Devils Offense Arrives Too Late in Loss to Caps | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - Timo Meier and Dawson Mercer scored in the third period for the New Jersey Devils to make the game against the Washington Capitals close. They two Devils goals brought the Devils within one of the Capitals, to spring some life into New Jersey's game. 

It was, in the end, too little too late. 

By that time, the Capitals had already built themselves a 3-0 lead, including scoring two goals in a 15-second span in the first period. 

But for much of the game, New Jersey could not generate much of anything. Lindy Ruff acknowledged a lack of execution hampered his team from the get-go. 

"I think if you look at the start of the game, the slot to Jesper (Bratt), we're 2-on-0 in front of the net, you can either execute, Bratter can shoot it off the pass, he missed the net," Ruff said, "He could have put that over to the other forward and we probably got the start we wanted. I thought early on we didn't win enough puck battles. Those 50/50 battles went to them."

The Capitals took an early 2-0 lead in the first period, scoring two goals in 15 seconds and the Devils chased the game much the rest of the way, trying to find their speed, their scoring touch, and any momentum.

At 7:13 of the third period Timo Meier sprung some life into the Devils game, finally breaking through Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren to cut Washington's lead to 3-1.

Dawson Mercer responded 2:09 after Meier's goal to bring the Devils within one.

The two goals in the third came as the coaching staff shortened their bench to a rotation of nine forwards, an effort to get anything going. 

"I thought they skated better than us in the first two (periods)," Ruff said, "Then we dropped down to what we thought was our nine best, we grabbed a bit of momentum and really had a couple of great opportunities to tie it up."

The Devils struggled to generate anything, with their game only coming together with too little left on the clock.

"Just the mistakes we made in the first two periods, they were way harder on 50-50 battles," Meier said, "That's what it comes down to at the end. The won more battles, especially early on in the game. We were chasing the game"

Nicolas Aube-Kubel opened the scoring for Washington in the first period, Beck Malenstyn scored 15 seconds later, and Evgeni Kuznetsov added a second period goal and the empty netter in the Capitals 4-2 win.

Here are some observations from the game:

• Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes are the 1-2 punch down the center of the ice that was missing again tonight, both out with upper-body injuries. But despite their elite talent, the team cannot simply wait for them to return. The game won't look the same without them and their unique abilities, but Lindy Ruff expects his team to still thrive in their absence.

"We have to be serious, some of our offensive creativity, with Nico and Jack out of the lineup, isn't there," Ruff said, "But at the same time, you've got to have other players step in and replace that creativity and replace those roles those guys were assuming. We miss them, our game has to be different without those two guys, you've got to grind your way through."

Tomas Nosek returned to the lineup for the first time since the second game of the season. He last played against the Arizona Coyotes on Oct. 13. On Thursday, Nosek returned to practice but had been skating for roughly ten days prior to prepare for his return to the lineup.

• What has been the cream of the crop for the Devils this season is their power play. Tonight against the Capitals, not even the man-advantage could save the day. It took until the Devils fourth power play opportunity to even register a shot with the extra man, going 0-for-4 on both the power play and their shots.

"Just winning the battles and getting in the zone, it's all about the way you work," Meier said, "Even as a power play, you've got to outwork the PK to get goals. We didn't do that and kind of had to pay the price, losing the game."

• Lindy Ruff and his staff were quick to pull the trigger in sending a message to the team after a dismal start. Vitek Vanecek was pulled, and replaced by Akira Schmid, after just 10:37 of play and following a sequence where the Devils conceded two goals in a span of 15 seconds to two of the Capitals fourth line players.

Vanecek was beaten from the right circle by Nicolas Aube-Kuble at 10:22, followed by Beck Malenstyn's shot, also from the right circle, which was deflected off of Luke Hughes's stick past the Devils goaltender. Schmid then entered the game with the Devils down 2-0.

"For me he just didn't look sharp," Ruff explained, "The second goal went in from the bench, it's definitely one he'll want back, that we all want back. I just felt that maybe it's not going to be his night, so why wait. But it's not about one individual. He didn't lose all the puck battles, he wasn't the guy that didn't gap up on the guy that took the shot who could have easily gapped up. I thought we were a step slow on some of those plays."

• For only the second time this season the Devils entered the second period without having scored a goal. Managing just 13 shots on Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren, the Devils struggled to maintain any sort of offensive pressure on the Capitals.

• John Marino has registered a four-game point streak (4a).

• Meier's goal stretched the Devils streak to 97 straight games without being shut out. The last time New Jersey was shut out was April 24, 2022 against Detroit (3-0).

• Schmid's assist on Dawson Mercer's goal was his second career point

• In an effort to find a spark for the team, Lindy Ruff changed his lines for the second period.

Toffoli-Mercer-Bratt
Palat-Haula-Meier
Bastian-McLeod-Lazar
Nosek-Tierney-Holtz

Eventually, the team had the bench shortened to the top nine players and a multitude of different combinations. Anything to try and spark the team.

"I switched up all the lines and I kept switching them up," Ruff said after the game, "Just looking for that little bit of energy somewhere. Because there wasn't anything going on. There wasn't anything going on for them really, there wasn't anything much going on for us. I was going to continue switching lines.

"I started in the second, I went to different lines in the third and we talked as coaches, maybe even halfway through that period we'll keep shaking because we had some guys I thought didn't have enough for tonight's game. Those guys ended up watching."

• The team managed to take just two shots in the first period, outshot by the Caps 12-2 and outscored 2-0.

• Devils celebrated equipment manager Chris 'Frosty' Scoppetto who was working his 2000th NHL game.