EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- At least the Caps can say they've seen their worst road trip of this season.
They wrapped up a disaster of a five-game excursion last night with a 4-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils, surrendering two goals in the first 10 minutes and never recovering.
Thus they completed their longest trip of the season with only one point. From now on, they will play no more than two straight on the road, a good thing since they have gone 0-6-2 away from home in this revised schedule.
Dave Poulin scored an even-strength goal and Michal Pivonka connected while short-handed, but the Caps remained last in the league in goals and have scored three goals or fewer in 10 of their 12 games this season. And they could not contain Stephane Richer, who scored two goals and assisted on a third.
Former Caps Bobby Carpenter and Randy McKay scored the other goals for the Devils, who reached .500 at 5-5-2.
Despite falling behind 2-0 and 3-1, the Caps had a chance to tie with 12 minutes to play. Peter Bondra picked up a loose puck and took a back-hander from low in the right circle, but the puck bounced off goalie Martin Brodeur and hit the far post.
Shortly thereafter, Richer iced the game by out-foxing Sylvain Cote in the left circle and swatting the puck behind goalie Byron Dafoe at 9:21.
Center Kevin Kaminski, just up from the minors, got Ken Daneyko's attention early in the first period with a hit behind the New Jersey goal.
Kaminski, just recalled from Portland and who was third in the AHL with 292 penalty minutes, picked up a couple of minors, one of them resulting in what proved to be the winning goal.
The game began around its scheduled starting time of 7:35, but the Caps opened so poorly that one scout in the press box said they must have thought the faceoff came at 8 p.m.
Sure enough, they gave up a scoring chance to Corey Millen just 47 seconds into the game, but Dafoe, called up from Phoenix on Tuesday, denied him.
Less than a minute later, however, Richer carried around the net and fed Carpenter for a drive from the left circle. The shot beat Defoe to the glove side for Carpenter's second goal of the season.
At 9:13, New Jersey once again took liberties deep in the Washington zone, and McKay converted from the slot for his second goal. By then, New Jersey had outshot the visitors by 5-1.
Just when it seemed the Caps were looking at a long night, Poulin halved the deficit at 11:59 by tucking in a loose puck while standing in the crease.
A double-minor to Daneyko at 17:06 gave the Caps a chance to tie. But their power play, ranked 18th in the league entering the game, failed to score, even though John Slaney hit the post with just 50 seconds left in the first period.