First Period
The Washington Capitals seemed to have the better of the New Jersey Devils early on today, though most of the first period was slow and played close to the boards. When Washington broke free, though, they forced Jake Allen to make some saves on odd-man rushes. The Devils drew a power play when Alex Tuch took an undisciplined crosschecking penalty on Declan Chisholm just three and a half minutes into the period, though the Devils’ power play looked predictably weak and pass-happy until the second unit came on. Still, they did not score.
Timo Meier would later draw a clear-as-day hook going into the offensive zone, but the officials let play go on as they had already called Washington for a penalty in the period. Of course, this led to Boone Jenner later throwing an elbow to Meier’s jaw, which did force their hand. Meier was pulled for concussion testing while Jenner sat for two minutes, and this time the second unit of the power play got it done when Arseny Gritsyuk threw the puck from the wall on goal. Dawson Mercer was screening Logan Thompson, and the puck just seemed to go through him as the Devils took the lead.
Brett Pesce took a bad interference penalty a bit over 15 minutes in to give the Capitals’ power play their inevitable goal. Ryan Leonard saw a weak spot in the blueline on Washington’s second unit, beating Luke Hughes and undressing Jake Allen to tie the game with a few minutes to play in the period.
Second Period
The Capitals took the lead early in the second period when Ilya Protas beat Jake Allen on a straight rush shot. Protas’s shot just went right over Allen’s shoulder despite it not really being a screened shot as Alex Ovechkin picked up an assist on the play. Some will point to the defense here, which was a bit passive but still only coughed up an extremely savable shot for Allen.
Jake Allen came way too far out when the Capitals had a lot of puck movement low in the zone against the Hughes line a few minutes later, giving Dylan Strome an easy backhand to make it a 3-1 game. On just 11 shots against, Allen had given up three goals. The Devils had no response as the Capitals took over the game, with the team looking like they were just punting for another day.
Of course, Allen was left in the game. After the Devils killed a bad penalty call on Luke Hughes where Tom Wilson held his stick above his head for a few seconds, Jake Allen let in his fourth of the game when the puck went bouncing off a point shot to Boone Jenner. Allen, at the edge of his crease, had no chance to save the easy shot.
Third Period
Not too surprisingly, Sheldon Keefe made no changes to start the third period despite the team being down three goals. It took them over five minutes to put a good shift together when the Hughes line created some scoring chances, including Jack driving to the net and backhanding a shot on goal while avoiding a big hit from a dubiously hunting Tom Wilson. Of course, bigger players on the team had not done anything of the sort to that point, which made it all too easy for the Capitals to get physical down low. A couple minutes later, Jesper Bratt had a wide-open chance to score, but he took too long and allowed Logan Thompson to glove his only-slightly lifted shot.
Timothy Liljegren took a tripping penalty on Johnny Kovacevic with a little over eight minutes to play in the game. As expected, the first unit of the power play had no changes. Luke Hughes took a shot early on, it went over the net, and the Capitals cleared. Hughes then tried to take the puck into the offensive zone himself, but his shot sailed over the net and out of play. Late in the first unit’s chance, Jesper Bratt had a one-timer chance and faked the shot, later taking a worse opportunity where his shot never got off the ice. On the second unit, Amadeus Lombardi forced Logan Thompson to make a big save at the side of the net.
Right after Anthony Mantha tried to set up the Washington Capitals with a centering feed across Jake Allen’s crease, he set up Evan Rodrigues the right way for a breakaway. Rodrigues was taken down, and the Devils went to one last power play. On this power play, Dawson Mercer set up Jesper Boqvist for a tap-in that went well wide. But the Devils kept the puck moving until Timo Meier scored their second of the game with 18 seconds to play.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats | The Post Hockey Game Stats
Sheldon: You Are Allowed to Pull the Goalie
I was happy with the changes that Sheldon Keefe had made over the last couple games, but the snail’s pace at which he makes in-game adjustments remains utterly maddening. It did not take a genius to realize that Jake Allen did not have it today, as he had given up three goals by the time he had faced one expected goal (0.98, to be exact) in the second period. Since Sheldon Keefe saw it fit to leave Jake Allen in the game, I was not surprised that the skaters saw it fit to stop playing. Even if pulling the goalie does not often result in a win, it at least serves as a wake-up call to the skaters at minimum. Keefe’s aversion to making a change just results in despondent play.
Checklist From the Preview
From this morning’s preview, let’s look at a few things to see how well the Devils matched up against their divisional opponent. Starting off with an offensive note against the big, physical Capitals:
Today is the earliest start time the Devils will have until Black Friday, and the Devils have been hit or miss in these early matinees for a few years now. The Devils did win their 3:30 start last Saturday against the Canucks, but they are going to need an even better game against a team as deep as the Capitals — even with Washington missing a few of their best players.
I think they mixed up the start time with a morning skate, actually.
With the team rolling four lines effectively, they should be able to bring more energy to the table. This type of game is the time you want to see guys like Timo Meier, Anthony Mantha, and Stefan Noesen forcing their ways to the net.
Ha! I don’t think I saw Anthony Mantha make contact with a single Capital today, though at least Noesen got to the net at times when Keefe actually put him on the ice.
Jake Allen had an adventurous night against the Detroit Red Wings on Frozen Frenzy Tuesday, so I am looking for some more stability out of him this afternoon. Considering Charlie Lindgren played last for Washington, expect Allen to face Logan Thompson today. Thompson has a 3-2-0 record with a .904 save percentage this season, and he is coming off of two excellent seasons with upwards of 50 goals saved above expected across those years. To battle Logan Thompson, Allen has to be at his best.
Jake Allen was not at his best today. He was jumpy and unstable and made a mediocre and noncommittal defense look even worse. With the Devils just trying to contain the Capitals, Allen jumping so far out of the crease on a couple occasions burned them.
With the top line for Washington now being Tuch, Dylan Strome, and Jordan Kyrou, this is an easier matchup for the Hughes line to play against, while the Hischier line can handle Aliaksei Protas with Jenner and Wilson.
Well, being on the road impacts this a bit, but it seems the Devils made no effort to get the Hischier line on against Jenner today. Jack Hughes played 8:40 against his line, getting the best of the scoring chances but still being unable to size up when it mattered most on defense, giving them a goal against, along with a goal against in one of the shifts his line had against Strome. On both goals, Allen did not do much to help, but the defensive approach was a soft contain. Hischier, meanwhile, matched up against Strome and Brodzinski for four and five minutes each, not creating anything of note against Strome but dominating Washington’s bottom six for a few minutes.
Verdict: In terms of doing what they could to match up better against the Capitals, the Devils get an F- today.
Bratt and Rodrigues Should Be Off PP1
The Devils’ power play, despite getting two goals today, looks terrible. Gritsyuk and Meier scored those goals by just firing away on net when they had the chance, and I think Jesper Bratt could learn a lot from this on the first unit. In the third period, with several minutes left, his one-timer that couldn’t even get off the ice was enough for me. I think he is a great playmaker, but until he has confidence in his shot again, I don’t see the value in having him pass up good opportunities and shanking shots when he does pull the trigger. Either of Timo Meier or Arseny Gritsyuk would be better in his spot with this group because they need a shooting threat. Nico Hischier can’t score every goal on the first unit.
Meanwhile, I was not happy with Evan Rodrigues continuing to get that netfront role while both Stefan Noesen and Dawson Mercer picked up assists for Gritsyuk’s goal, as their work around the boards and the net has worked on the power play for years. Noesen is up to a goal and two assists in five games, while Mercer has four assists in eight games. This was the first game, of course, where either of Mercer or Noesen really took power play shifts, and both came away with an assists. I would particularly enjoy Noesen going back to netfront considering his 22 power play goals in that spot between 2022-23 and 2024-25.
DAZN is Terrible
This is not strictly game recap content, but I have to say that it being the regular season has not smoothed out the issues on DAZN. While Gotham Sports had a bad delay, I would take that any day of the week over a stream breaking in second intermission and not returning until two minutes into the final period. I noticed some people on Twitter complaining about the same issue, but I do wonder if any of you experienced this as well.
Your Thoughts
But what did you think of today’s game? Did they do something good I missed? Will they be back to playing like an NHL club on Tuesday? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading.