The first twenty minutes of last night’s Capitals vs Devils game felt like it was scripted to have everything the Capitals had been searching for to start this year. Finally, they were able to grab their first lead of the season. Not only that, but it came from perhaps the most maligned player on the roster in Anthony Mantha who capitalized off an Aliaksei Protas takeaway with a sick no-look wrister that slid through Akira Schmid’s pads. That goal seemed to break the dam open as the Capitals would quickly build a 3-0 lead, en route to delivering a statement, wire-to-wire win.
That was, of course, until the Devils launched a barrage of their own in the second period, which saw them erase that 3-0 lead (which has become the new Most Dangerous Lead in Hockey™) in a little over 5 minutes. Suddenly, a game that felt like the antithesis of the Caps’ season thus far was turning into the perfect summation of it.
With momentum seeming to slip away, Dylan Strome wasted no time (other than the 18 seconds it took for him to score) tilting things back in the Caps’ favor with his second goal of the game. Shortly after, Mantha would find himself on a 2-on-1 break with fellow notoriously bad finisher Connor McMichael, and the youngster was able to slip a backhand past our old friend Vitek Vanecek to put the Caps back up by 1. The New Jersey Devils are the last team you want to get into a track meet with, yet the old, slow, AARP cardholding Washington Capitals were able to come out of it with their first regulation win of the year.
Three Takeaways
- Neither team had hit 20 shots on goal by the time the score got to 5-4. Just a wacky game overall.
- Considering how shaky the team in front of him looked at points, I think Hunter Shepard did enough in goal to justify giving him another look. His first career start came under less than ideal circumstances, and I think he did well all things considered.
- Looking at the bigger picture, the Capitals already had a lot of question marks on defense and Rasmus Sandin’s injury adds yet another one for a group that’s had a rough start to the season.