A quirk of the New Jersey Devils’ season has been that, until tonight, they had not lost a game in which they scored a goal since October 25th, a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders. The four losses they suffered in that span were all shutout defeats. That roughly month-long streak ended tonight, as the Devils fell to the Washington Capitals 6-4 in a sloppy, uneven game.

Over this recent stretch of games, we have lamented the slow starts New Jersey has gotten off to. I am displeased to report that tonight was yet another slow start. The Devils allowed the other team to score first for the seventh straight game. That marker from Andrew Mangiapane was part of an overall dismal first period for the Devils, who were outshot 17-5 in the opening 20 minutes. According to Natural Stat Trick, New Jersey registered a 5-on-5 Expected Goals For% of 17.43%, a shockingly low number. Nico Hischier did score against the run of play to get his team to the intermission tied, but the only reason Washington didn’t enter the locker room down a goal or two was because Jake Allen had himself a terrific first period.

The second period was a little better of an effort, and it even saw the Devils take the lead on a Justin Dowling redirection goal. Brett Pesce produced the shot that led to the tip-in, which was his first point as a Devil. Congratulations to him.

From there though, the Devils gave up three consecutive power play goals. Yes you read that correctly. New Jersey began the night with the top ranked power play in the entire league, yet it was the Capitals who took advantage of a Devils parade to the penalty box in the second period. Connor McMichael scored on a 4-on-3 during which Johnathan Kovacevic broke his stick and a lucky bounce led to McMichael’s slam dunk goal. Jakob Chychrun fired a laser past Allen off the post and in on the ensuing 5-on-4. Rasmus Sandin found a puck off a mad scramble when nobody else could, and he smacked a shot home to put New Jersey down 4-2. That’s where we ended up heading to the second intermission.

But if nothing else, this Devils team has shown they are tough to kill. They are the comeback kids, and one night after they overcame a two-goal deficit, they overcame another. Stefan Noesen tapped home a great Jack Hughes feed on a power play to cut the deficit to one. Then shortly after at even strength, Ondrej Palat stole a puck in the Capitals’ zone, fed Hughes who ripped a shot on net, and it banked off Jesper Bratt’s skate and in. All this within the first five minutes of the period, by the way. And the goals did not come against the run of play like Hischier’s in the opening frame. New Jersey found their footing and started battling the Capitals more evenly in the second period (outside the penalties of course). This continued in the third, and they came away with two goals for their troubles.

But unfortunately, the Capitals would strike twice in quick succession late in regulation. Taylor Raddysh redirected a shot home with just over six minutes left to give Washington the lead. Then 10 seconds later (yes, really) Jake Allen lost the puck behind his own net, turned it over to the Capitals, and Pierre-Luc Dubois got the luckiest goal of his life to put Washington ahead 6-4.

Unfortunately, that horrific blunder from Allen would turn out to be the game-winner. With New Jersey on the power play once again very late in the third, Stefan Noesen fought home his second PPG of the game. But the Devils could not find the equalizer and lost by that 6-5 final score.

This was a very frustrating night. The Devils once again failed to start on time, allowing the first goal and getting buried in puck possession. The never-ending run to the penalty box in the second period killed New Jersey, especially considering they were the slightly better team at 5-on-5 over the final 40 minutes of the game. I really can’t point to anyone in particular and say they had a good game. Allen came the closest to me after his amazing first period, but he ended up letting six goals past him, including that absolute dagger on the sixth and deciding goal.

Perhaps Noesen deserves credit for his two power play goals. Jack Hughes had a three-point night, all assists. Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt also had multi-point nights. But the team finished with a 5-on-5 xGF% around 36% per NST, which sounds about right. The Devils did outplay Washington over the final two periods, but not nearly as much as Washington outplayed them in the first. And while I don’t want to use this as an excuse because the Devils were not the better team overall, they really did seem to be on the receiving end of some pretty terrible luck tonight. Bryce Salvador pointed out that Washington got away with a penalty in their own end right before going down the ice on their opening goal. Later, Salvador said that the penalty Jesper Bratt took on Tom Wilson in the first period was, and I quote, “a terrible call”. When Sal is complaining that much, you know there’s something there. Wilson and the Capitals got away with some pretty bad hits and cross checks tonight as well. And of course, the puck luck was in Washington’s favor all night long. Again, the Devils did not lose solely because of bad luck and uneven officiating. But I bring this up to point out that it would be reasonable to say the luck should turn around next game.

But make no mistake, this was an ugly game. New Jersey is finished with their season series against the Capitals now, and they came away with five of a possible eight points, while Washington got four points themselves. So in the end, the Devils did get the better of the Caps this year. But they laid two eggs at home against them, and while the schedule inexplicably gave us four matchups in the first two months of the season and none the rest of the way, it is very possible we see these two teams clash in a postseason series. And if that happens, the Devils need to clean up a lot of what they did against the Capitals this season. Dust yourself off and move on.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

The One Bright Spot

Ok so maybe I was a little harsh in saying no one deserved credit for having a “good” game tonight. The one unit you can genuinely point to as a positive was the Ondrej Palat-Jack Hughes-Jesper Bratt line. Each of those players finished with a 5-on-5 xGF% in the 60’s. As mentioned, Hughes had three assists, Bratt had a goal and an assist, and Palat even got himself a helper on Bratt’s goal. When nothing else was working for New Jersey, at least the Hughes line won their matchup.

Tracking The Misery

Two things that infuriated all of us a season ago were the Devils allowing the first goal (and getting off to tough starts in general), and the horrendous results in the second half of back-to-backs. A lot went wrong in 2023-24, but those two elements were near the top of the list of things that sunk New Jersey.

Fast forward to today, and the Devils have now given up the first goal in seven consecutive games. To find the last time New Jersey beat their opponent to the scoreboard, you have to go back to November 14th and their 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. Miraculously the Devils are 4-3-0 in those games, so it hasn’t completely buried them. But it’s still a trend that seemed to be a thing of the past until the last couple of weeks. Please start scoring first again, Devils.

Meanwhile thanks to their loss tonight, New Jersey falls to 1-3-1 in the second half of back-to-backs this season. Their only win under those circumstances came in their very first back-to-back of the year, the season opening pair of contests in Prague against the Buffalo Sabres. So since then the Devils are 0-3-1 and have not won the second half of a back-to-back in almost two months. They don’t even have the excuse of a rest disadvantage, as Washington played yesterday as well.

Looking ahead, the Devils have seven more back-to-backs the rest of the season, meaning a total of 14 more points up for grabs in the latter half of those. The Devils really, really, REALLY need to figure out a way to not let those 14 points slip away, or it could mean another playoff miss.

Next Time Out

The Devils play their first game of the season against their bitter rivals, the New York Rangers, on Monday at Madison Square Garden. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Your Take

What did you make of tonight’s game? How frustrated are you with the slow starts and the poor performances in back-to-backs? What do you expect in the first matchup of the season against the Rangers? As always, thanks for reading.