Washington defenseman Cole Hutson looks to continue his impressive run when the Capitals visit the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
Hutson scored his first NHL overtime goal and added an assist in the Capitals’ 3-2 road win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old rookie has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past five games. He has 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in 30 career NHL games dating to last season. He bested the mark set by Greg Theberge (33 games from 1979-81) to become the fastest Capitals defenseman to record 20 career points.
New Jersey returns home after a 4-2 loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday that ended a five-game winning streak. The Devils are still rolling, having won nine of their past 11 games.
The Metropolitan Division rivals will complete the home-and-home series Saturday night in Washington.
In Ottawa, Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the game-tying goal in the third period and Matt Roy scored in the first period for the Capitals, who have won two straight. Logan Thompson made 25 saves.
“It’s not how we want to play, you know, consistently moving forward,” Dubois said of the win. “But at the end of the day, it can be the difference between not making the playoffs and making them. So, we’re not going to feel bad, but we can do a lot better than that.”
Hutson assisted on the game-tying goal before scoring his game-winner.
“He’s a young guy in age, but he’s got the confidence of a guy with 1,000 games,” Dubois said. “He’s had an impact since he got here last year, even coming out of college (Boston University), and he’s improved more and more.”
Alex Ovechkin assisted on Hutson’s goal, tying Nicklas Backstrom (762) for the most assists in team history.
After all the drama surrounding Connor Hellebuyck’s return to Winnipeg, it was another player in the trade who made an impact. Hellebuyck did not play, but Dawson Mercer, who went to Winnipeg in the deal, scored twice.
Jesper Bratt and Cody Glass scored for the Devils, and Jake Allen made 21 saves.
“We didn’t have our best stuff tonight,” Allen said. “We know that. But you got to look at the big picture right now, how well we’ve been playing. … Now we just got to get back on the horse and get back to the way we’ve been playing the last 10 games.”
Devils forward Jack Hughes saw his multipoint streak end at five games, but he did have one assist to extend his overall point streak to six games (five goals, seven assists).
Both teams rank near the bottom of the NHL in power-play success, and each went 0-for-4 on Tuesday.
“I just think we’re holding onto the puck too long,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I feel like we’re not creating any sort of space or opportunity to make plays. It’s really slow.”
Hellebuyck is expected to start Thursday. He is 8-5-2 with a 2.24 goals-against average (GAA) and .923 save percentage versus Washington. Thompson is 5-1-3 against New Jersey with a 3.12 GAA and .899 save percentage.
The Capitals took the teams’ first meeting of the season 4-2 on Oct. 17 in Washington. Thompson stopped 29 of 31 shots.