The Washington Capitals came into Capitals Vs Devils with a little lift and a little less room for error. They beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday night, then turned right around to face the New Jersey Devils in game 1 of a back-to-back.
That mattered because Washington did not just survive in Ottawa; it controlled the game in stretches and finished it off when Cole Hutson scored the winner in overtime. Matt Roy scored less than a minute into the game, Ottawa took a 2-1 lead into the third period and Pierre-Luc Dubois pulled the Capitals level before Hutson ended it. For a team heading straight into New Jersey, it was the kind of result that can settle a room fast.
The Devils, though, were trying to answer a different question. They lost 4-2 to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night, and the game left more than the scoreline behind it. Jonathan Kovacevic left in the second period and did not return, Anthony Mantha had already missed his second game in a row, and New Jersey was already working through injuries that forced it into 7 defensemen and 11 forwards.
That made the matchup more than a simple rebound spot. New Jersey had just come off a 3-game road trip in Winnipeg, and the next stretch came with another meeting with Winnipeg waiting on November 28th. The Devils were supposed to be back home and reset, but the lineup picture was still unsettled before the puck even dropped against Washington.
The biggest unknown was Kovacevic. His status after leaving the Winnipeg game was not updated, which left New Jersey having to plan for one game while not knowing whether one of its defensemen would be available for the next one. In a back-to-back, that kind of gap matters immediately. If he could not go, the Devils would have to keep leaning on a short bench and patchwork defense while trying to recover from the loss to Winnipeg and keep pace in the opener against Washington.
So the Capitals arrived with momentum and the Devils arrived with questions. Washington had the cleaner recent result; New Jersey had the more complicated night and the more urgent injury check, with Kovacevic's availability still unresolved as the teams met again.
