Plus: There wasn’t anything dominant about the Caps game by any means, but this was the kind of team win that always helps the team moving forward and able to build off of. It’s not always pretty and that’s okay, especially for a team with growing pains like the Caps.
Minus: The already very maligned Capitals who are missing Anthony Mantha, Trevor van Reimsdyk, Max Pacioretty, Nicklas Backstrom, and Joel Edmundson (and Nic Dowd just returned tonight), lost one of their promising young defensemen after two periods in Martin Fehervary. The hits keep coming to the Caps.
Key Moment: Just like the last game with Caps played against the Devils 16 days ago when the good guys were up 3-0, it took a lucky goal to wake up New Jersey, then they poured it on. Last time, it was a deflection off Nick Jensen’s stick for a Devil open to score, tonight it was Rasmus Sandin’s skate, that left a puck for an open tap in. Luckily, like last time, the Devils could pull out a win from it.
Caps Player of the Game: It was a real team effort but you can’t but feel good for Nicolas Aube-Kubel who was sent down to start the season, battled hard in the AHL, then came back in tonight with a two point effort. He started the scoring with a hell of a slapper.
Final Thoughts: It was another wild one in New Jersey with the Capitals taking a 3-0 lead and almost blowing it. The Devils were missing their top two centers so the Caps needed to take advantage. Granted, the Caps were also quite shorthanded, just not on the level of the Devils.
It was interesting, because by the analytics the Caps did not fair well, but by the eye test it looks like they battled really hard, winning a lot of the dirty game, which is the kind base you want to establish. Yes the Devils were missing some top tier fire power but Caps have to deal with what’s in front of them, and going into the enemy’s territory and leave with (another) regulation win is always welcome.