The New Jersey Devils began the 2024-25 season with a pair of victories in Prague before returning home to play in Newark, N.J.
With three games already under their belt, the Devils will visit the nation’s capital on Saturday and serve as the season-opening opponent for superstar captain Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
New Jersey’s Sheldon Keefe saw his home coaching debut spoiled by his former team on Thursday, courtesy of a 4-2 setback to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“I’m still adjusting to the red, and the blue and white is back again,” Keefe said. “We’re just trying to build our game. The opponent had a big say in the game (on Thursday), but that was nowhere good enough. Not close to what we need or close to what we did in Prague.”
Timo Meier scored a goal in his second straight game for the Devils. He totaled three points (two goals, one assist) in three meetings last season with Washington.
The Capitals posted a 40-31-11 record in 2023-24 during Spencer Carbery’s rookie season as the team’s head coach, good enough for 91 points and — by virtue of a tiebreaker — the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. However, Washington was swept by the New York Rangers in the first round.
The Capitals, set to open their 50th season, are led by a familiar face in Ovechkin. The three-time Hart Trophy recipient had a club-best 31 goals last season to boost his career total to 853, which is 41 shy of tying Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history.
“Every year it gets harder to score goals,” Ovechkin, 39, said in training camp. “This is my 20th year.”
The Devils likely have a different take on Ovechkin’s assessment, given that he recorded eight points (three goals, five assists) to help Washington go 3-1 against its Metropolitan Division rival last season.
Dylan Strome added three goals and two assists versus New Jersey in 2023-24 and finished second on the team for the season in both categories (27 goals, 40 assists).
Offensive-minded defenseman John Carlson led the Capitals in assists with 42 while playing in all 82 games last season.
Washington, however, struggled to score goals as a team, registering just 2.63 per game to finish 28th in the league.
With that in mind, the Capitals added forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane to provide some pop along their top two lines.
Dubois scored 16 goals in 2023-24 for the Los Angeles Kings and Mangiapane added 14 for the Calgary Flames, but both players are three seasons removed from their career-high totals. Dubois had 28 goals while playing for the Winnipeg Jets in 2021-22, while Mangiapane erupted for 35 with the Flames in that campaign.
“The way we have to play — and it’s really difficult — we don’t rely on four players anymore or five players,” Carbery told The Washington Post.
“We need every single player. … It’s just a reminder to our guys of, in order for us to have success, it’s going to take every single person. That’s staff included. And it’s going to need to be consistent every single night.”
–Field Level Media