Photo by John McCreary/NHLI via Getty Images
The Washington Capitals lost the New Jersey Devils by a score of 3-2 in a shootout at Capital One Arena on Thursday night in their lone home game in a span of seven. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves in the loss.
Washington’s Lines vs. New Jersey
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Anthony Mantha
Sonny Milano — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Conor Sheary — Dylan Strome — T.J. Oshie
Craig Smith — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Rasmus Sandin — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Matt Irwin — Gabriel Carlsson
Alexander Alexeyev — Vinny Iorio
Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: C Aliaksei Protas
Injured: D John Carlson (upper-body, missed 30th straight game, out indefinitely); RW Connor Brown (ACL, 62nd, indefinite); LW Carl Hagelin (hip, 66th, indefinite); D Martin Fehervary (upper-body, third, day-to-day); D Nick Jensen (upper-body, third, day-to-day)
Smith and Sheary, who moved the left side, flipped lines while Oshie bumped down one spot and Sheary moved up two from Washington’s 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. Milano was elevated by one while Wilson moved down by one. Mantha moved to the right side of the top-line. Backstrom moved into the top-10 in NHL games played all-time by a Swede, skating in his 1,080th career contest.
New Jersey’s Lines
Tomas Tatar — Nico Hischier — Dawson Mercer
Timo Meier — Jack Hughes — Jesper Boqvist
Ondrej Palat — Erik Haula — Jesper Bratt
Miles Wood — Michael McLeod — Nathan Bastian
Jonas Siegenthaler — Dougie Hamilton
Ryan Graves — John Marino
Brenden Smith — Damon Severson
Akira Schmid
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: C Curtis Lazar, D Kevin Bahl
Injured: G Jonathan Bernier (hip, 64th, indefinite); G MacKenzie Blackwood (lower-body, eighth, indefinite)
First Period
Scoring
19:50, 1-0 Washington: After Marino blocked Backstrom’s wrister in the slot, Van Riemsdyk got the puck, one-timed a shot, and got a bounce off of Graves’ knee that helped the puck squeak through the five-hole of Schmid. The 31-year-old has now recorded seven points (three goals) in in his last 14 games.
Trevor van Riemsdyk gets it to go just before the first period ends. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/24nco015J9
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 10, 2023
Shots: 9-7 New Jersey
Other Notable Stats: New Jersey failed to score on one power play, led 3-2 in takeaways in addition to 5-2 in blocked shots, and had just one giveaway while Washington tallied four. Each team threw eight hits.
Second Period
Scoring
6:55, 1-1 (PPG): Haula banked a shot off of Alexeyev’s knee and the mask of Kuemper down low after playing catch with Mercer, who was at the point and extended his scoring streak to 11 games (10 goals, 19 points).
Haula with the PPG! pic.twitter.com/ZAuL2wDW6k
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) March 10, 2023
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7:, 2-1 New Jersey: Mercer potted a rebound into an open goal in front after Kuemper shut down a point shot by Hischier with the pad.
Mercdawg doing what Mercdawg does pic.twitter.com/4s6Oej5VDq
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) March 10, 2023
9:50, 2-2: The puck dribbled to the slot after Oshie threw the puck off of the stick of Bastian from the corner and Strome, who extended his point streak to three games (two goals, five points), swooped into the crease to tip it over Schmid. Oshie has recorded 12 points (six goals) in his last 11 games.
Dylan Strome bats Oshie’s redirected feed over the goal line to quickly tie it up at 2 for Washington!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/nFIajskF4T
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) March 10, 2023
With 4:45 left, Kuemper flashed the glove on Mercer’s wrister from the left dot before falling down and grabbing Hischier’s shot with the glove as Hischier had nothing but net to look at while Kuemper was falling.
This sequence by Kuemper to keep us tied…😱 pic.twitter.com/k1fBmyxAZv
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) March 10, 2023
Shots: 25-14 New Jersey (including 16-7 in the second)
Other Notable Stats: Washington, who was held off on their lone power play opportunity, led 12-9 in hits. New Jersey, who scored once on three chances with the extra man and won 56% of the faceoffs, led 12-7 in blocked shots and had just three giveaways while Washington tallied seven.
Third Period
Scoring
None
Shots: 39-18 New Jersey (including 14-4 in the third)
Other Notable Stats: Washington led 18-12 in hits, 15-14 in blocked shots, and 7-6 in takeaways but New Jersey credited with six giveaways while Washington tallied 12.
Overtime
Scoring
None
Shots: 40-22 New Jersey (4-1 Washington in overtime)
Shootout
Oshie missed the net on the backhand after deking in.
Hughes raced in and deked before getting Kuemper showed him the leather.
Kuznetsov stickhandled his way to the net but hit the post.
Bratt deked and tried to backhand but fanned on the puck with an open net at the right post.
Backstrom waltzed in, deked, but was shut down when he tried to go five-hole.
Kuemper robbed Hischier with the right pad.
Ovechkin missed the net on the backhand.
Meier ripped one under the blocker of Kuemper with a wrister from the slot.
Current Eastern Conference Wild-Card Standings
Washington got within six points of the Pittsburgh Penguins (who have two games in hand) for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. They still trail the Florida Panthers (one game in hand) for the third wild-card spot and by one point but lead the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres (both have two games in hand) by a point in the race. They lead the Detroit Red Wings (two games in hand) by one point.
Next game: Saturday at Long Island (7:30 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)
By Harrison Brown
Poop!
He’ll of an effort from Kuemps.
Playing like that with so many youngsters in the lineup is so frustrating!
So can we safely say that the Sand Man is our #1 D?
He is right noe, that much we know.
I agree. It’s between him and TVR for #1. Both played uber minutes tonight.
I’d say he fits the bill for Caps number one. First shift he is caught down low leading to a three on one against us. That sounds similar to our other Dmen.
And he was pretty much a rock for the rest of the game, playing over 30 minutes
I’d say you’re a typical Caps fan. Ignore all the many good things a defenseman does, and focus solely on the one bad shift. After all, it’s not like Caps fans booed Hall of Famer Larry Murphy out of Capital Center.
I was there and I did.
Yikes! No talking to the likes of you
The team’s offense tonight was … bad. Very few shots. All the so-called first line contributed tonight was penalties.
In their defence, Ovi took that penalty because Alexeyev lost his guy, Tom was stopping a breakaway and Kuzy’s was pretty dubious (he was driving to the net as well) considering they didn’t call that blatant elbow to Ovi’s head later on.
I mean look at the xGF plot, the guys who are legitimate NHL D-men look like legitimate NHL D-men. The kids/depth guys look like they are learning/playing too many minutes because of the awful injury luck the Caps have. It’s difficult to generate when you have to compensate for that. I don’t even mind, it’s good long term, but there’s a reason that NHL coaches of competing teams don’t just play the kids. Unless your name is Crosby or Ovechkin, kids don’t just step into the NHL and look game ready. And hockey is such a team game that it does impact the results. If we want to play our young d-men, it’s going to impact the forwards and that’s okay, especially against one of the best offensive teams in the league : )
Great take. The Caps are not the only team that tries to bring along their young players slowly. At this point though, I don’t mind if they are in there and messing up because it’s what every young player has to go thru. The reason you see NJ and other good up and coming teams with younger rosters is because they had been picking in the top 5 of the draft for 6 or 7 years now. Some of those high, high picks can play and stay in the NHL rather quickly. I think most fan bases bring their NFL draft mentality along with them to the NHL and think any first rounder should play next year or they are a bust. It is definitely not the same as the kids are 16 and 17 years young, not 23 and almost a grown man.
That’s a good comparison to the NFL, it just takes a bit longer in the NHL, especially for d-men.
Also to get back to the Devils, they definitely have the draft pedigree young guys but even they took a few years before they started winning again. If you look at their blue line, all established NHL veterans over 25 and for the most part, guys they brought in Ready to Play. The Devils d-prospects are all still tucked away in the minors or scratches.
Losing John Carlson was really eye opening to me how vital the Blue line is to the team. You need those guys to generate goals. I don’t think it’s surprising the Caps’ scoring took a dive after he went out. Bringing in Sandin was a really good move though, I’m looking forward to seeing our new healthy Defense corp next year.
“Losing John Carlson was really eye opening to me how vital the Blue line is to the team. You need those guys to generate goals.”
Oh yeah. It’s not the 1990s anymore, you don’t dump the puck in, when you’re just over the red line. Carlson does a lot that’s wrong,….. and much more that’s right. Even if you watch guys like Makar, Fox and Karlsson, guys that are considered among the best, you’ll see them making a lot of mistakes. And they make a lot of mistakes because they play a lot of minutes, they get more opportunities to make mistakes
I use a different way of judging prospects, depending on positon:
Forwards can step into the NHL right away, in some instances. Wyatt Johnston is Dallas’third line center, at age 19. But a general rule is if he doesn’t look NHL ready after 5 years, he probably never will be.
D will very rarely be NHL ready before age 21. Only very rare players like Rasmus Dahlin can step right into the NHL, in his draft year. If he’s not NHL ready by age 25, he likely never will be
Goalies can take a long time to develop. Such as Jordan Binnington, or our own Charlie Lindgren and Darcy Kuemper. Any of them still under age 30 can be a prospect
They look like they’re skating through quicksand through the neutral zone. We got a little younger, but for the most part, we’re still old and slow. A coach who can make adjustments would help
I was at the game last night. Sat in different seats (105 – usually in 110). There were some saves in the second and OT that Keumper made which were unbelievable.
Biggest issue was the forwards. They had no puck possession which means we were contantly chasing the puck. Our team defense is not great at all. The poor young defensemen just can’t shoulder that load without help.