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End of an era: Devils beat Caps 5-4 in overtime

By Peter Hassett

 2 Comments

April 13, 2023 9:43 pm

The Washington Capitals finally ended their blighted season with a rousing loss to the New Jersey Devils on home ice.

Hometown hero Joe Snively scored first, a nice release from the circles on the rush. Rasmus Sandin got a quick shot from the slot to beat Mackenzie Blackwood, then Craig Smith tricked Jack Hughes into a centering pass to make it 3-0 Caps. Erik Huala got an open lane and used his mondo slapshot to get the Devils on the board after one period.

Tom Wilson scored lucky goal 13 of his season, cleaning up a rebound in the paint. Miles Wood tipped a shot by Tomas Tatar to bring the Devils within two with one period left.

Erik Haula was getting hooked by John Carlson as he scored to bring the Devils within one, then Dougie Hamilton’s big one-timer from the high slot tied the game, forcing us into even more hockey. Luke Hughes scored his first NHL goal to end the season.

Caps lose in overtime. We are at the end of the Washington Capitals’ 2022-23 season.

  • Alex Ovechkin didn’t score, but he did play for the first time in a week. He ends the season with 42 goals – or 822 since that’s the real number you’re tracking.
  • The Devils had perverse incentives. They would have drawn the Rangers in the first round no matter what given what the Silph Co. out-of-town scoreboard said, but maybe they wanted to be sure. They rested some players, including ex-Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek. In his place, Mackenzie Blackwood had a terrible night, allowing four goals on eleven shots before getting pulled for Akira Schmid.
  • I was very happy to see Joe Snively score. This was his 12th game of the season, matching his total from 2021-22, but I still feel like I don’t have a good idea of what he can do. So much of Washington’s future depends on their lower-tier players stepping up, and I’d be tickled if this 27 year old from Herndon was among them.
  • Out of town: Can I show you what Boston’s Dmitry Orlov did tonight?

  • I’ve been down on Tom Wilson‘s season, but I cannot deny his goal scoring. Thirteen goals in 33 games. I’m confident the rest of his game will improve next season as he gets further away from his ACL surgery.
  • Craig Smith, who I refuse to learn anything about, told Al Koken that he tricked Jack Hughes into sending him a pass before his goal. He just said to Hughes “pass it” or something, and the guy gave him a pass. I didn’t know you could just ask for stuff.
  • The Devils had some frenzies in front of the Caps net, requiring at one point Nick Jensen to perform ad hoc goalie duty.

  • So that was definitely Peter Laviolette‘s last game as coach, right? That one’s easy if you ask me. Harder is what to guess what will happen with several “core” players: Kuznetsov, Oshie, Backstrom – none of us can be certain what the future holds for them, so tonight might have been the last night they were Washington Capitals. Think about that and try to stay un-bummed-out.
  • I will be covering the New Jersey Devils in the playoffs. I think they’re a fun, fast, well-run team with some of my favorite players (Bratt, Siegenthaler), but also I’m just not ready to stop doing recaps and day-to-day stuff yet. I don’t think I’ll be much of partisan, so I promise I won’t be too obnoxious –  not more than usual – so please keep hanging out if you want.
  • Ian gamed out the lottery implications for this game. Every percentage matters, but I want to caution folks against catastrophizing over the team’s chances possibly dropping “by half.” That’s a relative figure, and when the percentage is already small like 3 percent, then even a small absolute change can seem big. All of this is a long way to say the Caps’ chances of landing Connor Bedard didn’t and couldn’t massively change tonight. They have to roll a crit 20.

Okay, look how good this final Joe Beninati suit is.

Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the loffs comes the end of our fellowship in 2022-23. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.

I said my goodbyes last game — shoutout to Chris, who is under the weather today – so I just want to say thank you for your attention and participation this season. I love our team and the work we do. It’s been a very tough season to cover hockey with whimsy, so thank you for patience. I’m eerily confident that things will be better in the fall.

In the meantime, we have so much more to do. We’ve got to cover:

  • breakdown day,
  • a looming decision about the coach,
  • uncertain futures for key players,
  • the draft lottery,
  • the actual draft,
  • Keith a Coin,
  • the actual playoffs,
  • player reviews,
  • the return of Not Up For Debate, and
  • everything you need to know about how rich athletes spend their summer vacations.

I can’t wait.

Headline photo: Kurly from Crashers

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