Taylor Hall

Struggling Devils travel to Washington (Dec 29, 2016)

Published Dec. 29, 2016 4:35 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON -- The Christmas break apparently didn't solve the New Jersey Devils' problems. Now they'll see if a trip to Washington to play the Capitals can snap them out of their December funk.

New Jersey fell to 1-8-1 in their last 10 games with a 5-2 home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. The Devils led 2-1 after one period, but the Penguins took a 3-2 lead on Justin Schultz's goal with 5.4 seconds left in the second period.

Devils goalie Corey Schneider said the team then lacked urgency in the third period.

"I don't know what happened, but, again, late goal in the second, 3-2, and you would have thought the game was over," Schneider told the Newark Star-Ledger. "You would have thought it was 5-1 at that point. I don't know."

The loss dropped the Devils (13-15-7) into last place in the Metropolitan Division. That's because the New York Islanders moved ahead of New Jersey by ruining the Capitals post-Christmas debut with a 4-3 win in Brooklyn. New York broke a 2-2 tie with a pair of third-period goals and survived two Washington power plays in the final minutes.

It was the first time in over a month that the Capitals surrendered four goals.

"When you come back after a break, you just need everybody playing well," Capitals head coach Barry Trotz told NHL.com. "You need to go in with a four-line mentality, and I didn't think we had all four lines going as much as I hoped."

Justin Williams, Alex Ovechkin and Andre Burakovsky scored for Washington (20-9-4). Ovechkin has scored in two straight games and is eight points shy of 1,000 in his NHL career. Andre Burakovsky has two goals and an assist in last three games

Washington didn't allow a power-play goal against the Islanders, but did take four penalties in the second period.

"Penalties are killing the momentum of our team and letting teams hang around," Williams told the Washington Post. ".?.?. It's way too many penalties, certainly myself included. We shouldn't be taking as many."

For the full season, the Capitals have accrued the fourth-lowest total of penalty minutes in the league. But in the past 20 games, they have taken 81 minor penalties, which ranks seventh in the league over that span.

Following Thursday's first meeting of the season, both teams return to New Jersey for the second half of a home-and-home at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The Devils had seven power-play opportunities against the Penguins, but scored on only the first one. They're converting just 15.7 percent of their chances, leaving them 22nd in the league.

"We should be able to make teams feel like they're going to pay for taking penalties against us and, if we're not going to score on them, we should at least get momentum from them and I don't think that happened tonight," New Jersey's Taylor Hall said. "Power plays should be fun and, right now, they're not."

PA Parenteau and Adam Henrique each have two goals and an assist in the last three games. Parenteau has four goals and seven assists in career games versus Washington, while Mike Cammalleri has seven goals and eight assists in 16 games. Schneider is 3-5-2 with a 2.36 goals against average and .914 save percentage against Washington.

In 41 games against the division-rival Devils, Ovechkin has 19 goals and 24 assists. Goalie Braden Holtby is 10-3-1 with a 1.99 GAA and .926 save percentage when facing the Devils.