March 22 vs. Colorado Avalanche at Capital One Arena
Time: 12:30 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Colorado Avalanche (45-13-10)
Washington Capitals (35-27-8)
The Capitals conclude their last multi-game homestand of the 2025-26 season on Sunday afternoon against the Colorado Avalanche. Sunday’s matinee is the fourth game of the current homestand, which matches Washington’s longest of the season. The Caps are 2-0-1 on the homestand heading into Sunday’s finale.
Washington enters the matinee match on the heels of a 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils here on Friday night. In that game, the Caps rode Ryan Leonard’s goal midway through the first period all the way to the game’s penultimate minute when Aliaksei Protas finally gave Caps goaltender Logan Thompson some breathing room with an empty-net insurance marker.
Protas’ goal turned out to be the game-winner when New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt spoiled Thompson’s shutout bid in the game’s final minute.
The Caps played a strong first 40 minutes on Friday, and the Devils – their own playoff hopes more dire than Washington’s – put on a heavy and expected push in the third when they teed up 32 shot attempts and got 19 of them through on Thompson.
“I thought that first period was one of our better periods that we’ve played in probably the last 20 games,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We had two hiccups and they get [scoring] opportunities off of them, and they’re just two little misplays. But other than that, from a forechecking, getting pucks back, [offensive] zone possession, and attacking the net, I thought we did a lot of really good things.
“The second was also solid. We set ourselves up and then just stumbled a little bit in the third, but thankfully [Thompson] was there to bail the guys out.”
Friday’s win was Washington’s second victory by a 2-1 margin in a span of less than 10 days, and the way the Caps played in the first 40 minutes of that contest is what they’re looking for in these last dozen games.
“I think it’s a good blueprint,” says Carbery. “Because a lot of similar things are going to need to be replicated against Colorado because of their speed and skill inside of their top six [forward group] and you could probably argue their top nine. They do a lot of those similar things that New Jersey is capable of doing, so I like a lot of the things.”
Friday’s win over New Jersey extended Washington’s point streak to four (3-0-1) and gives the Capitals a 10-5-1 mark since Jan. 29, tied with Philadelphia for the sixth best record in the League over that span. If the Capitals can continue at that pace over the season’s final dozen games, they would finish with 94 points, which would likely leave them just outside of a playoff berth, assuming the teams ahead of them also continue at their current paces.
Goaltending, defense and the penalty kill have fueled the Caps over these last 16 games; they’ve allowed the fourth fewest goals against (2.50 per game) in the League over that stretch and their penalty killing outfit has been successful on 88.6 percent of its missions, tops in the circuit. Those elements have kept the Caps in the hunt despite their recent scoring struggles and ongoing power play woes.
“We’re giving ourselves a better chance to win a game 1-0 or 2-1,” says Carbery. “And that’s what [Friday] night was. Would we ideally like to capitalize and make that three, four? For sure. But if you are committed to defending and checking like that, you give yourself a chance every night.”
For the Caps, the mindset these days is simple. Put your nose to the grindstone and work, control what you can control, prepare and perform. The out-of-town scoreboard continues to be unkind, but there is nothing to be done in that regard. So, try to make a nightly impact, keep stacking wins and points, and keep the noise at arm’s length.
“We’re not going to quit,” says Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “I know it’s probably against the odds and the analytics of the percentages probably are against us, but we’ve got games against teams in front of us, and there is enough time to do it, so we are going to keep believing.”
Coming out of the Olympic break, the Caps were facing 23 games in 49 days to finish the season, a much more leisurely pace than the breakneck 22 games in 41 nights gauntlet they faced going into the February break.
Today – the Saturday between the Friday game against New Jersey and Sunday’s game with the Avs – is day 25 of that seven-week post-Olympic break stretch, making it the midway point of the post-Olympic portion of the Capitals’ season.
Starting with Sunday’s game against the Avs, the Caps will finish the campaign with a dozen games in 24 days, but they will also be traveling for each of their final 11 contests, which won’t make their path to a playoff berth any easier.
Colorado roared out of the gate like gangbusters this season, pulling points in 12 of their first 13 games (7-1-5) before reeling off 10 straight victories in November to push their mark to 17-1-5. The Avalanche didn’t suffer its second regulation loss until Dec. 4, when it fell 6-3 to the Islanders in New York. Colorado’s 26-11-4 record since then is still the fourth-best in the NHL from a points percentage standpoint (.683), trailing only Buffalo, Carolina and Dallas.
The Avs enter Sunday’s game with the best record in the NHL, but Dallas has closed to within four points of Colorado. The two teams meet once more during the regular season, in a nationally televised Saturday matinee on April 4 in Denver.
Most recently, the Avs halted a brief three-game slide (0-2-1) with a 4-1 triumph over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Friday night in the opener of a four-game road trip. Following Sunday’s game in the District, the Avalanche will visit Pittsburgh and Winnipeg before returning home.
