POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 4, Devils 1

No Overlooking -In their Tuesday night visit to Newark, the Caps' primary task was merely not being guilty of looking past the New Jersey Devils, a battered team with nothing to play for in terms of the standings. Missing many key players because of injury and having been mathematically eliminated from postseason competition, the Devils can still pose problems for the opposition because of their work ethic and their structure, as the Caps learned earlier this month in a 3-0 home ice win over the Devils.

Washington accomplished its mission, taking down the Devils by a 4-1 count and climbing back into sole possession of the top spot in the Metropolitan Division standings with nine games remaining.

The Devils' game plan on Tuesday seemed to involve lulling the Caps to sleep, but for the second time in as many meetings between the two teams, Washington grabbed an early 1-0 lead on its fourth line's first shift of the game. Andre Burakovsky started the scoring with a goal on his first shift of the game at 2:40 of the first period when the two teams met on March 8 in Washington, and he did so once again on Tuesday night, albeit a dozen seconds later.
That lead lasted until the Caps victimized themselves with a slew of poorly timed miscues in the final dozen seconds of the first, leading to Kenny Agostino's tying tally with exactly one second remaining on the clock in the first.
A mistake like that might have been damning against a more formidable opponent, but the Caps shrugged it off and went to work in the second, scoring three times on four shots on net in a span of less than eight minutes.
When it was all said and done, all four Washington lines scored at five-on-five, Pheonix Copley stopped 20 of 21 shots he faced, and the Caps had the two points they came for.
New Jersey's leading scorer Kyle Palmieri left the game with what looked like an upper body injury on his second shift of the night. In Washington ice, Palmieri began to skate away while looking toward the puck in the corner. But he skated hard into the shoulder of Caps defenseman Nick Jensen, collapsing in a heap and struggling to get up and then off the ice. That incident essentially was New Jersey's season in a microcosm. The Devils are now 2-7-1 in their last 10.
Fifty Mission Cap -Caps center Nicklas Backstrom notched his 50th assist of the season on Tuesday night, supplying the secondary helper on Tom Wilson's 21st goal of the season.
Backstrom is the 25th player in NHL history to record as many as six straight seasons with 50 or more assists, and he joins San Jose's Joe Thornton as one of only two active players in the league who have achieved the feat.
Double Sawbuck - Brett Connolly started Washington's three-goal scoring spree in the second period when he converted a Christian Djoos pass from the left point to score his 20th goal of the season. It's the first 20-goal season of Connolly's career, and he joins teammates Jakub Vrana and Tom Wilson in becoming first-time 20-goal scorers in 2018-19.

"He has had a really strong season," says Caps coach Todd Reirden of Connolly. Extremely consistent, confident, playing his best hockey, gets an assist as well. It was just a matter of time until he was going to get 20. He has put himself in some good spots to create offense; his mind thinks offensively and thinks about getting himself into dangerous areas. He's got a good shot and a quick release."
Back In The Saddle - Djoos was back in the lineup on Tuesday after an absence of nearly a month. Djoos last played in a 5-2 loss to the Sabres at Buffalo on Feb. 23.
Tuesday's game against the Devils was also the 100th game of the young defenseman's NHL career, and he skated alongside a new partner for the first time, Nick Jensen who was obtained in a deal with Detroit while the Caps were in Buffalo for that aforementioned contest. Djoos logged 16:26 of ice time against New Jersey, the most he has skated since he was on the clock for 16:52 in an Oct. 4 game at Pittsburgh, in the Capitals' second game of the 2018-19 season.
"I thought for not playing for a while, Christian looked really good," says Reirden. "He certainly saw the ice and made a lot of good plays offensively, and they did some good things defensively as well. A game like that, they are able to play a little bit more and to get some chemistry that way. So it was a good situation."
In that loss to the Sabres, Djoos recorded an assist so his assist on Connolly's goal gives him a modest two-game point streak. Djoos slotted in for Brooks Orpik, who was given Tuesday night off and who is likely to be back in the lineup on Wednesday when the Tampa Bay Lightning visit the District to start a four-game homestand.

Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears were in action at Giant Center on Tuesday night, hosting the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the 12th and final regular season meeting between the two Atlantic Division rivals. Hershey eked out a 1-0 overtime win over the Baby Pens, running its record to 9-2-1 against them on the season.
Vitek Vanecek stopped all 17 shots he faced to notch his second whitewash of the season and the ninth of his AHL career. Vanecek got the goal he needed for the win at 1:14 of the extra session when Garrett Pilon scored his 10th goal of the season with help from Mike Sgarbossa and Jayson Megna.
Hershey outshot the Baby Pens 39-17 in the game, and Vanecek improved to 17-9-5 on the season. The Bears now have a seven-game point streak in the works (4-0-2-1).
The 36-22-3-4 Bears are now idle until Saturday night when it visits Cleveland to take on the Monsters.
By The Numbers -Caps captain Alex Ovechkin was held without a shot attempt for the second time in his 1,075-game NHL career … Matt Niskanen led the Capitals with 21:18 in ice time … Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his third road goal of the season and his first at five-on-five, leading the Caps with four shots on net and six shot attempts … Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with five hits … Wilson led Washington with two blocked shots … Neither team reached 40 shot attempts in the game, and the Caps and Devils combined for a total of just 75 shot attempts on the night.