Behind the glass: Devils 5, Capitals 2 — Caps get the New Jersey blues

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Caps get the New Jersey blues. Read more: Devils 5, Capitals 2 — Caps get the New Jersey blues

Let me ask the question every Caps fan has been asking for years. Why do we play professional hockey in a swamp pit off the New Jersey Turnpike, anyway? The place is a dump. They couldn’t even fill it on a Thursday night. Only 15,035 showed up. That’s a Tuesday in January at the Fortress.

And now the Devils went out and traded for an All-Star goalie. So we’re all supposed to anoint them as Stanley Cup contenders? Yes. The guy is the real deal. Connor Hellebuyck is 6-0 since coming over from Winnipeg last month. He was also very good last night, with 26 saves on 28 shots. So New Jersey acquired one hot goalie and now sports a seven-game home win streak.

Whatever. We got drop-kicked last night, no sugarcoating it. But we beat Ottawa in overtime on Tuesday. So I’ll take a 1-1, .500 road trip any day of the week. The Caps are 10-7 and right in the thick of the Metro. Here’s how it shook out.

Related: Capitals beat Senators in overtime

The great

Cole Hutson. The kid keeps doing it. He set up Ryan Leonard’s power-play goal and now has seven points in his last six games. He also leads every rookie defenseman in the league with 12 points. When the Caps need somebody to move the puck with confidence, Hutson is that guy. In fact, watching him grow in real time is the best part of this season so far.

Related: Behind the glass: Capitals 4, Panthers 3 — Not in our house! Caps beat the Cats to end the home skid

The good

Ryan Leonard answered the Devils’ early power-play goal with one of his own. It was his third on the man advantage, tops on the team. The kid draws penalties like a magnet and makes teams pay.

Then Pierre-Luc Dubois snapped a wicked wrister over Hellebuyck’s left shoulder early in the second. That gave us a 2-1 lead. The second period was our best hockey of the night. We tilted the ice. With a couple of better bounces on lousy ice, we’re up two.

The bad

After Dubois scored, we went dark for the final 37 minutes. Zero goals. You don’t win in this league like that. We also coughed up the puck 21 times to their 12. And that too-many-men call? Justin Sourdif had the puck deep in our end with nobody around him. Coach Spencer Carbery and the bench looked as confused as the rest of us. Meanwhile, the refs swallowed their whistles on a Jesper Bratt delay of game. Then New Jersey scored the go-ahead goal right after. Funny how that works in Newark.

The ugly

The third period. It was tied 2-2 heading in. It was a low-event, grind-it-out period, the kind we usually win. Instead, a defenseman named Vladislav Kolyachonok trickled one past Logan Thompson at 6:27. He was playing his first game in a Devils sweater, and it was the first goal of his season. Then Stefan Noesen added a backhand late. Finally, Jack Hughes put the bow on it with an empty-netter. A three-goal third and a 5-2 final that felt a lot worse than the game actually was. Thompson didn’t look sure of himself on the third and fourth goals. Also, our man-to-man coverage broke down way too often.

Who’s up, who’s down

Hot: Hutson and Leonard. The kids are alright, and then some.

Not: Logan Thompson had an off night. And Tom Wilson looked ornery all game. He fired a puck at Hellebuyck after the whistle because he was hot over a missed call. I get it, Tom. We all wanted that call. But he needs a bounce, and soon.

Fans excited or depressed?

Neither. Annoyed. This was a winnable game that slipped away in one bad period. Still, nobody in our section is pressing the panic button over a road loss in a building that looks like a bus terminal.

Next up

Devils at Caps, Saturday night. It’s payback time!

I personally love two-game series. I think it really intensifies a rivalry. You lose Thursday, you don’t have to stew on it for a week. Instead, you get them right back 48 hours later. So now we come home to the Fortress on Saturday night, where 19,000 frenzied fans will be waiting to return the favor. Bring the noise. Let Hellebuyck hear it from the first puck drop. Time to send the Devils back up the smog-filled, gross NJ Turnpike with a loss.

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