For the second time in three games, the Capitals find themselves down 3-0 at the end of the first period as they trail the New Jersey Devils 3-0 after 20 minutes of action.
Washington failed to get anything going, but the Devils certainly didn't. New Jersey entered Monday's game averaging a NHL-worst 1.8 goals per game and second-to-last 10.2% on the power play. Despite all of that, New Jersey scored their first goal with the man advantage at 5:49 when Mattias Tedenby sent a centering pass towards Patrik Elias. The pass deflected off of Mike Green, then off of Elias into the upper right corner of the net.
Braden Holtby's surprise start didn't get any better at 16:15 when Jason Arnott capitalized on a John Erskine turnover to score a wraparound shot that caught Holtby on the wrong side of the crease. Erskine then tripped up Tedenby, who then converted a penalty shot to end the Devils' scoring for the first period.
New Jersey outshot Washington 9-4 in the first and Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green had none.