It’s Now Or Never – As they take the ice tonight against the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena, the Caps have 29 games remaining on their regular season slate. But even with nearly two months remaining in the season, tonight’s game against the Devils is essentially a must win game for Washington.
The Caps’ 2023-24 schedule was front-loaded with divisional games; no team in the League had more first-half divisional games than Washington. But the corollary to that is that the Caps now have the fewest number of divisional games – just seven – in the back half of the campaign. Tonight’s game against New Jersey is Washington’s first against a Metro Division opponent in more than a month.
Washington’s best stretch of this season was a 16-6-4 stretch from Oct. 25-Dec. 23, 2023. That 26-game run covers nearly a third of the season, but the Caps have essentially nullified that prosperous stretch by going just 7-12-3 since.
Since returning from the midseason break, the Caps have played better, more connected hockey, but results (2-3-1) have been less than commensurate with performance. Coming off an uplifting 4-3 win over the Canadiens on Saturday in Montreal, the Caps again find themselves with an opportunity to start a modest winning streak as the face the Devils tonight.
If they aren’t able to do so, their season might well be over, at least as far as hockey operations is concerned. Including tonight’s game, the Caps have eight games remaining between now and the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline. If the Caps are unable to creep closer to the Devils – and the rest of the Eastern Conference pack scrambling for playoff position – with a victory tonight, it’s not difficult to envision the Caps selling off those players who are desirable to playoff contenders between now and March 8. The schedule doesn’t get any easier from here, and the Caps have essentially been stuck in neutral for a couple of months now.
Entering tonight’s game, the Caps are eight points out of the second wild card spot, and they’ve got three teams to climb over to get there. New Jersey is one of those three teams; the Caps trail the Devils by four points, with a game in hand. With a regulation win over the Devils, Washington would creep to within two points of Jersey.
“It’s a really good test,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “It’s kind of a look-yourself-in-the-mirror type of game, and you show up and get the job done. There’s really no other way around it. We need our points right now, and this is a benchmark game with a rival divisional opponent.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re on our game and we take it to them, use the momentum that we have to string together a couple of wins, something that we could do a better job at this year – coming off a win, a good group game and riding that into this game, and showing up right from puck drop.”
As they look to win this must win game against the high-octane Devils, the Caps will be without defenseman Martin Fehervary (lower body), one of their quickest defensemen and one who is routinely a physical force as well. The Caps also continue to play without center Evgeny Kuznetsov (NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program). While Kuznetsov is in the midst of his worst NHL season from a production standpoint, he is Washington’s leading scorer (three goals, three assists) in its three games against New Jersey this season. Kuznetsov has collected half of his six goals on the season and more than a third of his 17 points at New Jersey’s expense.
Don’t Let The Devil Ride – Although the Devils have underachieved to this point of the season –they’ve had to deal with some long term injuries to key players – they are still very much in the thick of the hunt for playoff positioning in the Eastern Conference. But regardless of their position in the standings, the Devils are a dangerous offensive outfit that is capable of erupting for multiple goals in a short span of time, as the Caps have been reminded this season.
Although the Caps have won two of the previous three meetings between the two teams this season, New Jersey has been able to put a crooked number on the scoreboard in five of the nine periods of hockey that the Caps and Devils have played against one another this season.
The Devils feast off the rush and off of transition, so the Caps will need to manage the puck wisely and they’ll need to backcheck diligently and sort out defensive zone shifts swiftly on the inevitable occasions when New Jersey does stress them defensively.
“That’s certainly the recipe for success,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Probably – all encompassing – they’re the best team in the NHL off the rush. And number one being able to enter your zone with clear possession, and two being able to create something very, very dangerous off those entries. It’s a product of the way they play, but also I think a product of their personnel and the strengths of their personnel.
“You could argue that all four lines will stress you of making sure that every single time that you defend a rush – whether you have a numerical advantage defensively, or certainly if they have a numerical advantage – you need to be on your toes and alert and aware, and communicating and sorting those situations out. Because every single time across your blueline, they can turn that into a really dangerous situation.”
“That’s what they’re elite at; is their ability off the rush,” says Caps’ defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk of the Devils. “They’ve got some pretty special players that can make some things happen off the rush thatb are hard to contain. So managing the puck, and putting pucks in good areas to set up your teammates, to get in on the forecheck, set up the next line and play in the other end, so that you’re not fueling that transition.
“Throughout their lineup, they can all skate and they can all make plays. So managing the process and starting on time is key. Against a high-skill and high-octane team like this, you don’t want to be chasing the game. So you want to make sure you’re starting on time.”
New Jersey is tied for sixth in the League with 119 goals at 5-on-5, and 11 of the 12 goals the Devils have scored against Washington this season have come at even strength.
“We need to be really good,” says Carbery. “There’s a bunch of details that go into that, whether it’s gap-related, whether it’s our tracking, whether it’s managing the puck offensively to limit the number of transition pucks that they get.
“I’ll give you an example: Things are happening for you in the offensive zone; things look good. Now, all of a sudden you rip a shot that goes to the far corner and kicks out, and they grab it. And they transition so fast; their team speed is as quick as anybody’s in the League. So definitely that will be a major focus in the game.”
With Fehervary out, van Riemsdyk moves to his offside and is likely to start the game paired with John Carlson, though Carbery admits they’re likely to “move it around a little bit,” once the game is underway.
In The Nets – Since coming out of the midseason break, Washington has alternated starting goaltenders for each of its games. That trend continues tonight when Charlie Lindgren takes the crease against New Jersey, following Darcy Kuemper’s win over the Habs in Montreal on Saturday.
Each of the Caps’ netminders has one victory in the last month, a stretch in which Washington is just 2-6-2. Neither goaltender has strung together consecutive victories since before the Christmas break.
Lifetime against New Jersey, Lindgren is 3-2-0 with a 3.97 GAA and an .869 save pct. in five appearances, all starts.
For the Devils, we are expecting to see Nico Daws making his fifth consecutive start for New Jersey. He has won three of the previous four, and he enters tonight’s game on the heels of a 45-save performance in a 6-3 victory over Philadelphia in Saturday night’s Stadium Series contest. Daws is 3-1-0 in his last four starts, with a 2.02 GAA and a .942 save pct.
Daws is 6-6-0 on the season, with a 2.93 GAA and a .912 save pct. Lifetime against Washington, he is 1-1-0 with a 3.59 GAA and an .854 save pct. in two appearances, both of which were starts.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Caps and the Devils might look on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 77-Oshie
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 39-Mantha
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 43-Wilson
67-Pacioretty, 23-Sgarbossa, 15-Milano
Defensemen
57-van Riemsdyk, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
6-Edmundson, 25-Bear
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Injured/Out
19-Backstrom (lower body)
42-Fehervary (lower body)
92-Kuznetsov (NHL/NHLPA player assistance program)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
96-Aubé-Kubel
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
18-Palat, 13-Hischier, 63-Bratt
86-J. Hughes, 56-Haula, 73-Toffoli
28-Meier, 42-Lazar, 91-Mercer
10-Holtz, 92-Nosek, 14-Bastian
Defensemen
71-Siegenthaler, 17-Nemec
43-L. Hughes, 6-Marino
88-Bahl, 2-Smith
Goaltenders
50-Daws
40-Schmid
Injured/Out
7-Hamilton (torn pectoral)
41-Vanecek (lower body)
Scratches
11-Tierney
24-Miller
57-DeSimone
