Capitals 6, Devils 3: Deja vu

Despite dominating for much of the game, the Devils couldn't get a save and left the ice losers vs Washington for the 11th time in 12 tries.

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A few notes from New Jersey vs Washington:

Blackwood struggled mightily

After three competent games against bad teams, while facing an average of fewer than 20 shots per night, Mackenzie Blackwood suffered a huge setback against the Capitals.

He conceded five goals on just 18 shots, good for a lovely .722 save percentage. Despite facing only 0.84 xG in the middle frame, Blackwood allowed four goals and turned a 1-1 contest into a game completely out of reach.

While the Devils absolutely did make some mistakes in front of him – shocking; this doesn’t happen anywhere else! – I think he let the team down much more than the other way around.

Take Nic Dowd’s goal, for example. There is absolutely no threat on the right side of the net. There are multiple Devils taking that space away and zero Capitals. Even so, Blackwood felt it was prudent to hug the *right* side of the post for 10 minutes (four full seconds, to be more accurate) and allow Dowd to shoot at an open cage when the puck made it his way.

On the 2nd goal, Damon Severson chopped at a bouncing puck to try and knock it past the oncoming forechecker. It didn’t work; happens.

As much as I want to give Blackwood a pass for it being a bouncing puck, Garnet Hathaway was the shooter and the puck made direct contact with Blackwood’s arm. It could have been stopped but went right through him.

I’ll absolutely give Blackwood a break on the egregious Jesper Bratt turnover that led to Conor Sheary’s goal, but Blackwood immediately made another mistake on Alex Ovechkin’s. He was too slow getting over to cut off the angle – especially considering you *know* Washington’s sole purpose on the PP is feeding Ovechkin pucks – and let one slip by short side to make it 4-1. Another goal he could have had.

It’s not even about any specific shot. It’s about the Devils getting the better of chances, leading by 1.25 xG through 40 minutes, and leaving the ice down four with the game out of reach. That isn’t normal.

Generally speaking, I think far too much blame goes on the team’s defense with each loss. It’s almost as if their mistakes get looked at as abnormalities no other goaltender deals with.

Meanwhile, the Capitals concede 483 good looks and they get completely overlooked because their guy could make a save.

John Marino was spectacular