Photo by John McCreary/NHLI via Getty Images
The Washington Capitals downed the New Jersey Devils by a score of 6-2 at Capital One Arena on Tuesday night. The team’s record improved to 25-21-8 (.537) this season. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 37 saves in the victory. It was New Jersey’s first game since their 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the 2024 NHL Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium on Saturday.
Washington’s Lines
Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – T.J. Oshie
Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Anthony Mantha
Max Pacioretty – Mike Sgarbossa – Sonny Milano
Beck Malenstyn – Nic Dowd – Tom Wilson
Trevor Van Riemsdyk – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin – Nick Jensen
Joel Edmundson – Ethan Bear
Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: LW Nicolas Aube-Kubel, D Alexander Alexeyev
Injured: C Nicklas Backstrom (hip), C Evgeny Kuznetsov (NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program), D Martin Fehervary (lower-body)
New Jersey’s Lines
Ondrej Palat – Nico Hischier – Jesper Bratt
Jack Hughes – Erik Haula – Tyler Toffoli
Timo Meier – Curtis Lazar – Dawson Mercer
Alexander Holtz – Tomas Nosek – Nathan Bastian
Jonas Siegenthaler – Simon Nemec
Luke Hughes – John Marino
Brenden Smith – Colin Miller
Nico Daws
Akira Schmid
Scratched: C Chris Tierney, D Nick DeSimone, D Kevin Bahl
Injured: D Dougie Hamilton (torn pectoral muscle), C Michael McLeod (personal), C Nolan Foote (personal), G Vitek Vanecek (lower-body)
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring
0:39, 1-0 Washington: McMichael swatted a rebound up front past the blacker after Daws turned away Protas’ wrister from the high slot and Protas got a cross-ice feed by Sandin. With the goal, McMichael has tied his single-season career high in goals (set in 68 games during 2021-22 season).
#ALLCAPS 1-0. MCMICHAEL SCORES pic.twitter.com/qKhxMUo6Lw
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 21, 2024
15:06, 1-1: Holtz slam dunked Nemec’s cross-ice feed at the net mouth past the right pad of Lindgren after Nemec won a puck battle in the left corner.
Swedish Holtz Mafia dropped the beat. pic.twitter.com/IyHPMFXotl
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) February 21, 2024
Shots: 10-8 New Jersey
Other Notable Stats: 9-7 Washington in blocked shots, 9-6 New Jersey in hits, 62% New Jersey in faceoffs
Screenshots: Natural StatTrick
SECOND PERIOD
Dowd sustained an upper-body injury and did not return to Tuesday’s game.
Scoring
4:17, 2-1 Washington: McMichael picked Nosek’s pocket at the blueline, dangled around him and Nemec, and stickhandled around Daws’ glove to tuck his second of the game into a wide open net. With two goals vs. New Jersey, McMichael has established new single-season career highs in goals (10) and points (20) (previously 2021-22: nine goals, 18 points). It marks McMichael’s first career multi-goal game. Five of McMichael’s 19 career goals (26.3%) have come against New Jersey.
CONNOR MCMICHAEL OH MY THAT WAS SILKY! pic.twitter.com/MKraL5Jgza
— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) February 21, 2024
Shots: 27-15 New Jersey (including 17-7 in the second)
Other Notable Stats: 15-10 Washington in blocked shots, 63% New Jersey in faceoffs, 11-11 in hits
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring
4:10, 3-1: Strome tipped Ovechkin’s wrister from the right dot after Milano fed him from the half-wall and Strome followed up his own rebound in front with Daws down and out. Milano has tallied three points (one goal) in three games against New Jersey this season and five points (one goal) in his last six games against New Jersey dating back to 2022-23. Ovechkin recorded the primary assist on Strome’s goal, extending his point streak to nine games (1/24/24-2/20/24: six goals, 11 points). It marks Ovechkin’s first point streak of nine or more games since 2019 (10/8/19-10/24/19: eight goals, 13 points in 9 games).
#ALLCAPS 3-1. STROME FROM OVI. pic.twitter.com/4e1D0FntLv
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 21, 2024
9:44, 4-1: After Strome won an offensive zone draw, Ovechkin fanned on a wrist shot then got a handle of it and the puck beat Daws blocker-side. Ovechkin has recorded 20 points (nine goals) in his last 18 games and 23 points (10 goals) in his last 23 games.
#ALLCAPS 4-1. OVECHKIN! SHAKE RATTLE N ROLL pic.twitter.com/DOVtWx36K9
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 21, 2024
12:27, 5-1: Sgarbossa deflected Carlson’s wrister from the half-wall in front and followed up his own rebound in front of the cage. Carlson has recorded 44 points (10 goals) in 57 career games against New Jersey, the most points he has registered against a single franchise. It marked Sgarbossa’s first NHL goal since Dec. 17, 2021 against the Winnipeg Jets. In 24 career games with Washington, Sgarbossa has recorded eight points (three goals).
#ALLCAPS 5-1. SGARBOSSA GOAL! forgot to stop recording so its long pic.twitter.com/5ayqFnYmU5
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 21, 2024
15:34, 5-2: Hughes got a pass from Toffoli at the blueline, fought off a check from Carlson, and backhanded a shot passed the blocker of Lindgren.
19:27, 6-2: Ovechkin tucked in Strome’s feed into an open cage at the doorstep after he broke up Oshie’s pass from the right wing. Ovechkin has scored eight goals in his last eight games dating back to Jan. 27 against Dallas. The goal marked Ovechkin’s 412th career at home, passing Jaromir Jagr (411) for the third-most in NHL history. Ovechkin became the sixth player with 40 career goals against the Devils/Rockies/Scouts franchise, joining Mike Gartner (57), Mario Lemieux (47), Bryan Trottier (44), Mike Bossy (40) and Marcel Dionne (40).
Alex Ovechkin needs 57 goals to pass Wayne Gretzky’s record👀
Will he do it?🤔
— Everything Hockey (@EHClothing) February 21, 2024
Shots: 39-26 New Jersey, including 12-11 in the third
Other Notable Stats: 62% New Jersey in faceoffs, 16-16 in blocked shots, 17-15 New Jersey in hits, Washington scored on their lone power play and killed both of their penalties
Standings
Washington is currently six points behind the Detroit Red Wings (with a game in hand) for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and seven back of the Tampa Bay Lightning (three) for the first in addition to Philadelphia Flyers (two) for third place in the Metropolitan Division.They are also competing with New Jersey (two behind with a game in hand), the New York Islanders (two behind behind with one), and Pittsburgh Penguins (one ahead but have played one more game) in the wild-card race.
Next game: Thursday at Tampa Bay (7 PM ET, ESPN)
By Harrison Brown
Devils looked even more disorganized than the Caps have lately. Well, I guess I should say sounded since I had to listen to Caps radio.
I was at the game and I think the Caps defense, after the first 10 minutes, really drove the Devils crazy.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but earlier this year didn’t Ovechkin tie the record for scoring 40+ career goals against the most franchises (I believe it was against Pittsburgh Jan. 2, but could be wrong)? I can’t remember who he tied it with, but the graphic also showed he had 39 goals against Jersey, and that stuck with me since it seemed like it could be the next big milestone for him. He now has 41 goals vs. NJ. So isn’t that another record in the books for Ovi? It hasn’t been mentioned during the game or the post-game.
Can’t find that record. Statmuse says Ovi has 41 goals against Devils and 40 against Pits giving him 11 teams he has scored 40 or more against. Jets and Lightning lead the list at 53 each. Coyotes are the fewest with 10.
I checked Statmuse before/during the game and it had him at 39 goals vs NJ, and it’s kind of one of those “lesser” unofficial records so maybe they don’t track it, but I think he has it now.
Ovi has scored 40+ against 11 teams now, beating Esposito’s record of 10.
Where did you find this record? I searched the internet for it and couldn’t find it. I could find Ovi’s stats but not the record.
There’s a guy on Russian Sport-Express who’s an Ovechkin stat freak. After every goal Ovi scores he releases this stat breakdown of where Ovi stands in every conceivable category, in NHL history, from goals on a day of the week, to goals in a given month, to goals against specific teams, goalies, PPG, 6-on-5, primary assists to, primary assists from, hits, SOGs, regular season + SC, you name it. He’s extremely meticulous and has been doing it for ages. I pretty much trust what he says 🙂
So that’s why Google didn’t list it. I found the site but not the guy with the stats.
It’s a bit convoluted there. He’s not a staff or even freelance writer, just a longtime blogger who’s been doing this almost like forever, as a string of posts with all of Ovi’s rankings and stats in the comments section of certain articles. You have to know the TYPE of news articles he does this under. Guess it may be too difficult to explain. Like, as soon as a Caps’ game ends, the site typically reports the score and some key stats – that’s where he does his thing.
He goes under the name of Sergey Krug there, and previously had a handle that’s smth like The Spirit of the Giver of Daily Bread (too long for me to remember 🙂 ). So whenever Ovi scores, everyone would be “summoning the Spirit” (some asking for their… you got it, daily bread). Pretty funny 😄 And then, voila, here come the stats. I tested some numbers and rankings a couple of times, found they’re right on, and basically go with whatever he says now 🙂
Thanks, I’ll keep trying.
That’s right Phil Esposito. I remember now. They said Ovi tied him vs. Pittsburgh, and now he’s passed him.
Espo is a hoot as color guy on Bolts radio.
Kind of funny that the Yotes are the team he’s scored the least against when they’re on the receiving end of the most famous goal of Ovi’s career.
Yea, I thought that too and laughed when I read it.
Also McMichael putting on the moves and actually finishing? Pinch me I must be dreaming. Seriously though, that 2nd goal was nasty.
They do have Howe scoring 169 against the Hawks. But yes, I tried various wordings and couldn’t find a site to generate that record. But I’m sure someone somewhere knows the record. Hopefully Caps PR can gen it up.
Ovie seemingly healthy and Kuzy off the team is all we needed.
Was at the game tonight. McMichael and Protas looked good. NHL grind takes some time. Took Fever some time as well.
Like a couple each year and I hope that Leonard is in that group next year. I think Lapierre is there too but redundant to McMichael. I think one needs to be packed out.
Maybe. I wanna see Protas play Center at some point as well, but his ability to play winger means there can be room for both McMichael and Lapierre at least until next years trade deadline.
Impressed with the Caps effort lately. Great to see McMichael break through. He has the hands and skating to score 25+ goals.