Caps Clash with Devils | Washington Capitals

Nov. 30 against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center

Time: 7:00 p.m

TV: MNMT

Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7

Washington Capitals (16-6-1)

New Jersey Devils (16-8-2)

The Caps conclude a series of back-to-back games, the November portion of their schedule and their 2024-25 season series with the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night in Newark. With a win in Saturday’s game against the Devils, the Capitals can match their franchise record for consecutive road wins (seven).

On October 12 in Washington, the Capitals opened their season against the Devils at Capital One Arena with a 5-3 loss to New Jersey, which was playing its fourth game of the season that night. Nearly two months later, the Devils have still played three more games than the Caps, and the teams are wrapping up their uniquely scheduled season series.

The two Metro Division rivals played home games on consecutive Saturday nights in October – the Caps played their first road game of the season on Oct. 19 in Newark – and now they’re doing the same thing in late November. A week ago the Caps and Devils clashed in the district, and now they’ll see each other for the final time of the regular season on the last night of November.

Both the Caps and Devils come into Saturday’s game after 5-4 wins on Black Friday. The Caps came back to beat the New York Islanders by that score in overtime at Capital One Arena, while the Devils did the same against the Red Wings in Detroit, but New Jersey’s comeback win came in regulation time.

Friday’s win over the Islanders was Washington’s ninth comeback win of the season, its third straight comeback win and its second straight after a two-goal deficit. Trailing 4-2 early in the third period, the Caps got goals from Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson to force overtime. Both players also scored in the third period of Washington’s previous game in Tampa, contributing to the comeback.

In overtime, Jakob Chychrun skated at high speed from the top of the circles on his own end to the top of the circles in the New York ice. From there, he unleashed a wrist shot that evaded the blocker of Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov, giving the Caps their third straight win and ending a four-game home deficit (0-3-1).

“It shows we’re a really good hockey team,” said Caps forward Connor McMichael, who had three assists in Friday’s win. “There’s an old saying that good teams always find a way to win, and it just proves that we have a really good hockey team, and we have guys with high character that never give up when it comes to pucks, and never give up.” Games or games. I thought we did a really good job.”

Each of the Caps’ three wins this week were driven by special teams; Chychrun’s 5-on-3 goal was the game-winner on Monday, the first power-play game-winner for the Caps this season. Wilson won the game for Washington on Wednesday in Tampa, breaking a 4-4 tie with a power-play goal late in the third period.

Thanks to power-play goals from Wilson and Strome in Friday’s triumph, the Caps have risen to 20 percent efficiency this season, and their power-play unit, which ranked last in the NHL three weeks ago this morning, is in moved up to 18th place in the table. Washington has scored a power play goal in eight of its last 10 games, shooting at a rate of 41.7 percent during that span.

In the five games since the Capitals were without captain Alex Ovechkin (fractured fibula), they have won 5 of 15 (33.3%) with the extra man.

“We know how big of a loss Ovi is to this power play unit,” McMichael said. “The other four guys in the unit tried to step up and bring more energy with (Ovechkin’s) absence. I think we succeeded really well. We play really connected; It’s quick little bang bang games and we’re closer as a unit.”

New Jersey has won two of the last three meetings between the two teams in the 2024-25 season, and the Devils have picked up a point in all three games. Washington’s only win was a 6-5 overtime victory on October 19 in Newark, with Wilson scoring the game-winner in overtime that night.

All three Caps-Devils games were close; The Devils needed a late scoreless goal in the season opener to preserve their two-goal lead for the win.

Heading into their final game of November, the Caps (9-4-1) and Devils (9-4-0) are each looking for their tenth win of the month. New Jersey leads a three-team horse race for the Metropolitan Division lead; The Devils scored 34 points to 33 for both the Caps and the Carolina Hurricanes. But as mentioned, Washington has three games in hand against New Jersey, and so does Carolina.

While Washington boasts the league’s fourth-best penalty kill team (85.3%), Carolina and New Jersey are the only two teams in the NHL to have both special teams ranked in the top 10. The Devils scored three power play goals in Detroit. After Friday’s win in Motown, they now have the league’s deadliest extra-man unit at 32.5 percent. New Jersey’s penalty kill ranks seventh at 83.8 percent.