Caps Overpower Devils, 4-3

Patience doesn't always have its place in a fast sport such as hockey, but patience paid off on a few fronts for the Capitals on Sunday afternoon against the New Jersey Devils. Veteran goaltender Craig Anderson had to wait until Washington's 17th game of the season to finally make his first start as a member of the Caps and his first start in 347 days, his team shook off an early extra-man failure to score on three straight power play chances, and the Caps patiently found and got to their game after a sluggish start in Sunday's game against the upstart Devils.

When the dust settled at game's end, Anderson basked in the satisfaction of his 290th career victory in his 650th NHL game, and the Caps claimed a pair of points for overcoming a 2-0 deficit to earn a 4-3 victory, their third in four games.
"I'm not going to lie; I had some butterflies," says Anderson, who will celebrate his 40th birthday in three months, "[I was] definitely a little nervous before the game; it's been a while since my last outing. I was definitely wanting to get in there and feel the puck. I had a pretty good warmup; I felt pretty in-the-rhythm in warmup, so pretty confident going into the game.

For the second time in as many days, the Caps were slow out of the gates for an afternoon puck drop. By the time Washington managed to record its first shot on net, it had already taken the game's first penalty and yielded the game's first goal on the ensuing power play.
New Jersey took the lead with the man advantage at 9:35 when its second power-play unit gained entry on the rush and Andreas Johnsson scored on a spin-around shot from the bottom of the left circle after taking a feed from Kyle Palmieri.
Washington began to warm to the task almost immediately thereafter, and the Caps owned an 11-3 advantage in shots on net over the remainder of the first period.
In the early portion of the second, the Caps continued to carry the play. Washington had the early edge in territory and zone time, and it launched the first four shots on net in the middle period. But New Jersey doubled its lead in transition after the Caps turned it over high in the attack zone.
Along the right-wing half wall in New Jersey ice, Devils center Jack Hughes blunted Nic Dowd's intended backhand feed to the middle of the ice. Hughes and linemates scooted up ice on a 3-on-2 rush, and New Jersey's sophomore center made it a 2-0 game at 3:55 of the second, driving the net and converting a feed from Johnsson.
If the Caps were demoralized from seeing their deficit suddenly double despite outshooting the Devils by 15-4 over roughly 13 minutes of playing time, it didn't show. The Caps kept competing hard and diligently sticking to their game plan. That patience was eventually rewarded.
Washington thwarted a New Jersey power play midway through the second and then got on the board with its second extra-man opportunity of then game shortly thereafter. From his spot in the diamond on Washington's top power play unit, T.J. Oshie tipped home a John Carlson shot from center point to cut the New Jersey lead to 2-1 at 13:38 of the second.

Although the Caps maintained their territorial advantage over the remainder of the game at even strength, it took until nearly the midpoint of the third to muster the equalizer. Washington pulled even with its lone 5-on-5 tally of the afternoon.
The Caps passed the puck crisply around the perimeter of the New Jersey zone. From up top at center point, Brenden Dillon pump-faked before pushing a pass to partner Carlson, who crept in a couple of steps and snapped a wrist shot past New Jersey netminder Aaron Dell on the far side at 9:16 of the third, making it a 2-2 game.
Just over two minutes later, the Caps grabbed their first lead of the afternoon. Washington winger Richard Panik drew his second penalty call of the afternoon, and the Caps cashed in for a second time, with Oshie taking a half-wall feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov and firing a laser past Dell at 11:53 of the third to give Washington a 3-2 lead.
With just under four minutes remaining in the game, Carl Hagelin drew a call to put Washington on the power play for the fourth time. The Caps needed all of seven seconds with which to win the right dot draw, make four precision passes and isolate Alex Ovechkin for a backdoor slam dunk on the weak side at 16:56, Washington's fourth consecutive goal and its third on the power play.
When New Jersey's Nikita Gusev scored with 11 seconds left in regulation, Ovechkin's power-play strike - his 712th career goal - also became his 112th lifetime game-winner.

"I think the last 10 minutes of the first period, we kind of changed the momentum and we started playing the right way," says Ovechkin. "I think we started putting pucks deep, we forechecked, we play physical and the goals come."
Indeed they did, and the three power-play goals overwhelmed a beleaguered New Jersey penalty killing outfit that entered the game dead last in the league with an anemic kill rate of 64.9% on the season. After being dented for three more extra-man tallies on Sunday, that figure dropped to 59.5%.
"There is no doubt," sighs Devils coach Lindy Ruff. "It's something that we've got to fix. We've obviously got some structure issues. We've got some confidence issues right now. I think some of the players are second-guessing themselves, and we've just got to free that up as a staff and get everybody back on the same page."
Washington's Sunday victory was its third in four games, and it helped erase any lingering bad taste from a subpar outing in a loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday. Despite his long wait between starts, Anderson showed no signs of cobwebs and helped the Caps to a much needed win in the tight East Division standings.
"I thought he played a really good game," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of Anderson. "He gave us a chance to win, especially early on. The first 10 minutes we were a little bit slow out of the gate, and then the next 50 minutes I thought we were pretty good. But he made some big saves in there and he gave us a chance. He did a good job today."