Washington Capitals Preview: Road Trip Ends in Garden State

The Washington Capitals end their four-game road trip on Tuesday night in New Jersey where they’ll take on the Devils at Prudential Center in Newark. This is the first of a back-to-back.

The Washington Capitals look to bounce back from a Saturday night 6-3 loss to the Lightning. Tuesday night’s game marks the final game of Washington’s four-game road trip and they’ll look to end the trip on a right note to head back to D.C. and go 2-2 over the trip. That record would would be the case if they defeat the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center. Tuesday’s game is the fourth and final meeting between the two teams this season. The Capitals lead the season series 2-1-0 and won the most recent meeting which was a 3-0 shutout over the Devils on Friday March 8th.

A win against the Devils would be great momentum for the Capitals because they got a quick turnaround with a home rematch against the Lightning tomorrow night. The Islanders defeated the Wild on Sunday to move back up to first place, tied with the Capitals (42-23-7) for 91 points. It’s the homestretch of the season and if it ended right now, the Capitals would finish second and would have to play the Penguins in the first round.

The Devils meanwhile have struggled this season after making it to the playoffs last season and bowing out to the Lightning in the first round. With a 27-37-9 (63 points) record, they’re the third lowest point team in the East. Only two teams with lesser points are the Red Wings and Senators.

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The Devils are undermanned in the worst way possible with 10 players injured including the talented Nico Hischier and Taylor Hall. Their best player this season is Kyle Palmeiri who leads the Devils with 27 goals and 50 pooints.

PROJECTED LINES

Even though the Capitals lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, there were no changes to the Capitals lineup at Monday’s practice which could indicate the lineup for Tuesday night barring something different at morning skate. Here are the lines for those that need a refresher.

Forwards
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Hagelin-Eller-Connolly
Burakovsky-Stephenson-Boyd
Defense
Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Orpik-Jensen

Update: The Capitals made a few changes at their morning skate on Tuesday. Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post reported that there are changes to the fourth line and third pairing. We’ll have more about that in a post coming out soon.

GOALIE MATCHUP

Pheonix Copley (15-5-3) vs. Cory Schneider (5-11-13)

Pheonix Copley gets the start on Tuesday night so Braden Holtby gets the rematch with the Lightning on Wednesday, which makes perfect sense given the back-to-back. Copley has a 2.97 goals against-average, .904 save percentage and a shutout. He’s had a great first season as Holtby’s backup and has come into this game winning five straight.

Cory Schneider is in the midst of a bad season in New Jersey, athogh the whole team has struggled with the injury bug this season. Schneider has won only five of his 19 starts and has dropped four of his last five starts.

Puck drop tonight is at 7:30 p.m. and you can catch the game both locally on NBC Sports Washington and nationally if you live outside the D.C. market on the NBC Sports Network.