📸 : RMNB
The Washington Capitals went back and forth with a very game New Jersey Devils team on Saturday night. The Caps battled periods of very poor play throughout the night, but countered with just as many great stretches that helped them to a 4-3 overtime victory.
Great to see two points right out of the break. The Devils are probably better than their record suggests now that Jack Hughes is back, so this was nice to see.
As I said in the intro, the Capitals had spells in this game in all three periods that were not great. The entirety of the second frame was a rough watch at five-on-five as they were out-attempted 27-7 and gave up 17 scoring chances and 8 high-danger chances. They reversed a lot of that with a really good third period, keeping the Devils from recording a single high-danger chance. Some consistency and not collapsing for that 32 seconds in the third would be great, but they ultimately got the job done.
Logan Thompson was superb yet again, making 35 stops on 38 shots faced. According to MoneyPuck, he only saved 0.36 more goals than expected, but I think he was far better than that indicates. At the other end, Jake Allen saved 0.22 more goals than expected.
Jakob Chychrun scored his 15th goal of the season to give the Capitals the win in overtime. He still leads all NHL defensemen in goals and is on pace to finish the season with 31 markers. Absurd output.
Washington’s 30 goals by defensemen are the most in the League.
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) December 28, 2025
Alex Ovechkin scored his 15th goal of the season and 912th of his career to push the game into overtime. Ovechkin snapped a 9-game goal drought with the tally, which was tied for the third-longest of his career. Ovechkin’s 44 goals in 91 career games against the Devils are the most among active players.
Aliaksei Protas notched three points (1g, 2a) in the win, his second three-point game of the season and the eighth of his career. Protas now has seven points (4g, 3a) in his last five games. He scored his goal with just 0.3 seconds remaining in the first period.
Hendrix Lapierre played just 6:54 in the win. Brandon Duhaime also played just 8:19 and took two minor penalties. It feels like something has gotta give with the forward line the Capitals’ coaching staff clearly doesn’t trust enough to play regularly.
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