Nov. 14 vs. New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio Network
New Jersey Devils (14-6-0)
Washington Capitals (10-7-0)
Two nights after the Devils downed the Caps by a 5-2 count in New Jersey, the two Metro Division rivals will tangle again in Washington on Saturday night. The Caps and the Devils have split their first two meetings of the season; Washington prevailed in the season series opener by a 4-2 score in an Oct. 17 matinee in the District. The Caps split their two-game road trip, winning 3-2 in overtime over Ottawa on Tuesday.
Thursday’s game in Newark was a compelling and entertaining game, and it was a one-goal contest in one direction or the other for the first 57 minutes. Each of the Devils middle three goals in Thursday’s victory were scored by a player summoned from AHL Utica earlier in the day.
The loss in New Jersey nixed the Caps’ bid for a third straight victory, which would have matched their season high. The Devils come into Saturday’s game with a daunting 10-2-0 mark in their last dozen games while Washington enters with a 7-4-0 record in its last 11 contests.
After the Caps fell down a goal on an early New Jersey power play, the dynamic duo of Cole Hutson and Ryan Leonard combined to even the score in the waning seconds of a Washington power play, the third time this season the pair has factored on the same goal. The Caps’ extra-man unit generated enough offensive zone time to pepper Connor Hellebuyck with six shots before Hutson and Leonard combined on a quick regroup and rush, culminating with Leonard’s game-tying backhander.
“I thought we did okay around Hellebuyck,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought there was decent amount [of chances]. I'll have to go back through the film, but I thought we were around the net. There was there was a bunch of situations where I felt like there were secondary pucks, and we're whacking away.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois extended his goal streak to three straight games early in the second, staking the Caps to a 2-1 lead. But that was all the Caps could manage on Hellebuyck, and the Devils got three straight goals from players recalled from Utica earlier in the day – Lenni Hameenaho, Vladislav Kolyachonok and Stefan Noesen, respectively – plus a late empty-netter to pull away.
Washington is 2-6-0 when scoring two or fewer goals this season, and it has yet to win (0-5-0) when scoring two or fewer goals.
“You want to generate good looks,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “You want to do the right things to generate good looks. I don't think really scoring the goals was necessarily the issue tonight; I think it's a tight knit game against a good hockey team. Obviously, you want to put up a few more, but we're in a pretty good spot in the third. We’ve just got to find a way to get one and limit their chances. But they capitalized; we didn't.”
Thursday’s loss was just the second suffered by the Caps this season (5-2-0) against Metropolitan Division opponents. Washington has defeated each of the Metro teams it has faced in the first meeting of the season to date, and both Carolina (Oct. 13) and New Jersey took the second meeting of the respective season series.
“We're confident in our group,” says Wilson. “They're a good hockey team right now. They're one of the hottest teams in the league, so 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.”
Upon returning home from their two-game midweek journey north, the Caps took Friday off and they will reconvene for a Saturday morning skate at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. Saturday’s rematch with the Devils is a stand-alone home game; Washington takes to the road again on Sunday, bound for Tampa and the 2026-27 Mentors’ Trip with the Caps taking on the Lightning there on Tuesday.
New Jersey has been frequently playing with 11 forwards and seven defensemen of late, but after the Devils lost blueliner Johnathan Kovacevic to an undisclosed injury in Tuesday’s road trip finale in Winnipeg and returned home to find top pair defenseman Brett Pesce ill, the call went out for the trio of reinforcements from AHL Utica, and New Jersey returned to the more traditional 12-forward, six-defenseman lineup, and getting instant returns.
Noesen has been in the NHL for years, and he had been up and down between Utica and New Jersey earlier this season. Now in his second tour of duty with New Jersey, he has also logged some of his 488 NHL games with Anaheim, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Toronto and Carolina.
Hameenaho, a second-round pick of New Jersey in 2023, debuted with the Devils last season and got into 33 games. Utica’s leading scorer this season, he scored in his first game for New Jersey this season on Thursday against the Caps.
Kolyachonok was also a second-round pick, chosen 52nd overall by the Florida Panthers in the 2019 NHL Draft. After signing as a free agent with the Devils on July 1, he was recalled on an emergency basis and scored the game-winner in his first game with New Jersey. Kolyachonok has logged 88 NHL games wearing six different uniforms, those of Arizona, Utah, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Boston and now New Jersey. He has scored as many goals as uniforms worn, and half of his six career goals – including Thursday’s against Washington – have been game-winners.
