In Washington, DC, the Capitals’ Braden Holtby made 25 saves in a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.
“A little bit of a slow start for us,” Washington coach Todd Reirden said. “We end up scoring the first goal obviously which is important, but I thought Braden was outstanding right from the very beginning and gave us a chance to kind of settle in there. He was obviously a huge, huge difference-maker tonight. He was super sharp.”
Andre Burakovsky opened the scoring for the Caps – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Caps now lead the Metro Division by two points over the idle New York Islanders.
Andre Burakovsky struck in the first period to give the Caps all the offense they needed.
Nicklas Backstrom scored, and Lars Eller added an empty-net goal on a shorthanded effort.
“After trading deadline, I think we talked a lot in the locker room, this is the team who’s going do it and move forward,” Backstrom said. “I felt like after that we really stepped up and everyone is playing into our system. We’ve been playing a lot better too. Moving forward here, we want to be a hard team to play against and it starts now.”
The Devils have lost five straight and dropped to 25-34-9.
“I thought we had some Grade A chances,” New Jersey coach John Hynes said. “Unfortunately, the puck didn’t go in for us, but you can’t fault the effort, and I think the concepts and things we’re trying to work on to get into the scoring area, they’re there, we’re there. We’ve just got to find a way to put it in.”
[WATCH: All Devils vs. Capitals highlights]
Mackenzie Blackwood made 33 saves in the loss.
“I just think our decisions on the power play tonight were slow,” Hynes said. “We wanted to dust the puck off. We did have some good looks, but I thought the decision-making and the execution wasn’t where it needs to be.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.