The Washington Capitals kicked off their very long roadtrip with a loss to the unstoppable New Jersey Devils. The x-factor: former Capitals goalie Vitek Vanecek.
Despite Washington playing great in the first period, the lone goal belonged to Nico Hischier on the power play. Jack Hughes scored two spectacular goals in the second period — one a wraparound bank off Charlie Lindgren’s pads, the second a shortside snipe off his mask – making it 3-0 after forty minutes. Jack Hughes made it a hat trick in the third period, winning an odd-man rush.
John Carlson got a power-play goal, a monster slapshot from the blue line, momentarily teasing Vitek Vanecek’s mortality. Fabian Zetterlund snapped Jersey’s fifth goal of the game from a below-the-goal-line pass to make it 5-1.
- The Capitals played fine. Really. It’s just that New Jersey’s star power was undeniable, plus the subject of our next bullet. Gustafsson, Carlson, Eller, and Sheary all made some suspect plays in neutral and the defensive zone that the Devils punished them. I can’t hate on the effort overall though. Just outclassed.
- Spectacular night for ex-Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek. Overall this season, he’s been perfectly average behind a superb team, but Saturday’s win belonged to him. According to Natural Stat Trick, he turned away 32 scoring chances and more than two expected goals through two periods. He won this game against his ex team, and as much as it stings we have to respect it. That’s a spite win.
— RMNB (@rmnb) November 27, 2022
- I want to stipulate that the Devils posts and crossbar also deserve a lot of credit for this win. Really easy to overlook the posts and crossbars. Real lunch-pail guys, just doing their job and going home, not expecting any thanks, but there they are, stopping like twenty percent of Caps scoring chances and giving me high blood pressure.
- I guess while we’re on the ex-Caps bit: Jonas Siegenthaler got busted for two penalties. Caps win the trade (for a prospect named Brent Johnson who could be selling jet-skis in two years, who knows.)
- Alex Ovechkin had his Ovi juices flowing. Seventeen attempts, eight on net. Lots of offense, lots of frustration. None celebration with left wing.
- I would like to see more video of Garnet Hathaway‘s interference on Michael McLeod. Looks like the Devil saw Hathaway at the last second, or else it could have been a blind headshot.
- TJ Oshie injured Devils fourth-liner Nathan Bastian early in the first period. I had to check because I wasn’t sure other teams were allowed to get hurt, especially not by Washington.
Hats off to Jack Hughes! 🎩🎩🎩 pic.twitter.com/3r81tAtIqN
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 27, 2022
- That was the first hat trick for Jack Hughes. It was a natural hat trick, but I don’t have much time for that distinction. The Carlson-Gustafsson pair was on ice for all three of those goals.
#joebsuitofthenight ripped from a tweet video ripped from the broadcast because the nbc stream works like 4% of the time pic.twitter.com/6RFWJ2iDgn
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) November 27, 2022
The Devils are an unbelievable team. They could double their standings-point total from last season. The Caps did better than I expected they would, which maybe doesn’t speak highly of my expectations.
Late-night games up next. Get ready for RMNB After Dark for what will surely be a weird road trip.
Headline photo: @imhopper
