GAME STORY: Capitals 4, Devils 3

WASHINGTON, DC -Finish.
It's what separates the good teams from the great teams.
And it's what separated the Devils and Capitals in Thursday night's contest at Capital One Arena. A contest that saw Washington pull off a 4-3 victory.

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WHAT'S NEXT
The Devils finish their back-to-back series with the Capitals Friday night in Washington. You can watch on MSG+ and listen on the Devils Hockey Network,
including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com.
Game time is 7:08 PM ET.
The Capitals made the most of their limited scoring chances, while the Devils couldn't convert enough on their numerous scoring chances.
The Capitals are a veteran team that knows how to finish. They DON'T need a lot of scoring chances to be effective and win games. Their ability to convert on those few chances and score opportunistically is what makes them deadly.
The Devils are a young team that is still learning how to finish. They DO need to generate a lot of scoring chances to be effective and win games. New Jersey must create a high volume of opportunities and convert on some of them to be successful.
In the first period, New Jersey's best, the Devils had the edge in shots, 11-4, and shot attempts, 25-11. And yet, after 20 minutes it was a 1-1 game. The Devils maintained their edge in shots, 17-13, and shot attempts, 42-29, through two periods of play. And yet, after 40 minutes it was a 3-2 lead for Washington.
Even after the Capitals took a 4-3 lead with 7:54 remaining in regulation, the Devils had their opportunities. Pavel Zacha had a chance coming down the slot that was stopped. Nick Merkley fed a puck through the legs of goaltender Vitek Vanecek, and Mikhail Maltsev had an empty net to shoot at on the other side, but his attempt was thwarted by the stick of Washington's Dimitry Orlov. And Jack Hughes had shot from between the circles with 10 seconds left on the clock.
The Devils certainly had their chances. They just couldn't finish.
"That's a team that if you have opportunities you have to capitalize on," head coach Lindy Ruff said, "because you know that they can score."
The Devils have now lost four one-goal games to Washington this year out of five matchups. With a little extra finish here or there, those results would be drastically different.
Here are some other observations from the game…
* Hockey is a game of momentum. Particularly in the salary cap era, the talent disparity between teams isn't that egregious. And with that comes a natural ebb and flow as teams trade momentum swings.
When your team has the momentum, you want to keep it as long as possible. It's inevitable that the momentum will shift. When it does, your team has to work to get it back. Momentum can swing on a big hit, a fight, a scoring chance or a solid penalty.
But nothing swings momentum harder than a goal. The Devils snatched momentum with goals by taking 1-0 and 2-1 leads and tying the game at 3-3 with a power-play goal in the third period. But on all three occasions, New Jersey couldn't maintain that momentum for very long. Not even for two minutes. The Capitals responded each time by scoring their own goals 107, 55 and 62 seconds later, respectively.
"The most important shifts in a game are at the start of the period and after a goal," forward Miles Wood said. "Those are two key points in a game. I felt like we came out flat after scoring and it cost us a few times."
The Devils were never able to build off of their leads.
"It just seemed that immediately after (a goal) you're looking for momentum, you're looking for a good shift and we didn't get that," Ruff said. "And it ended up in the back of our net."
* You don't score many goals as easily as Nick Merkley's game-opening tally in the first periods (other than maybe an empty-net score). Merkley was pressuring a free puck that Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek came out to play. But Vanecek whiffed on his pass attempt and the puck sputtered desperately out of reach and onto the stick of Merkley. He snapped it in for the goal.
* You don't score many goals as difficult as Miles Wood's tally in the second period. Wood had the puck while drifting toward the corner of the Capitals zone. Vanecek had his body against the post, or so it seemed. Wood snapped a shot off that somehow found a hole and squeaked into the net. I'm not sure if Wood was aiming for a spot or sending a prayer toward the net. Either way, the result was his team-leading 10th goal of the season.
* Yegor Sharangovich leads the NHL in posts hit at the 20-second mark to start a game. He now has two. And he hit them both in the past three games. I'm betting no one will top it. And he's hit three posts overall in that span. Luckily, he's also been scoring too. He's just a couple inches from putting up some dramatic offensive numbers.
* A bright spot in the game was the Devils' special teams play. The power play converted a goal halfway through the third period from Jesper Bratt, who extended his scoring streak to six points (2G-4A) in six games, that tied the game at 3-3.
Meanwhile, the PK unit held the Capitals' dangerous power play to zero goals on two attempts. The Devils used cooperative pressure and smart reads to limit the Capitals' zone time and ability to setup. And most importantly, New Jersey only took two penalties in the game.
* Speaking of special teams, the power-play drop-pass entry received a lot of criticism during the early part of the regular season. And rightly so. It was often clunky and ineffective. But what a difference a month makes. Now, the team is using the entry to near perfection and have demonstrated that they can easily gain the zone and fluidly setup. Cleary, the extra reps at practices and in games have paid off.
* The game-winning goal goes to Evgeny Kuznetsov, his second of the game. But really the puck caromed off the skate of Devils defenseman Damon Severson. It was a tough break, but it just goes to show that it's never a bad play to put the puck on the net.
* On the subject of tough breaks, the Devils also missed out on two additional power-play opportunities as high-sticks to Wood and Travis Zajac weren't called. One you could understand, but two? It was another unfortunate circumstance for New Jersey, but sometimes that's how the game goes.