The injury-depleted New Jersey Devils headed to D.C. on Saturday night to face the Washington Capitals. Thanks to a Simon Nemec shootout winner, they bested the Caps 3-2 for a second straight win to start their road trip.
Related: Devils Survive Capitals’ Comeback Attempt in 3-2 Shootout Win
Finding Ways to Win
Since 2022-23, the Devils have played 44 games without Jack Hughes. In those, they’ve went 18-23-2, which is obviously not ideal. If they want to overcome the absence of their star player (and other absences), they’ll need to turn in consistent 60-minute efforts.
But something has set this team apart from previous Devils squads: even when they don’t turn in a full 60, they’re still finding ways to win. Down eight key players, they were out chanced 15-24 by Washington but held down the fort enough to get it to overtime.
From there, they played a responsible but confident overtime — a certain improvement from last season when head coach Sheldon Keefe said they sometimes played too risky in the extra session. While they didn’t find twine there despite outshooting the Caps 7-2, they were able to take home the second point in the shootout.
It’s truly remarkable that with all these injuries, the Devils are now 13-4-1 — first in the Metro and second in the league.
“I don’t think it’s a statement game…we’ve been making statements all year,” said head coach Sheldon Keefe on the MSG broadcast.
3 Defensemen Continue to Step Up in Wake of Injuries
After a thrilling hat-trick in Chicago, the narrative around Nemec became simply: How in the world can he come out of the lineup when the team is fully healthy!?
While the Devils won’t have to face that (good) problem anytime soon, Nemec once again stepped up as he was called upon in the shootout and delivered to seal the victory.
SIMON NEMEC BACK TO BACK GAME WINNING GOALS FOR THE DEVILS 🤯🚨 pic.twitter.com/YXMVxnkfOH
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 16, 2025
While Nemec has certainly played a large role in the team’s ability to overcome injuries, he hasn’t been the only one. Tonight, against a very good Caps team, the pairing of Dennis Cholowski and Colton White were rock solid.
The duo excelled at keeping the Caps’ chances to the outside and made life very easy on Jake Allen. According to Moneypuck, in 10:43 of ice time together, they allowed just 0.36 expected goals and most importantly: zero goals against.
“You won’t have a chance if you can’t get [good] minutes from guys like that,” said Keefe.
Luke Hughes Settling In
With Nemec’s recent resurgence, Luke Hughes was bumped down to the second man advantage unit. While some players could have let that mentally take them out of the game, Luke did the opposite.
Late in the first, he notched his first goal of the season after walking the blue line and ripping a wrister through. He was all over the place tonight, leading the Devils in shot attempts and fourth in scoring chances created (first among defensemen).
Aside from a hiccup leading to a highlight-reel goal in Chicago, he’s defended much better overall, prompting Keefe to give him 18:25 of even strength ice time — nearly two minutes more than any other Devils skater (Jonas Siegenthaler, 16:30).
There’s no denying that Hughes has the skillset to be one of the best defensemen in the league. If this goal opens the floodgates for him, it’s an excellent time for that to be the case.
Moving Forward
The Devils will return to action on Tuesday as they head south to face the Tampa Bay Lightning (7:00 PM EST).
