The Washington Capitals dropped an ugly one to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. In what could have been a stirring victory for their slim playoff aspirations, the Capitals instead got beaten down 7-3 by a team behind them in the standings.
One of my least favorite games of the season. Incredibly frustrating.
- I feel like a broken record. The Capitals were good for some stretches of this game, but then they immediately threw that hard work directly in the garbage by being utterly incompetent for stretches of the game. More shoddy defensive-zone coverage, due to their odd man-to-man coverage scheme, led to a seven-goal outburst for the Devils, tied for the most allowed in a single game by the Capitals this season. They also didn’t create enough at the other end, notching just six high-danger chances at five-on-five in three periods. Simply, not good enough, which has been the case for this team since early December.
- I thought Cole Hutson was the best player on the team, which is kind of a brutal look for the rest of his teammates, considering he’s 19 and was doing college homework a few weeks ago. He ended up with 18:48 of ice time, which is five minutes fewer than I think he should have played. He also scored his second career NHL goal, had seven shots on goal, 11 shot attempts, eight individual scoring chances, one individual high-danger chance, and one shot block.
- We’ll stay with Hutson because I don’t want to relive my intense frustration with this game any further, which you can read throughout my recap and on my personal Twitter account. Sorry to all those who took in my ramblings with those. With the rookie defender on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals posted positive differentials in shot attempts (+12), shots on goal (+11), goals (+2), and scoring chances (+10). Just an utter game changer and a fantastic response to his benching against the Flyers.
- Pierre-Luc Dubois has six points (1g, 5a) in his last two games. Ryan Leonard recorded the primary assist on PLD’s goal, bringing the rookie winger to 40 points (16g, 24a) on the year.
- Martin Fehervary and Rasmus Sandin were on the ice for three goals against. The coaching staff needs to move on from that pairing, which I’ve been saying for a few games now. With the two on the ice at five-on-five this season, the Capitals have seen just 42.6 percent of shot attempts, 46 percent of expected goals, 41.5 percent of scoring chances, and 42.2 percent of high-danger chances. They have also been outscored 11-6, with a lot of that damage coming in recent games.
- Immediately after the loss, MoneyPuck has the Capitals’ playoff qualification odds back down into the single digits at 8.6 percent. After the Devils (0.1 percent), the Capitals have the next lowest odds among Eastern Conference teams that aren’t already mathematically eliminated.
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