Overview
- Faceoff is 7 p.m. ET at Prudential Center in Newark, with Washington 19-13-5 and New Jersey 20-16-1.
- The Capitals have dropped three straight and six of seven, and coach Spencer Carbery framed the coming stretch as decisive for their season.
- Tom Wilson leads Washington with 17 goals and 34 points and missed Tuesday’s game with an illness; Rasmus Sandin is expected to return from an upper-body issue.
- Hughes rejoined the Devils after an 18-game absence for a finger injury and scored in his first game back, though New Jersey has since lost two in a row.
- Goaltending form looms large: Washington’s Logan Thompson is 14-9-3 with a .917 save percentage but has an .891 mark over his last five, while the Devils have alternated Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen; New Jersey won the first meeting 3-2 in a shootout.