Don’t Let The Devil Ride – A week after falling to the Devils in their season opener in the District, the Caps face their Metro Division rivals again, this time at Prudential Center in Newark. Carrying a modest two-game winning streak, the Caps play their first road game of the season tonight against New Jersey. It’s a two-game trip; Washington will head south to Philadelphia after tonight’s game to face the Flyers on Tuesday.
The Capitals come into Saturday’s game on the heels of successive – and impressive – wins over Vegas on Tuesday and Dallas on Thursday. In each of those games, the Caps struck for three goals in the second period to take control of the contest, and in each they shut the door tightly on the opposition in the third.
“Obviously, it’s really early and the League is still feeling each other out,” says Caps’ right wing Tom Wilson, who has tallied in each of the team’s three games this season. “But you look at those lineups, and you know they’re going to be good teams. They’re dangerous, so it’s a good start on home ice.”
Tonight, the Caps are aiming to fare better in the rematch against the Devils. They didn’t play poorly a week ago against New Jersey, but the two games they’ve played since reveal that they’re capable of playing much better.
“We’ll try to carry a lot of it over from the things that we’ve done the last couple games,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “It’s hard to pre-scout the first game, because it just felt like we weren’t doing a lot of the things that we’re going to pride ourselves on, and we’ve done a way better job of that the last couple of games, so we’ll start with that.
“Now we have to take some of the stuff that we saw in the first game, and the things that New Jersey does at a real high level, and some of the issues that they gave us from a structure standpoint, make sure that we're extremely detailed in those areas.”
When the two teams met last weekend, the Devils were playing their fourth game of the season as Washington was playing its first game. And in the week since, the Devils played a game more than the Caps; New Jersey suits up for its eighth game of the season tonight.
“Since then, we’ve had a couple of really good efforts, and building on that,” says Caps’ defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “Obviously, a lot goes into an opening night; it’s different from a normal game, as it is every year. We knew that, and we just didn’t come out with the effort we wanted. The great thing about this League is it seems like you get chances every other day. So now we’ve got a chance to right that wrong, play a little better tonight, and hopefully get a better result.”
One element of last Saturday’s game the Caps wouldn’t mind repeating is keeping the Devils’ dangerous top six off the scoresheet. That group of players only accounted for one of the five New Jersey goals a week ago, and it was the last one, an empty-netter from Dawson Mercer in the game’s final seconds.
“Obviously, they have an extremely high-end forward group from top to bottom,” says van Riemsdyk. “They can all skate, all can make plays, and if you look at all 12 of them, they’re good players. But that top six especially, [Jack] Hughes is dynamic, [Jesper] Bratt is dynamic. They’ve got guys who can put the puck in the net, and you’ve just got to be aware; you don’t want to fuel their transition and mismanage the puck.
“I think we’re at our best when we’re making good decisions. We’ve got a team that can skate, and forecheck the puck and get it back. So when plays are there, make them. And when they’re not, just get it in.”
Heavy Duty – With just three games under their belts, it’s difficult to draw any legitimate conclusions from what we’ve seen from the Caps as a team and from the players as individuals as well. Sample sizes this small are meaningless and will remain so for a few weeks to come. But there have been a couple of eye-opening numbers when it comes to the play of 25-year-old Caps’ defenseman Martin Fehervary, now in his fourth full NHL season.
Fehervary led the Caps with seven blocked shots in Thursday’s win over Dallas, and he has had an active physical game in the early going, too. As such, he is the only NHL defensemen averaging better than 10 hits/60 minutes and better than 10 blocked shots/60 minutes. Fehervary is at 10.14 in both of those categories.
Last season, Fehervary’s 8.70 hits/60 ranked 14th among NHL defenders with 60 or more games played and his 5.04 blocked shots/60 ranked 61st.
“He’s done a real nice job and we need him desperately,” says Carbery of Fehervary. “And he’s stepped up his game defensively with the shot blocks, as you saw last game. [He has a] good stick, and I noticed urgency to recover pucks and sprays to the corners. So we're going to need that, and that’s the challenge for him.
“Going into this year, I sort of challenged him to take his individual game to the next level. He’s always been the young guy here in Washington. It's just kind of [understood that] eventually he’ll become a really great top four [defenseman]. And what I say to that is, just because you're accumulating games doesn’t mean that you’re all of a sudden going to be a top pair defenseman in this league, or a top three defenseman. You’ve got to develop, you’ve got to work to improve your game in all the areas that you’re maybe – quote, unquote – a little bit deficient in.
“And I feel like thus far, I’ve been happy with where he’s at. He's never going to be a power play guy, but to take his game defensively to the next level and be a really, really elite penalty kill guy is something that he absolutely has in his wheelhouse.”
The Slovakian blueliner also leads all Caps defensemen in shorthanded ice time per game (4:35), ranking seventh among all NHL defensemen with three or more games played.
“Knock on wood, hopefully it’s going to keep going like this,” says Fehervary of the penalty kill’s early season success. “We’re playing pretty much the same PK as we played last year, and we know each other pretty well, guys like [Nic Dowd, Tom Wilson and Connor McMichael], we’ve played for a while together. I think we’re just working really hard and we know what to do. The structure is really important, and we’re hoping to keep it going.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson gets his second start of the season tonight in Newark against the Devils. This past Tuesday night against his former Vegas Golden Knights teammates, Thompson made his Caps debut in fine fashion, biting the hand that once fed him in a 4-2 victory. Thompson stopped 24 of 26 shots in his first game with Washington.
Charlie Lindgren started and won two nights later against Dallas, and the Caps are keeping with the rotation tonight in Newark with Thompson between the pipes. Lifetime against the Devils, Thompson is 1-0-2 in three appearances (all starts) against New Jersey, with a 3.22 GAA and an .895 save pct.
It wasn’t until his ninth season in the NHL that Jacob Markstrom finally recorded his first career victory over the Capitals, prevailing in a seven-round shootout for a 2-1 triumph on Nov. 23, 2019 at Capital One Arena. Just under five years later in the same building, Markstrom notched his second career victory over Washington a week ago, a 5-3 win.
Tonight, Markstrom gets his sixth starting nod in eight games for the Devils this season. In his first season with New Jersey, Markstrom is 3-2-0 with a 2.43 GAA and a .918 save pct. through his first five starts. Lifetime against Washington, he is 2-8-2 in a dozen appearances (all starts) with a 3.06 GAA and an .898 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals and Devils to look when they take to the ice at Prudential Center on Saturday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
88-Mangiapane, 29-Lapierre, 13-Vrana
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson
42-Fehervary, 52-McIlrath
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
15-Milano
27-Alexeyev
Out/Injured
3-Roy (lower body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
28-Meier, 13-Hischier, 91-Mercer
47-Cotter, 86-J. Hughes, 63-Bratt
90-Tatar, 56-Haula, 11-Noesen
18-Palat, 42-Lazar, 14-Bastian
Defensemen
5-Dillon, 7-Hamilton
71-Siegenthaler, 8-Kovacevic
24-Casey, 17-Nemec
Goaltenders
25-Markstrom
34-Allen
Extras
23-MacDermid
Out/Injured
22-Pesce (leg)
43-L. Hughes (shoulder)
