The Washington Capitals are slowly easing their way into the 2024-25 NHL season, having played just three games over a two-week span in October. However, they’ll already be meeting with a repeat opponent on Saturday night as they visit the New Jersey Devils for their first road game of the campaign.
New Jersey, who have already played seven times, handed the Capitals a 5-3 loss in Washington’s season-opening game at Capital One Arena. The Devils have started the season 5-2-0 and lead the Metropolitan Division in standings points (10) under new head coach Sheldon Keefe.
Capitals bench boss Spencer Carbery has a unique perspective on Keefe and the Devils. His first NHL job was as an assistant on Keefe’s staff with the Toronto Maple Leafs. While Carbery’s familiarity with Keefe helps, the second-year bench boss warned that he didn’t learn much from their first meeting this season.
“I know Keefer, so it helps a little bit with how they’re going to play,” Carbery said. “But when you go back through the clips [from the first game], I’m almost guarded by, ‘That’s not us. That’s not us, so don’t show it.’ But you have to tip your cap. They gave us some issues in the opening game, so you’ve gotta try to figure out ways to rectify that and make sure that we’re better in the areas that we struggled in against them.”
Washington and Carbery’s job is to take what few lessons they could from the defeat and add them to their impressive follow-up performances against the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars. The Capitals took three of four from the Devils last year, but that was with New Jersey under Lindy Ruff’s direction. Carbery says today’s Devils are a different test.
“They are a much more shot-volume team with people on the interior, which I remember was something that [Keefe] really stressed in Toronto and was sometimes difficult given the personnel and that,” Carbery said. “But it looks to me – they are shooting a lot more pucks to the interior with people there, and whether it’s Noesen, Cotter, some of the heavier guys that they’ve brought in, are thriving in those environments.
“And even with the undersized skill guys, the Bratts, the Hughes, the Mercers of the world, you can tell it’s leading to some sustained O-zone possession because they get the recovery, and now their skill comes to fruition, now they’re moving around the offensive zone, and things open up from there.”
Through seven games, it’s not Jack Hughes, the team’s superstar center, leading New Jersey in scoring. Instead, Paul Cotter, Stefan Noesen, and Jesper Bratt are joint leaders with six points at the top of the pack. Cotter, who scored seven goals in 76 games for Vegas last season, has already put away five goals this season, which is good for second-best in the league. He scored two goals against the Capitals a week ago.
The Capitals may catch a break with Bratt as the Swedish winger is dealing with an illness and missed Saturday’s morning skate. Per NHL.com’s Mike Morreale, Keefe has labeled the Swedish winger a game-time decision. Adam Beckman subbed in for Bratt during the morning’s line rushes.
Washington will also not see defensemen Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce. The two skated on New Jersey’s extra defense pairing but are not ready to make their season debuts.
Saturday’s matchup comes with the Capitals on a two-game winning streak after downing two of the leading powers in the Western Conference. The Devils beat the Ottawa Senators 3-1 in their last outing.
“We’ll try to carry a lot of it over from the things we’ve done the last couple games,” Carbery said. “We’ll start with that, and we have to take some of the stuff that we saw in the first game and the things that New Jersey does at a real high level and some of the issues that they gave us from a structure standpoint and make sure that we’re extremely detailed in those areas.”
Puck drop inside Prudential Center is set for 7 pm. The Capitals will start Logan Thompson in net after Charlie Lindgren faced the Devils in the first game.
