Old Habit Creeping In? Devils Slow Start, Penalties Spell Loss to Capitals

It seems the New Jersey Devils have let an old habit creep in as they suffered a 6-5 loss on home ice to the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.

In the season finale between the Devils and Capitals, New Jersey gave up the first goal of the game for the seventh straight contest. The Devils surrendered an NHL-worst 53 leads to open a game last season, a habit general manager Tom Fitzgerald certainly tried to fix when acquiring veteran defense and goaltending.

The Devils have proven to be more mature than last season, so it hasn’t been a huge problem thus far. They are 4-3-0 in their last seven games, after all. However, it is certainly an issue they’re going to have to nip in the bud sooner than later, before it’s too late.

Let’s get to how it happened.

Devils Recap

The Capitals got on the board first after a missed tripping infraction on Timo Meier in the offensive zone. The Capitals took the puck down ice and Andrew Mangiapane collected his own rebound off the rush and scored. Later, Luke Hughes with some nifty speed and puck handling got the puck on Charlie Lindgren, and Nico Hischier deposited the rebound chance to tie the game after the opening 20 minutes.

Justin Dowling scored his second goal of the season to give the Devils a 2-1 lead. However, the Capitals rallied for three-straight power play goals by Connor McMichael, Jakob Chychrun, and Rasmus Sandin to take a 4-2 lead after two periods.

The Devils fought back early in the third on two quick strikes from Stefan Noesen and Jesper Bratt to knot the game at four. However, Taylor Raddysh and Pierre-Luc Dubois regained the Capitals’ two-goal lead. Noesen scored a second goal with the Devils’ net empty, but it was too little too late as Washington hung on to claim the victory.

Jake Allen made 26 saves on 32 shots, turning aside 4/7 on the penalty kill.

Takeaways

Old Habits Creeping In?

Seven times in a row is enough to call something a concerning trend, right? Because that’s exactly how many consecutive games the Devils have now allowed the first goal over the last two weeks.

It happened again on Saturday against the Capitals, and even though they were able to strike back and even the score, it’s not ideal to continue forking over leads the way the Devils have.

Last season, this exact habit was the Devils’ kryptonite. They allowed an NHL-worst 57 first goals, which ultimately saw them free fall from the 112-point team they were two seasons ago.

No one is sounding the alarm yet because the Devils have proven to be a much more mature and resilient team than in seasons past. Still, the first period wasn’t all that great outside of Jake Allen, who made a couple of huge saves to keep the game tied after 20 minutes.

However, they’ll need to nip this trend in the bud before it gets out of hand.

Discipline Undoes Devils

Usually, it’s the Devils who own the middle frame this season. However, on Saturday night, a lack of discipline flipped the script on the Devils, and instead the Capitals took over the second period.

The Devils did it to themselves. Paul Cotter and Luke Hughes each took penalties that the Capitals, and Dawson Mercer was assessed a double minor for high-sticking, and drawing blood on Dylan Strome.

The Capitals wound up scoring three power play goals in the second period, which ultimately saw the Devils’2-1 lead diminish as they trailed 4-2 after 40 minutes.

“To me, this is just a rare night of circumstance for our penalty kill,” head coach Sheldon Keefe explained. “But obviously a huge part of the game. It’s 2-1, we’re on a 4-on-4, we have full possession of the puck in the offensive zone. And then we take a four-minute penalty. That’s the difference in the game.”

Quick Shifts

• Jack Hughes struggled in the dot, winning just 35.7% of faceoffs (5/14).
  • Hughes registered a three-point night (0g,3a).
• Nico Hischier went 17/32 in the circle, winning 53.1% of draws.
• Kurtis MacDermid accrued just 02:46 of time on ice.

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