Sept. 26 vs. Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena
Time: 5:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: Team 980 (join in progress), Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (2-0-1)
Philadelphia Flyers (1-2-0)
The Caps finish off their four-game preseason schedule in a late Saturday afternoon tilt against the Flyers in Philadelphia. Washington played back-to-back games last weekend to start and this weekend to complete its quartet of exhibition games, and the Caps will also open the regular season with a pair of back-to-back games next weekend on the road, at Carolina and Tampa Bay, respectively.
On Friday night in the District, Jordan Kyrou’s power-play goal 11 seconds into overtime made a winner of Logan Thompson (20 saves) as the Caps prevailed 3-2 in their rematch with the Bruins. Boston won by the same score in a shootout in the preseason opener for both teams last Sunday.
Kyrou’s game-winner capped off a banner night for Washington’s power play unit, which went 3-for-3 and looked lethal in doing so. The Caps were dominant in possession and puck battles, face-offs and retrievals. In particular, the first unit appeared to be reading off each other better with each extra-man opportunity.
“For me, the attacks and the movement was good,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Multiple goal line attacks, multiple guys shooting from the flank … to me it’s the puck recoveries.
“There were probably – I’m going to guess – five or maybe six pucks that go to the half wall; I’m remembering one of [Ryan] Leonard right now, and one of [Pierre-Luc] Dubois in the bench-side corner. And there is a lot of pressure and there’s good penalty killers coming with their sticks. And if you can problem-solve and get that puck out of there, now it gives you another opportunity to attack. You do it once, twice, three, four [times], now the killers are gassed. And that’s where I put so much emphasis on your ability to recover pucks and get them out of pressure situations.”
Both power play units looked sharp, but the first unit of Dubois, Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson up front with Jakob Chychrun up top and Leonard on the left flank possesses physicality, hockey sense and finesse, and they deploy those skills to “problem-solve,” as Carbery puts it. Those strong reads fueled puck support and facilitated retrievals as players either joined the fray or made themselves available as an outlet – depending on what they saw their teammates doing – allowing the Caps to maintain high pressure and fatiguing the Boston penalty killing outfit.
“It feels like it was a good crunch time there to try to get one, and [Justin Sourdif] did a great job with drawing the penalty late there,” says Strome of the last of the Caps’ three power plays on Friday. “And yeah, it's always good to have some confidence going into the regular season. I thought the power play was moving around great, and we had some good looks 5-on-5, too.”
With Friday’s win, virtually all of Washington’s veteran players are in the clubhouse for the preseason, having maxed out at by playing two of the first three games this week. As a result, the Caps lineup for Saturday’s finale will be a decidedly youthful group, with goaltender Charlie Lindgren (170 NHL games) being the most experienced of the bunch.
Thompson started and went the distance in each of the Caps’ preseason contests against the Bruins. Lindgren started – and split with Clay Stevenson – the first Washington’s first of two exhibitions against the Flyers, a game that was played in Hershey on Monday night. Lindgren stopped 12 of 14 shots in 29:54 in the crease while Stevenson saw a much lighter workload of just six shots in 30:06, stopping them all.
Carbery hasn’t said whether Lindgren will go the distance on Saturday in Philly or whether the Caps might have him split the contest with ex-Flyers goalie Cal Petersen, who is expected to be Lindgren’s backup on Saturday. The 31-year-old Petersen – a fifth-round choice of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2013 NHL Draft – is in camp with Washington on a PTO agreement.
After falling 5-2 to the Caps in Hershey on Monday and dropping a 5-1 decision to the Bruins in Boston a night later, the Flyers got in the win column on Thursday in Philadelphia when they prevailed over the B’s, 2-0. Joseph Woll made 28 saves to earn the shutout, and he was supported with goals from Matvei Michkov and Cole Knuble, son of ex-Caps and ex-Flyers winger Mike Knuble. Cole Knuble scored against the Caps on Monday, and he now has two goals and three points in three preseason games as he prepares to embark on his first pro season in 2026-27.
Many of Philadelphia’s veteran regulars have played just one preseason game to date, so expect the Flyers to dress something close to their opening night lineup against the Caps in Saturday’s finale.
