POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Devils 4, Caps 1

Capital Youth - On Monday night in Newark, the Caps absorbed a 4-1 loss to the Devils in the fourth of Washington's six preseason games this fall.

For the second straight road preseason game, the Caps dressed a youth-laden lineup to go against a virtual varsity squad on the other side. In each of those games, the results were similar. The young Caps weren't able to establish much of an attack in the offensive zone, getting scarce good looks from the interior of the ice at 5-on-5 and struggling to consistently assert themselves in the opposition's end of the rink.
Washington scored but one goal in each of those games, a 3-1 loss to the Flyers on Saturday and Monday's defeat at the hands of the Devils. Both of those goals were power-play strikes; Aliaksei Protas scored in the first period in Philly and Connor McMichael tallied late in the second in Newark.
Although the Caps' kids were a bit wobbly in stretches of both games, they held their own and weren't blown out. Washington entered the third period of the Philly game all even at 1-1 and was down 2-1 after two against the Devils.
Frequent turnovers and a slow start put the Caps in a two-goal hole before they could find their footing in Monday's loss.
"It was just too slow in the first," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the loss to New Jersey. "There were some turnovers there, but I thought in the second period we got in on the forecheck, we kept it in the offensive zone and stayed down inside there and got working a little bit, and we started to generate some chances and stop playing so much in our end. The guys did push in the second and the third period."

For the second straight game, the Caps didn't come out unscathed. Goaltender Ilya Samsonov suffered a lower body injury on Saturday in Philadelphia and is listed as day-to-day. On Monday night, defenseman Martin Fehervary retired for the night after his first shift of the third period, leaving with an upper body injury.
Tuesday is a day off for the Caps, and Laviolette said Fehervary would be evaluated further upon the team's return from Newark. More information on his status should be available on Wednesday, when the Caps will head up to Boston for their final road game of the preseason.
Let's Start Again - Making his first start and second appearance of the preseason, Vitek Vanecek started and went the distance in net for Washington in Monday's loss, stopping 22 of the 25 shots he faced in the game. Two of New Jersey's goals came on the power play.
"Where everybody was a little slow in the first period, I thought he was sharp right off the bat," says Laviolette of Vanecek. "He played a good game for us. It was 2-1 [going into the third] and he is giving us a chance to hang in there and win a hockey game or tie it up. We just couldn't find that next goal."
Originally, the plan was for Vanecek and Samsonov to split the Caps' final four preseason games with each starting and going the distance twice, and that plan played out over Washington's last two games. Whether it's possible to continue with that arrangement over the final two exhibitions remains to be seen, given Samsonov's lower body ailment.
Pheonix Copley was placed on waivers on Monday, and he'll be assigned to AHL Hershey on Tuesday if he clears. That leaves Vanecek, Samsonov and Zach Fucale as the remaining netminders on the Caps' training camp roster.