener to the Hurricanes in Carolina, the Devils reeled off eight consecutive victories – seven of them in regulation – and were seemingly well on their way New Jersey yielded three or fewer goals against in all eight of those early season wins, keeping the opposition to two or fewer goals against in five of the eight contests.
But the Devils win machine sputtered thereafter; they won only 14 of their next 36 games (14-20-2). After a dismal five-game losing streak sandwiched around the Olympic break – a slide in which they failed to score more than one goal in any of the five setbacks – the Devils have rediscovered their offensive game, going 7-2-0 in their last nine games. New Jersey is leading the entire NHL with an average of 4.11 goals per game across that span of about three weeks.
Most recently, New Jersey extended its winning streak to three by doubling up the Rangers 6-3 on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. For the Devils, Wednesday’s game in New York was the opener of a five-game road trip; they will visit Dallas, Nashville and Carolina, respectively, after Friday’s game in the District.
