Here are 10 takeaways from the game:
1. Devils 2016 first round (12th overall) pick, Michael McLeod made his NHL debut against the Washington Capitals. McLeod, wearing no. 41, centered the fourth line with Brian Boyle and Miles Wood on his wings.
McLeod had his parents in the crowd, who made their way down from Canada to watch their son make his NHL debut. McLeod is the fourth Devils rookie to make his NHL debut this season, joining Brett Seney, Joey Anderson, and Egor Yakovlev.
2. With the addition of McLeod, head coach John Hynes switched up his forward lines. With McLeod on the fourth line, fellow rookie Seney moved up to the third line on Travis Zajac's wing with Blake Coleman. The top two lines of Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt, and Marcus Johansson, Pavel Zacha, and Kyle Palmieri remained the same.
3. It's been a tough go on the power play for the New Jersey Devils over the last couple of games. Heading into the game against the Capitals, the Devils power play was firing at just a 4.8 percent success rate over the last 10 games.
While the Devils did get their chances on the power play, New Jersey went 0-for-5 with the man-advantage.
4. Though the Devils did not score on the power play, they're special teams still came to play in other facets. With six seconds left in a Taylor Hall second period penalty, Blake Coleman and Travis Zajac sprung into the offensive zone for a 2-on-1. Coleman, already owner of one shorthanded goal this season, took the initial shot, with Zajac cleaning up the rebound to cut the Capitals lead to 2-1 at the 9:23 mark of the second period.
Tweet from @NJDevils: 🚨��What @BColes25 starts, Travis Zajac finishes. Here's the the @wawa shorti that got the #NJDevils on board! pic.twitter.com/m58affVqkq
5. With his goal tonight, Travis Zajac has tied Scott Niedermayer for 5th in Devils all-time points with 476. His next milestone would be 484 points to tie Scott Gomez for 4th all-time. Patrik Elias is the franchises' all-time point getter with 1025.
6. The Devils were down a forward at the 17:39 mark of the second period when Capitals Tom Wilson took a run at Devils forward Brett Seney from behind. Seney was hit hard from behind and lay on the ice while being tended to by Devils athletic trainer Kevin Morley. Seney was able to get up on his own before heading down the tunnel to the locker room. Seney returned at the start of the third period, where he took just four shifts.
Tom Wilson was assessed a match penalty.
7. Nico Hischier scored the Devils second goal of the game at the 12:35 mark of the third period. Hischier's fifth goal of the season cut New Jersey's deficit to 4-2.
Hischier's goal came as Sami Vatanen was coming out of the box for a two-minute minor. Taylor Hall was pushed through the Capitals crease, as Hischier caught Capitals netminder Braden Holtby off-guard with his shot.
8. Taylor Hall was the Devils second leader in ice-time for forwards, just behind Nico Hischier (21:25) with 21:16 of ice time. That included a second period shift that lasted a whopping 2:10, immediately a shift that lasted 1:44.
9. The Devils recorded 35 shots on goal against Washington, including 17 in the second period, which marks the second-highest shot total for a single period this season. It is also the season-high for shots in a single period on the road this year. (Credit Devils Statistician, Craig Seiden)
10. The Devils are back on the ice tomorrow night to take on the Winnipeg Jets at Prudential Center as they close out their second consecutive back-to-back sets.
