The Washington Capitals scored four goals against three-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck on Saturday, but it wasn’t nearly enough to defeat the New Jersey Devils.
The Capitals surrendered six goals and an empty-netter, falling 7-4 to their Metropolitan Division rival as the Devils completed a two-game sweep of their home-and-home series.
Washington outshot New Jersey 47-33 overall. At five-on-five, the Capitals dominated, posting significant advantages in shot attempts (63-39), scoring chances (37-17), and high-danger chances (15-6), yet finished even in goals scored (3-3). Poor defensive coverage, subpar goaltending (Charlie Lindgren finished with minus-1.94 goals saved above expected), and some unfortunate bounces ultimately doomed them.
Afterward, the Capitals seemed especially dispirited by the loss.
Boone Jenner
On playing fairly well but not being able to limit mistakes or close out games:
Yeah, I mean, definitely frustrating. We have leads in both games, but yeah, I think we’re just giving up too much. We’re giving them pretty good looks and they obviously get some bounces tonight. And, you know, we weren’t able to get one or two there in the third to get us back into it. But I think we’re just giving up too much.
On the Capitals still trying to find their identity as a team:
Yeah, I mean, you can see that at times, I think it’s just more consistently playing to that identity that we want to be and the team we want to be. I think you see that at moments where we can take over and use what we have in here, but we haven’t found it consistently enough, and it’s hard to win when you’re not there for a full 60.
On scoring four goals on a goalie like Connor Hellebuyck and not converting that into a win:
Yeah, I mean, it was one of those games, right? I was kind of back and forth there. Like I said, I think they get some bounces.
I liked a lot of our game, like we mentioned, but at the same time, I think we’re giving up a little bit too much, especially a team like that, and off the rush. They take advantage of that. So, you know, we’re going to have to dial in a few things here.
On letting games get away in key moments:
Yeah, you know, that’s where we’ve got to learn. I mean, all of us in here, it’s key moments in games and when you have the lead, you know how to play. And I just think, there’s so much good in our game tonight. But at the same time, you know, key moments and little plays here and there that come back to bite us. So, we’re going to have to learn from it the hard way. These last two.
Pierre-Luc Dubois
We did some good things tonight, some good chances. It’s just — you’ve got to compete harder. I mean, there’s not a bad team in this league, and, you know, you can’t outscore opponents every night.
So we have to be held to a higher standard and just go from here. But four big points against a Metro team that we’re not going to get back, but we’ve got to move forward and find some positivity out of it.
…
Chipping a puck in the corner, forechecking’s not fun, but sometimes you have to do it because the team needs it. And I think that, you know, we’re a good team in here. A lot of good individuals, good people that care, that want to win. But, you know, there’s little moments in games. You look at our last couple losses, it’s not horrible. It’s just moments in those games that it’s just an easy mistake that leads to a goal or leads to a penalty that leads to a goal. And we’re a better team than that, so it’s frustrating.
Spencer Carbery
We’ve got to learn. This has been going on throughout the year, is our whole group — it’s not just the young guys — our whole group, we have to learn to play winning hockey for 60 minutes. So you can’t make some of the mistakes that we make in situations, whether it’s a penalty, whether it’s Jack Hughes‘ line is on the ice and we have a terrible turnover in a bad moment, whatever it might be, there’s all these situations that — you’re going to make mistakes in a game, but they can’t be catastrophic. And that’s where you have to learn to be a winning team in this league. To be an elite team in this league, you can’t make catastrophic mistakes consistently through a 60-minute game…
How do you keep guys from getting frustrated?
It’s a great question, and I think it’s different for the whole group, right? We have some young players that are learning that as first-year players in the NHL, second-year players in the NHL. So that’s one part.
That’s just being a young player, and you have to learn, and you have to go through moments, and they’re teaching moments, and you hopefully continue to eliminate (them) and get a little bit better. And now listen, it doesn’t happen overnight. Development in this league takes a while.
Now, that’s only four of our guys, though. What about the rest of the group? I think it’s getting the rest of the group to understand winning habits and doing it consistently.
And whether it’s guys that are coming to our team new, whether it’s returning guys in different roles, whatever it might be, from our top of our roster all the way down, young, in different (roles), just traded here, Jordan Kyrou, Alex O– Tom Wilson, it doesn’t matter. everybody has to be on the same page with winning details and winning habits inside of the game. It’s not crazy off. It just needs to get a little bit better, more consistent to be able to win against teams like New Jersey, who’s obviously a really good team in this league.
