POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 5, Devils 2

Won't Get Fooled Again - Last weekend in Washington, the Devils came into Capital One Arena and dominated the Caps for the first several minutes of their first meeting of the season. The youthful and speedy Devils skated some circles around the more seasoned Capitals, generating odd man opportunities and taking a 1-0 lead on an Andreas Johnsson power-play goal before Washington could muster as much as a shot on net in response.

Washington righted the ship in that game last Sunday, rallying from a 2-0 deficit for a 4-3 win over New Jersey. When the two clubs met again on Saturday in Newark, the Caps turned the tables on their hosts.
By the time Daniel Sprong scored Washington's second goal of the game at 5:08 of the first frame in Saturday's rematch, the Devils were still seeking their first shot on net - Washington had six - and there hadn't yet been a television timeout in the contest. The Caps added a third marker in the opening period from Lars Eller and coasted to a 5-2 victory over New Jersey.
"We obviously put a lot of effort and talk into leading up to the game to get out to a better start," says Caps defenseman John Carlson, who had his third straight multi-point game and his fourth in his last five on Saturday. "It's been a hiccup for us a number of times this year, so it was good for us to see a positive result. I think we dominated the first 10 or 12 minutes there it felt like. It's something we're going to have to go back to draw back to [on Sunday], and going forward I think it's really important for our team."
The Caps rode that strong start the rest of the way, and although they didn't generate much in the way of high danger scoring chances over the final 40 minutes, they defended hard and well in their own end of the ice, and even when their lead was trimmed to 3-2 on Pavel Zacha's goal early in the second, it didn't feel as though they were in danger of losing momentum or the game.
"Games always change a little bit when the score is 3-0 or 4-0," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "You don't want it to, but it does. I don't think we were terrible in the second period, but I certainly don't think it was our best period.
"I really liked the way we played the third period. I thought we competed hard and we had some chances in there, and we were able to put a game away, so I don't have any problem with the third. But like I've said, they've got a good young team and we've got to stay focused the whole time. Maybe we slipped just a little bit in the second period, but I don't think it was a bad period. We just couldn't bury any of our chances."
Sometimes It Hurts - Sprong saw game action for the first time since Feb. 7; he sat out the last seven as the Caps were at peak health for that entire span. But just ahead of Saturday's game with the Devils, Evgeny Kuznetsov was deemed unable to play because of an upper body injury.
"That was a last-minute change," says Laviolette of Kuznetsov's absence from the lineup. "That happened late."
Sprong stepped in, and quickly stepped up. On his second shift of the afternoon, Sprong stepped in front of Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood and got a piece of Brenden Dillon's shot from the left point, giving Washington a 2-0 lead just past the five-minute mark. It was Sprong's third goal in his 11 games this season.
Kuznetsov is listed as day-to-day.
Say! Boss Man - With Sunday's win, the Caps have improved to 11-5-4 (26 points) on the season, enabling Laviolette to tie Jim Schoenfeld (1993-94) for the franchise record for best start as a head coach. Ron Wilson (1997-98) and Bruce Boudreau (2007-08) each rolled up 24 points in their first 20 games behind the Washington bench.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears were also in action on Saturday, hosting the Binghamton Devils at Giant Center. Behind a 22-save performance from goaltender Zach Fucale, the Bears claimed a 3-0 whitewash win over the Devils.
Joe Snively supplied all the offense Fucale would require in the game, scoring his second of the season with help from Garrett Pilon and Mason Morelli at 5:15 of the first.
In the middle period, Matt Moulson scored on a Hershey power play to double the lead. With helpers from Connor McMichael and Cameron Schilling, Moulson's second of the season made it a 2-0 game at 16:36 of the second.
At 5:03 of the third, Mike Sgarbossa netted his fourth of the season with a solo assist from Pilon, accounting for the 3-0 final in Fucale's first AHL shutout since April 8, 2017 when he earned a 5-0 road win over Binghamton as a member of the St. John's IceCats.
By The Numbers - Carlson led the Capitals with 21:36 in ice time … Carlson, Tom Wilson and Jakub Vrana each had three shots on net to lead the Caps, and Carlson led the team with six shot attempts … Garnet Hathaway led the Caps with five hits … Eller, Zdeno Chara and Conor Sheary had two blocked shots each to lead Washington … Nic Dowd won 10 of 16 draws (63 percent).