Backstrom-led Caps Slip Past Devils

The Devils traveled down to DC to meet up with the Washington Capitals for the third and final time this season.

In a rare turn of events, the teams were actually tied in the season series at 1-1. The last time the Devils had won more than one game in Washington came in 2011-12. Should they have defeated the Caps tonight, the 2021-22 Devils would have achieved that feat as well. (Remember the Devils won at Washington in overtime back on January 2 on a Nico Hischier OT winner – also the game that Dougie Hamilton got hit in the jaw with a shot and injured his jaw.)

That was going to be a tall feat considering this year’s edition of the Devils have just eight victories on the road so far.

Instead, the Devils were edged 4-3 following goals by both Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin.

Lineup-wise, defensemen Colton White and Kevin Bahl were healthy scratches while forward Mason Geertsen was also a healthy scratch. Forward Pavel Zacha remains day-to-day with his injury. The only change to the lineup saw Ty Smith slot in on defense – on the third pairing with PK Subban.

AJ Greer remained in the lineup on the left-wing on the fourth line with Nathan Bastian on the right side and Michael McLeod centering.

In goal, Nico Daws was back in and made 18 saves on 22 total Caps shots for an .818 save percentage. On the power play, he made two saves on three total shots for Washington. The Capitals were 1-for-2 as a team on power play opportunities. At even strength, he made 16 saves on the 19 shots he saw.

The Capitals went with Vitek Vanecek between the pipes. He turned aside 35 of the 38 total Devils shots he saw for a .921 save percentage on the night. On special teams, he saved all three shorthanded shots and all three power play shots the Devils mustered. As a team, the Devils were 0-for-2 on the power play. At five-on-five, he made 29 saves on 32 shots from New Jersey.

Vanecek was a career 5-0 versus the Devils coming into tonight’s start.

The Caps were sporting a familiar uniform and a new/familiar face back in their lineup. Their uniforms were the navy blue set with the big “W” on the front (they debuted them at an outdoor game – I think the Stadium Series – a few years ago) and the face was none other than former Capital-turned-Devil Marcus Johansson still in his trademark number 90. Johansson was reacquired by Washington at the trade deadline from the Seattle Kraken. He is already slotting in on the right-wing of the top line with Alex Ovechkin on the left and Evgeny Kuznetsov centering.

The start of the game was delayed a bit as the Capitals were honoring Nicklas Backstrom in the pregame. Backstrom recently recorded his 1,000th career NHL point (an assist, appropriately enough). That would actually factor into the flow of the game later on in the night.

The teams played to a scoreless first period where the Devils outshot the Caps 10-7.

The best chance of the period for either team came just as time was running down in the frame. The Devils were killing off a power play and Jesper Bratt hit the post and the outside of the goal cage with Vanecek totally beaten. Bratt was shooting from a sharp angle and was unable to convert for the New Jersey shorthanded goal.

The Devils would, however, take just 55 seconds into the second period to finally grab a lead.

That goal saw Dawson Mercer gain the Caps zone through the middle of the ice. He took a shot and the rebound was collected by Yegor Sharangovich, who saw Jack Hughes coming on the ice from the New Jersey bench. Hughes went to the high slot immediately and Hughes beat Vanecek with the Washington goaltender down.

The Devils held that lead for a little less than two-minutes when, at 2:47 gone by, Tom Wilson tied things for the Capitals.

That happened when Smith turned the puck over in the Caps zone to John Carlson. The Devils were caught in the middle of a change and Carlson was able to spring Conor Sheary, who was In on a rush with Wilson. Wilson was fed and beat Daws on a one-timer to make it 1-1.

Wilson – and this is just one of the greatest examples of the Capitals’ amazing depth that they have amassed over the last decade or so – notched his 20th goal of the season with that one.

McLeod and Nick Jensen would square off in a fight at the 6:12 mark of the second when Jensen sparked things by elbowing McLeod prior to the fight. He would get an extra two for the elbow while McLeod received an extra two minutes for roughing.

The Devils would take the lead back over prior to the first intermission when Damon Severson found the back of the net at 7:17 gone by.

This one started on a faceoff win in the Washington zone. Jesper Boqvist won a faceoff cleanly back to Ryan Graves who quickly moved it to his defensive partner in Severson.

Severson made a nifty move to draw Anthony Mantha in towards him and bite that he was going to go one way with the puck. Mantha bought it hook, line and sinker and Severson was able to step around him, and with tons of room, let loose a bomb from the point that beat Vanecek cleanly to put the Devils back in front at 2-1.

That was Severson’s tenth goal of the season and the 50th of his career, which moved him even in fourth place all-time in goal scoring among Devils defensemen. He is now tied with Joe Cirella – although that could actually be the franchise mark, not the Devils mark, as you will recall that Cirella had a handful of goals that he scored while the team was in Colorado. I will hope to clarify that by tomorrow night’s post.

The Devils would take that 2-1 lead into the second period largely due to a great back checking effort by Hughes midway through second period.

Kuznetsov was attempting a wraparound with the entire left side of the goal cage open. Hughes made the effort to get back and get his stick on the puck before it went in, preventing the goal.

But while the Devils were looking good heading into the third period, the Caps would end up dominating the final frame.

It began when Washington tied the game 2:08 into the period.

A delayed penalty was about to be called on the Devils allowing the Capitals to get Vanecek off the ice for the extra attacker. With the extra man, Connor McMichael passed from behind the Devils net to Carlson, who one-touched a pass to Justin Schultz. While this was happening, McMichael had snuck around to the far post. Schultz passed back to him and he tapped the puck in to tie the game at two.

Then came the second time Nicklas Backstrom would delay the game – though through no actual fault of his own.

At 6:58, the Devils attempted to clear their own zone while the puck was bouncing wildly around. Anthony Mantha was able to guide it to Backstrom. Backstrom collected the puck with his skate to his stick, shot and scored to give Caps a 3-2 lead.

And with that came a torrent of foam apples raining down from the crowd at the Capital One Arena. Since Backstrom was being honored for his 1,000th point and being that most of those points are assists (Backstrom is the Caps’ all-time leader in assists) and being that in hockey slang, assists are known as “apples,” the fans were given foam apples upon their entry.

Those apples were now being used as projectiles as they rained down on the rink.

It was a sight not dissimilar to a minor league “chuck a puck” event but with the help of players from both teams, the ice crew was able to get things cleaned up in reasonable amount of time and the game continued on.

Washington would end up putting things away on the power play at the 11:48 mark of the third when Ovechkin got on the scoresheet.

It began when Smith was called for hooking on Kuznetsov at 10:40 gone.

A little over a minute into the man advantage, Backstrom moved the puck around the half wall to Kuznetsov down low. He whipped it to Ovechkin in his “office” at the near side and Ovechkin buried it for the power play goal to make it 4-2 Caps.

It was actually more fitting that Backstrom got that assist (as I think he and Ovi would both tell you) than the goal he scored earlier.

The Devils were now down two goals and would pull Daws for a sixth skater with about 2:30 left in regulation. They would then use a stoppage to be able to call their timeout with about 1:20 to go in the game.

It would pay off a bit as, with 31 seconds remaining in the game, Nico Hischier skated up the left-wing side and connected on a cross-ice pass to Hughes. Hughes snapped off a shot and Bratt was there on the doorstep to put the rebound in to make it 4-3.

But that would end up as our final as the Devils could muster no more.

And with that, while Nico would record the assist on Bratt’s goal, his streak of straight games with two points was ended at four.

The Devils outshot Washington 38-22 and won 57-percent of the game’s faceoffs.

McLeod was again the clubhouse leader among the centers in faceoff percentage with 83-percent of his personal draws won. Keep in mind though that McLeod only playe a total of 6:08 as his ice time has been cut back a lot of late.

Hughes actually led the forwards in ice time with 23:33 played and won 38-percent of his faceoffs while Hischier won 57-percent over 21:19 of ice time logged. Boqvist rounded out the centers by winning 60-percent of his faceoffs over 12:46 of total ice.

Each team accumulated 11 penalty minutes as a team while the Caps outhit the Devils 25-20. The Caps also led in blocked shots with 18 to eight. Team turnovers saw the Caps with ten while the Devils had one less at nine.

Severson led all Devils skaters in total ice time with 25:01 logged (including 3:05 on the power play and 2:46 shorthanded – which also led the defensemen in both special teams categories).

As for the forwards, Hughes led in total time with 23:33 as noted (this included 3:10 on the PP and 11 seconds on the PK). Hischier led in shorthanded time with 1:50 to go with his 3:05 of power play time and 21:19 of total time on ice.

Hughes led in points for the Devils with a goal and an assist for two points total. Hischier, Mercer, Bratt, Severson and PK Subban each lead in shots on goal with four. Bastian and AJ Greer led in hits with three each. Mercer, McLeod, Greer, Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Smith, Seveson and Jonas Siegenthaler each led in blocks with one apiece. Personal giveaways were led by Mercer with two while personal turnover recoveries were also led by Mercer with three on that side of the ledger.

Next up, it’s a very quick turnaround. Back up the coast to Newark to host the Montreal Canadiens tomorrow at 7PM.

It will be the first meeting between the teams since the Habs’ disastrous outing against the Devils in Montreal back in February.

That game will be broadcast on MSG+2 and we will have coverage for your right here tomorrow night following the game.

Until then, enjoy your Sunday afternoon everyone!

Devils Fall to Leafs After Allowing Two Shorthanded Goals

How would the Devils follow up their performance from last night after the 7-4 lambasting that they gave the Rangers?

Not with the output that they would have preferred, most would assume.

They traveled up to Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, gave up two shorthanded goals and lost 3-2 to the Maple Leafs in the second half of a back-to-back.

This continues the Devils’ run of futility in the country of Canada. They have still only won a single game north of the border. That was a 7-1 victory back on February 8 at Montreal. It also completes the season sweep by the Leafs over the Devils in their three meetings.

The Devils made a few changes to their lineup along with callups from AHL Utica.

Colton White and Ty Smith were healthy scratches on the blue line with Mason Geertsen slotting out up front. Pavel Zacha remains out fighting an injury suffered during the road trip west last week.

In Smith’s place was Kevin Bahl on defense (he paired with PK Subban on the third pairing) while AJ Greer slotted in up front for Geertsen. Greer played on the fourth line centered by Michael McLeod with Nathan Bastian on the right wing and Greer on the left side.

For both Bahl and Greer, they were marking their second stints with the big club this season. Greer’s last NHL tenure ended with an injury suffered at the Islanders in December.

In addition to that, newly acquired goaltender Andrew Hammond joined the team today officially. He will likely not play until next week.

In the meantime, it was back to Nico Daws between the pipes for the Devils tonight, making his second straight start following a night off last weekend in Edmonton.

Daws stopped 28 of the Leafs’ 31 total shots for a .903 save percentage for the game. He stopped both Toronto power play shots as the Maple Leafs finished 0-for-3 on the man advantage. At even strength, he was equal to 25 of 26 Toronto shots. Where the Devils suffered was when you factor in that Daws let in two of the three shorthanded shots that the Leafs took.

For the Leafs, Petr Mrazek was their guy. He made 20 saves on 22 total New Jersey shooting attempts for a .909 save percentage. He stopped the Devils’ one lone shorthanded chance and two of their three power play shots. On power play chances, the Devils went 1-for-4 as a team. Mrazek made 17 saves against 18 shots at five-on-five play.

Of note from last night was not just Jack Hughes becoming a 20-goal scorer for the first time in his NHL career, but also Yegor Sharangovich matching his goal total for his rookie year with his 16th goal.

The Maple Leafs were welcoming some trade deadline pickups with defenseman Mark Giordano making his Toronto debut after being acquired from the Seattle Kraken on Monday. Center Colin Blackwell, also picked up from Seattle, was in the Leafs’ lineup as well.

Another debut for the Leafs were their “Next Gen” uniforms designed by Justin Bieber of all people. They are basically black Maple Leafs jerseys with black where the blue would be and blue where the white striping would be and they are… not too bad looking, actually. A bit of a departure from what you would expect from the Leafs, but not overly terrible on television. Not too sure how they came across in person, however.

Following a first period that saw no scoring or penalties and the Maple Leafs outshooting the Devils 11-3, we got set for the second.

The Devils jumped out to a 1-0 lead early in the second period on the power play.

After New Jersey’s Bahl had been penalized for slashing Ilya Mikheyev 1:42 into the new frame and the Devils killed that off – limited Toronto’s number one ranked power play – it was time for the Devils to go to work.

At 4:38 gone by, Pierre Engvall was called for tripping Jonas Siegenthaler and the Devils were up a man.

About 23 seconds into the 5-on-4, Nico Hischier was able to keep the play alive in the Toronto zone. He got it to Jesper Bratt, who used his body to shield the puck in the slot and make a pass to Damon Severson, who had moved down low. Severson attemped to pass across ice to Hughes, but Leafs defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin went down to block and Severson’s pass deflected off of him and past Mrazek to make it 1-0 New Jersey.

With that goal, Severson now has 49 career goals, allowing him to pass Andy Greene on the Devils all-time defensemen goal scoring list. Congratulations to him as he has been a solid player for years for the Devils and it’s nice to see him get rewarded for it statistically.

In addition to that, this was the first time the Devils had scored the first goal of the game in eight games.

The Devils found themselves back on the power play at the 11:49 gone by mark of the second period when Auston Matthews was given a hooking minor against Hischier.

While Toronto is mostly known for its power play proficiency across the league, it was their penalty kill that came up big tonight.

At the 12:30 mark, Yegor Sharangovich, with the Devils on the man advantage, was stripped of the puck at the Leafs’ blue line by Alex Kerfoot. Kerfoot gave to Ilya Mikheyev, who was off on his way. He cut in one-on-one on Daws and beat him to tie the game at 1-1.

To add insult to injury, the Leafs ended up killing off the rest of the penalty as well.

That shorty for Toronto would, however, kick off a flurry of goals for both teams.

At the 13:56 mark, Hischier gave New Jersey back the lead just after that penalty was up.

Dougie Hamilton made a one-touch pass to Jack Hughes at the side of the Leafs net. This looked like a pure slam dunk for Hughes. Mrazek stopped him, however, and Hischier crashed in, cleaning up the rebound and sweeping it into the Toronto net to make it 2-1 Devils.

But the Devils were not to take that lead into the third period.

About a minute after the Hischier goal, at 14:54 gone by, Michael Bunting made a pass behind the Devils net to Matthews. Matthews then centered to Mitch Marner who snapped off a shot that eluded Daws to tie the game up at two apiece.

And that was where we were going into the final frame – tied as we were at the end of the first.

The third period began with Giordano being called for a trip to seemingly put New Jersey on the power play again.

Replay, however, initiated by the officials, found that Giordano had actually never touched the Devils player with his stick or any other part of his body. With the Devils puck carrier simply losing an edge. Very quickly, Giordano was waved out of the penalty box and the teams were playing at five-on-five.

The third period featured no scoring for the majority of it, but there was plenty of high-energy, up tempo hockey from both teams.

Then it happened.

At the 12:23 mark of the period, Mikheyev hit Andreas Johnsson with a high stick. Johnsson was cut and Mikheyev was assessed a double minor to put the Devils on the power play for four minutes.

After the Leafs killed off the first two minutes, the Devils were beginning to get a bit frustrated.

At 15:18 gone by in the period – nearly three minutes into the double minor – three Devils players were caught deep in the Toronto zone. Pierre Engvall grabbed the puck and was off on a 2-on-1 with Hamilton back as the Devils’ defender and Hischier aggressively backchecking on the second Leaf.

Engvall entered the Devils zone on his own and waited for Hamilton to go down too early trying to take away the pass. He then calmly skated around the downed Hamilton and beat Daws one-on-one.

That second shorthanded goal of the evening given up by the Devils (their tenth and eleventh shorties allowed this season – leading the league in that… not so good category) gave the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead and came from Engvall unassisted.

Toronto killed the rest of that penalty and would, indeed, go on their own 5-on-4 at 15:55 when Hamilton was called for tripping David Kampf.

Since the end of the double minor overlapped with that power play, there was 28 seconds of 4-on-4 before the Leafs power play.

The Devils killed that off as well to hold Toronto’s power play in check for the night and would pull Daws with about 1:30 or so remaining in regulation. But they never got the score tied.

Our final score was 3-2 and it was the inefficiency of the Devils’ power play to defend rather than score that did them in.

Team stats saw the Leafs outshoot the Devils 31 to 22. The Devils did not do well in the faceoff circle, winning just 35-percent of the game’s draws. Hughes won 63-percent of his personal faceoffs to lead the Devils centers.

Team penalty minutes saw the Devils accumulate six minutes while the Leafs had eight minutes. The Devils played the more physical game with 33 hits to the Maple Leafs’ 28. Blocked shots had the Leafs at 18 and the Devils registering seven. Team giveaways had the Devils finish with seven to the Maple Leafs’ nine.

After last night’s offensive explosion for New Jersey, only Hischier registered a multi-point night with two points (one goal and one assist).

Severson led all Devils skaters in ice time with 28:13 which included 4:27 on the power play and 4:06 on the penalty kill. Those special team times are tops amongst Devils defensemen.

Hischier led the forwards with 22:46 of total time on ice which featured 4:37 on the PP and 2:32 on the PK. Only Mikey McLeod logged more shorthanded time with 2:37 out of his 9:06 of total time on ice.

Hughes’ five shots led in that category, edging out Bratt’s four. Siegenthaler registered five hits – leading there. Siegenthaler had the most blocked shots amongst Devils skaters with two. Personal turnovers were led by Jimmy Vesey, Bratt, Hughes, Hamilton, Severson and Siegenthaler who each had one. Personal takeaways saw Sharangovich led with three, just ahead of Vesey’s two.

Next up, the Devils will continue their short road trip as they return to the United States to play the Washington Capitals in DC at 7 PM on Saturday night.

That game will be shown on MSG+ and will be the beginning of another back-to-back for the weekend.

We will have coverage of that game for you right here after the conclusion.

Until then, enjoy the rest of your week everyone!