Parades In November – On the final night of November – and a Saturday night, to boot – the hockey gods have served up an early holiday gift for hockey fans, in the form of an appetizing slate of Eastern Conference contests. Each of the top six teams in the conference is going up against another; Carolina is facing Florida, Tampa Bay is taking Tampa Bay and the Caps are in Newark to close out their season’s series with the Devils.
Those six combatants were separated by eight points when the sun rose on this Saturday morning, with the Devils sitting atop the heap, but New Jersey has played at least two more games than each of the other five clubs.
Carrying a six-game road winning streak into tonight's game, the Caps can match the franchise standard if they can get out of town with a couple of points at night's – and month's – end. Both teams are seeking their tenth win of November tonight.
“I just think it's going to be a really difficult game where there's not a lot of space,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “You know that they're going to play a structured game. They've got all the boxes checked when it comes to the strengths – from special teams to 5-on-5 play, to back end physicality, to top six up front – that can make you pay for any mistakes and also break you down in some 1-on-1 situations.
“So we'll need our best tonight, without a doubt. And coming on the road, both teams in the same situation – playing back-to-backs, both played afternoon games yesterday – so it should be a good test for us against a team that's obviously right there in the standings with us.”
Although there is a lot of highway and a lot of tarmacs between now and April for both the Capitals and the Devils, it’s not much of a stretch to envision the two Metro Division – and formerly Patrick Division – rivals meeting up in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Caps and Devils entered the NHL together in 1974-75 (the Devils as the Kansas City Scouts and later the Colorado Rockies before moving east to The Garden State), but despite their many seasons in the same division, they’ve faced one another only twice in the postseason, most recently in 1989-90.
Second Nature – Washington has won one of its previous three meetings with the Devils this season, taking a 6-5 overtime win here on Oct. 19 in its previous visit to Jersey. That game is the only one of the three in which the Caps didn’t trail after 40 minutes of play. New Jersey is 14-0-0 when leading after two periods, and conveniently for the Devils, they lead the NHL with 36 second-period goals. The Devils are also stingy in the second; they’ve surrendered only 18 goals against, fourth fewest in the NHL.
The Caps have yielded two goals against in the middle frame of each of their three games with New Jersey this season, accounting for nearly half of the 13 goals the Devils have scored against them in 2024-25.
“The transition game, I would say, has been the biggest thing,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “And it’s been hot and cold for us. Some nights, I haven’t liked our second period and I’ve felt like we’ve struggled to handle the long change and getting people off the ice, and the ice has been tilted against us to where we’re just trying to get pucks pout and get fresh people out, and where we’ve lost momentum.
“And then I've felt like there's been some other games where we've done the counter to that; the [Wednesday] Tampa game I would reference as one of our better games in the second period. I wish I could say it's been a trend. I haven't liked some of our second periods, so it has caught my eye and then we'll respond and have a good game where our second period looks good.
It would stand to reason that Washington, which leads the NHL with 35 first-period goals, would be best served tonight by building a lead early and finding a way to maintain it into the second intermission.
“Against a team like this,” says Carbery, “You have to be very, very diligent with your second period habits. And it's a little bit different than the first and third, because of the line changes, because of the quick ups, that now you're trapped. Because if a team can grab a couple of extended [offensive] zone shifts, now you're going to lose momentum for five, six or seven minutes, potentially two rotations through your forward lines.
“So there are things that we have to be very, very aware of when the second period comes around against the team that's so good in transition, and fast, because they can just quick up you and now all of a sudden, like I just mentioned, it turns into a four- or five-shift rotation where you're back on your heels.”
In The Nets – A week ago in Washington, the Caps’ Charlie Lindgren and New Jersey’s Jake Allen met in a goaltending duel, with Allen’s Devils prevailing 3-2 over Lindgren and the Capitals. Tonight, the same two netminders are likely to tangle once again in Newark.
Despite an own goal midway through the third period in Tampa on Wednesday night, Lindgren won his most recent start, stopping 24 shots – including all eight after the own goal – to beat the Bolts 5-4. Tonight against the Devils, Lindgren seeks his seventh win of the season. Lifetime against New Jersey, he is 4-4-0 in eight appearances – all starts – with a 3.64 GAA and an .887 save pct.
Allen will be seeking his sixth victory of the season tonight and his third in succession; he is making his first start since last Saturday in the District. On the season, he is 5-2-1 with a pair of shutouts, a 2.26 GAA and a .921 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Allen is 5-5-0 with a shutout in 10 appearances – all starts – with a 3.52 GAA and an .892 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we the Capitals and the Devils looked as they took the ice for their respective Black Friday games; neither team conducted a full morning skate today. Washington juggled its lines late in its game yesterday, and Carbery said this afternoon the Caps will have some lineup changes for tonight’s game in Newark.
“Yeah, we’ll have a few [changes],” he says. “We are working through some things right now, so we’ll have a couple of different guys in warm-up.”
New Jersey lost Tomas Tatar (lower body) in the first period of its Friday win in Detroit; he won’t play tonight.
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 16-Raddysh
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
29-Lapierre, 20-Eller, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
13-Vrana
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
Out/Injured
8-Ovechkin (fractured fibula)
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
18-Palat, 86-J. Hughes, 63-Bratt
28-Meier, 13-Hischier, 11-Noesen
47-Cotter, 56-Haula, 91-Mercer
23-MacDermid, 37-Dowling, 90-Tatar
Defensemen
5-Dillon, 7-Hamilton
71-Siegenthaler, 8-Kovacevic
43-L. Hughes, 22-Pesce
Goaltenders
34-Allen
25-Markstrom
Extras
15-Bowers
Out/Injured
14-Bastian (upper body)
42-Lazar (lower body)
