The Washington Capitals took both games in a back-to-back with the New Jersey Devils and catapulted themselves back atop the East Division. The second game was a much more dominant one as the Caps came away with a 4-0 victory.
The Caps outshot the Devils 31 to 24.
- The Caps walked to victory in this one. As effortless a 4-0 victory that I think you’ll find in the NHL. They were very good at five-on-five despite a few early, sloppy patches and their elite offensive talent is red hot. That combination will lead to a heck of a lot of wins if it keeps up. The boys are now 6-0 in their last six games against the Devils which is their second-longest active streak against an opponent to the current eight-game winning streak against the Ottawa Senators which dates back to October 5, 2017.
- Alex Ovechkin, folks. The Great Eight has nine goals in his last eight games, ten goals in his last ten games. He recorded the 148th career multi-goal game of his career and in the process passed Gordie Howe (147) for sole possession of fourth place on the NHL’s all-time list in that category. Ovi is now only four goals off the league lead which is currently held by Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid at 21. They play in the North Division so it’s debatable if that should even count.
- Another incredibly strong game from the Zdeno Chara and Nick Jensen defensive pairing. With Jensen on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps scored three times, out-attempted the Devils 16 to 3, out-scoring chanced them 11 to 0, and out-high danger chanced them 4 to 0.
Washington is 13-0-0 in games this season where they allow two or fewer goals, the only team in the MassMutual East Division without a loss in these conditions.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 27, 2021
- Ilya Samsonov stopped all 24 shots on the way to his first shutout of the season and the second of his career. In the month of March in his five starts, Sammy is now 4-1 with a .926-save percentage. That is good. Very good.
- Nicklas Backstrom scored his 13th goal of the season which sees him pass his total from the 2019-20 season in 28-fewer games. Elite sniper, Nicky.
- Jakub Vrana played the least at five-on-five in this game at 8:58 and seemingly lost his top power-play spot to a surging Evgeny Kuznetsov. Vrana is in the doghouse right now for sure.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Devils
Headline photo: KP8 Design
