After an unsuccessful 1-3-0 road trip, the Washington Capitals, who are losers of 7 of their last 9, are back home to lick their wounds and try to reverse the course of their season against the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils come into the game without their best player, Jack Hughes, who underwent surgery for a dinner-related injury. Yes, I repeat, Jack Hughes suffered an injury during a team dinner.

Meanwhile, the Capitals, who are still missing one of their best players, Pierre-Luc Dubois, are turning to Justin Sourdif to center the second line. The Capitals will also be without John Carlson due to injury.

Puck drop for tonight’s game is shortly after 7:00 pm. Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin have the call on Monumental Sports Network.

Lines

Washington Capitals

New Jersey Devils

Tunnel shenanigans

1st Period

Puck is dropped. Duhaime-Dowd-Frank and Fehervary-TVR get the start.

A notable NHL debut for the Devils.

Tom Wilson to the box for hooking Dawson Mercer at 1:23. Devils go to their first power play.

Jesper Bratt rings a point shot off the crossbar.

Declan Chisholm to the box for high-sticking, giving the Devils a 5-on-3 power play for 8 seconds.

Caps kill the 5v3. Now 1:52 of a 5v4.

Huge one-timer by Arseny Gritsyuk from the top of the right circle beats Thompson easily. Wow.

Anthony Beauvillier hooks Mercer between the legs at 7:02 and hauls him down. The Capitals are going to back to the penalty box. Capitals fans are booing. What a reverse of last year.

The Caps killed the penalty but the Devils were humming. The Caps need to stay out of the penalty box bad. This team is still great on the man advantage without Jack Hughes.

The Devils are outshooting the Capitals 9-3 with 9:46 into the game.

Martin Fehervary loses his balance and slams hard stomach-first into the end boards after being hooked by Jesper Bratt. Bratt immediately came over and checked on him. Fehervary is being helped off the ice and is leaving the game, at least for now, at 13:18.

Fehervary just returned to the ice with a few minutes to go. Great to see he’s all right.

Alex Ovechkin with a huge hit on Bratt along the end boards. He’s slow off the ice, but staying on the bench.

Luke Hughes with a pinpoint accurate shot past a screened Logan Thompson. This game is already going the wrong way.

At intermission: The Devils lead 2-0. The Devils outshot the Capitals 13 to 8. Just a horrible start when you need to turn things around.

2nd Period

Puck is dropped.

It is QUIET at Capital One Arena. You could hear a pin drop.

Hendrix Lapierre peels down the left wing, fires a shot, it’s stopped, he gets his own rebound, fires again, it’s stopped.

Devils with a rush down the ice, Thompson makes two big saves of his own consecutively on Bratt and then Hischier.

Brenden Dillon is no longer on the Devils bench.

Comment below. Refresh for live updates during the game. The thread will be closed shortly after the game is completed.

THE SCOOP

Devils

The New Jersey Devils announced on Friday that star forward Jack Hughes will be out of the lineup against the Washington Capitals after sustaining a non-hockey-related hand injury. In a corresponding move, the Devils also placed forward Connor Brown on Injured Reserve to call up Shane Lachance from Utica. Brown, whose placement on IR is retroactive to Oct. 30, can come off the injured reserve list at any time.

The Devils opened their five-game road trip in Chicago on Wednesday night, defeating the Blackhawks in overtime on the back of Simon Nemec’s first career hat trick, which the overtime winner topped off. The game didn’t come without its own set of roster issues as both Cody Glass and Zack MacEwen were injured in the first period. MacEwen was later placed on IR, and Utica forward Nathan Légaré was recalled from Utica. He joined the team in Chicago on Thursday. Lachance will meet the Devils in Washington.

Capitals

After an incredible season last year, the Washington Capitals are off to a disappointing start and are currently on a seven-game losing streak.

Special teams have been a struggle for the Capitals, with their power play ranked 29th in a league of 32 teams, good for just 14.8 percent success rate, while their penalty kill is just slightly better than their power play, ranked 27th in the league working at a 73.2 percent rate.

The Capitals are coming off a four game road trip where they went 1-3-0, their most recent loss being a 6-3 final to the Florida Panthers.

Diversity and Business

Kimberly S. Reed, a global diversity strategist based in South Jersey and a member of the chamber’s DEIB council, called diversity essential to the success of many businesses, adding that the chamber is making sure it provides those services to its members.

“We have to take this stance,” said Reed, who owns the Reed Development Group. “We are not going away. Diversity and inclusion is great business and not just the right thing to do. It is ensuring that all Americans have the right opportunities to cultivate new businesses and survive and thrive in current corporations. Diversity is an essential ingredient to how we grow.”

One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders was to eliminate all DEI programs in the federal government. Some of those plans are currently facing federal court challenges.

Marcus Allen, the former CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region, said companies that are following the administration’s lead and ending DEI initiatives may see short-term benefits, but their decisions will come back to harm them outwardly in reputation and inwardly with their employees in the long term.

“Right now, it is important to show their employees and businesses that they will stand behind what they have promised them and what they have promised their communities,” said Allen, who left Big Brothers Big Sisters this year.

“Businesses since 2020 have been saying they are committed to diversity and inclusion. Now we are seeing for a lot of these companies, it was more of a branding and marketing strategy than what they took seriously within their business.”

For Shel-Anne Bovell, co-owner of Snelling Staffing in Sewell, the chamber and its DEIB initiatives have been priceless in her company’s efforts.

“Having the chamber here and their promotion [of DEIB] has been invaluable,” she said. “We have our own network but the chamber has opened us up to new doors outside of our network and a broader diversity to connect with other businesses.”

Renna said that while DEI has become a political and social trigger, there should not be such dividing lines in fairness and access in business. She said that is the goal of the chamber.

“I think DEI has been politicized and our chamber doesn’t politicize anything,” she said. “We are fully an apolitical organization that just wants to see our businesses grow and thrive and their employees grow and thrive. We want everyone who walks into a chamber meeting to have a feeling of belonging and purpose. It’s built into our DNA. It’s extraordinarily important to us.”

WHYY News is partnering with independent journalists across New Jersey to spotlight the people, communities, cultures and distinctive places that shape the Garden State. This work is made possible with support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.