Caps Stop Home to Host Devils

March 9 vs. New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena
Time:7 p.m.
TV: NBCSW
Radio:Capitals Radio 24/7, 106.7 FAN
New Jersey Devils 8-11-2
Washington Capitals 14-6-4

Following a successful five-game road trip, the Caps return home just long enough to do some laundry and host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night before taking to the road once again. The Devils hit the District for the second time this season, the Capitals' lone home game in a stretch in which they play eight of nine on the road. It's the first of three games in the next 18 days between the Caps and Devils here in D.C.; New Jersey returns for a back-to-back set here on March 25-26.
With Sunday night's 3-1 win over the Flyers in Philadelphia, the Caps finished a five-game road trip - matching their longest trip of the season - with a 4-1-0 record. Washington weathered a strong first period from the Flyers in Philadelphia, but the Caps took over the contest territorially after killing a pair of Philly power plays in the middle frame.
"I honestly feel like we could have lost this game," says Caps center Lars Eller of Sunday's victory. "I think we got away with one today, where the Flyers were the better team for the first half [of the game]. They're up 1-0, they had 2-on-0s, 3-on-1s and breakaways before we tied up the game, where we could have easily been down 2-0 or 3-0, and then the game probably would have looked way different.
"I feel like we played well in the last 30 minutes, but at the same time we've got to realize that we got lucky today."
Making just his second start since returning to the lineup after a six-week COVID-related absence, Ilya Samsonov made 36 saves - including each of the last 27 shots he faced - to improve to 3-0-1 on the season. He kept the Caps close until Washington could manufacture an outburst of offense; its three goals came in a span of just over nine minutes worth of playing time extending from late in the second period to early in the third.
"I thought he played great for us," says Caps defenseman John Carlson of Samsonov's Sunday performance. "There were plenty of big saves that I thought he made throughout the game when I thought we were working hard, working real good and kind of bringing it to [the Flyers], and they would turn around with one or two chances, and he was huge down the stretch."

Samsonov's busiest period was the third, when he stopped all 15 Philadelphia shots sent in his direction.
Two nights after suffering their only misstep on the trip in a lopsided 5-1 loss to the Bruins in Boston, the Caps got back in the win column, a must in this shortened season of four-point games facing divisional foes exclusively. Facing a Philly team that was playing on shorter rest, the Caps got smarter as the game wore on.
"I think maybe when we did get it into their zone or at their blueline," says Carlson, "[we were] trying to make a little bit too fancy of plays or trying to make an extra pass here or there. We knew they were coming off a back-to-back game, and we know how that feels this year with the amount of games that we play. I thought we were letting them off the hook too easy; we were letting them make quick work of our offensive zone time.
"When you've got a team coming off a back-to-back, you've got to make them work for every inch. I think once we stuck to that mindset of getting it in there and working them first before, and letting that open up things for us instead of trying to make great plays right off the bat. I think that gave us more zone time, it gave us a more tired team to play against, and then things that might have been a little open became a little bit more open for us."
Washington is 7-3-2 on the road this season, the second-best road record in the East Division. New Jersey owns the best road mark in the East at 6-2-1, but the Devils are a dismal 2-9-1 on home ice this season.
One of New Jersey's two regulation losses in its nine road games came here in Washington on Feb. 21, a game in which Craig Anderson was the starter and winner in a 4-3 Capitals victory. On the final weekend of February in New Jersey, the Caps swept a pair of games from the Devils to kick off the aforementioned five-game road trip.
In its most recent outing, New Jersey halted a five-game slide (0-5-0) when it eked out a 1-0 victory over the Bruins in Boston on Sunday. Scott Wedgewood made 40 saves to record his second shutout of the season and the fourth of his NHL career, and Kyle Palmieri scored the only goal of the game with 4:37 left in the third.