WASHINGTON _ A New Jersey player factored into a win on Friday night, but it wasn't a player for the New Jersey Devils.
John Carlson, who played youth hockey in Newark and spent three years at St. Joseph's, sent a perfect pass through traffic to Nicklas Backstrom, who tipped it past Devils' goalie Mackenzie Blackwood 4:35 into the third period.
The power-play goal was the dagger for the Devils, who couldn't come back and fell, 3-0, to the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. It was their fifth straight loss (0-4-1) and 22nd on the road this season (8-22-3).
Blackwood had all but kept the Devils in the game after an early goal, but with the way things are going for the Devils offensively these days a 2-0 hole might as well be a 10-0 hole. He stopped 33 of 35 shots.
Braden Holtby turned aside all 25 shots the Devils threw at him.
Just 2:40 into play the Devils' fourth line was caught on the wrong side of a 3-on-2 and Andre Burakovsky finished off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence to put New Jersey in a 1-0 hole. The Devils then spent much of the period on the penalty kill, starting when Kurtis Gabriel crushed Dmitri Orlov on the boards and was whistled for charging. Just over a minute into the penalty, Blake Coleman hooked T.J. Oshie on the rush and Washington had a two-man advantage.
No sooner had the Devils killed off the Gabriel penalty were they caught on a bad change and slapped with a bench minor for too many men on the ice, giving one of the most dangerous power-play teams in the league a 5-on-3 once again. But they killed it off, continuing to play to their biggest strength this season.
However, the power play continued to be a glaring weakness. The Devils have failed to convert on their last 24 chances with the man-advantage including three in Washington. The power play was so bad they allowed a short-handed empty-net goal to Lars Eller with 59 seconds left.
Kyle Palmieri and John Quenneville, who has been successful on the power play at every other level of hockey, returned to action after missing four games. The additions of the two forwards were expected to bolster a scuffling unit but nothing seems to be clicking with the man-advantage. Palmieri had a few high-danger chances on one power play in the first period but other than that both units went quiet.
