Rout in Newark: Caps beat Devils 5-2

October 13, 2017 9:43 pm

The Capitals were at the Prudential Center to play the New Jersey Devils and their new spaceship sized video board on Friday night. The team needed a good response in Newark after putting up a couple poor showings against Tampa and Pittsburgh. They got just that.

TJ Oshie broke the early deadlock with a top-shelf bullet after Nicklas Backstrom made a great defensive play and fed Oshie in the slot. 1-0 good guys after 20 minutes.

Alex Ovechkin made it 2-0 from his office on the power play before Taylor Hall drew the Devils within one on their own power play. Jakub Vrana responded almost immediately with a deflection goal, his first of the season.

Kyle Palmieri led off the third period with a breakaway strike, but Oshie restored the two goal lead on a double minor power play. Backstrom then again got involved scoring with his skate after an Ovechkin slap pass.

Caps beat Devils 5-2!

Pregame we had a bit of a scare to say the least. Nicklas Backstrom took the ice for warmups, was apparently struck in the head with a puck, left the ice after one lap, and then was listed as a scratch on the official roster report. Alas, Backstrom did end up dressing, but not before he had all Caps fans holding their collective breath.
Speaking of Backstrom, the Swedish center-man was my player of the game for the Capitals. He was extremely disruptive in the defensive zone and ended the night with four points.
Friday night marked the first official game that Marcus Johansson would play against his former Capitals mates. This still makes me sad.

They aren’t your real friends @mjohansson90. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/9zn0HE9NW9

— NYC Caps Crew (@NYCCapsCrew) October 13, 2017

Tom Wilson also made a return, but his from suspension. Wilson drew a penalty in the first and didn’t take a minor himself. That’s what we need and want from big Tom. He also absolutely destroyed Blake Coleman in a fight. No contest.
Alex Ovechkin scored again. The shot he unleashed from his office on the power play was unreal. No one in the world stops that. Maybe those CCM sticks really are magic.
We know that the Caps dodged an injury bullet before the game started, but they weren’t as lucky during the action. Matt Niskanen left the ice with what seems to be a wrist injury. He would not return for the third period. Niskanen is easily the best Capitals defenseman. Him missing any extended time would be a massive issue.
We’ve seen TJ Oshie and Ovechkin score this year multiple times, but Jakub Vrana hadn’t dented the twine coming into Friday night’s fixture. He changed that deflecting home a Devante Smith-Pelly shot for his first of the young season. Vrana got to a dirty area and capitalized. On a line with Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, I’d like to see a little more of that from the young Czech.
Andre Burakovsky got into a fight. Re-read that. Yep. The young Swede stuck up for Dmitry Orlov after Coleman boarded the Russian defenseman in the third period.
The Caps ended the night with a 75% success rate on four power plays. You won’t lose often when you do that.