As the song goes, “Mama said there’d be days like this.” Fortunately for the Capitals, they’ve been few and far between this season. The Columbus Blue Jackets put a 7-0 pasting on the Caps on Saturday afternoon at Nationwide Arena, sending the Caps to their largest shutout setback in nearly a decade and a half, since a 7-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Rangers in New York on Dec. 12, 2010.
The Jackets, who essentially must win every one of their remaining games to keep their faint and fading posteason hopes alive, were a determined bunch from the start. They scored on their first two shots of the game and never looked back. Columbus also got a solid performance in goal from Jet Greaves, who earned his first career NHL shutout on Saturday with a 22-save performance against Washington.
Greaves was also excellent in his first start against the Caps, which also took place here on Dec. 12, 2024, a 2-1 Washington win in overtime. Aliaksei Protas scored both goals for the Caps in that game, but he was absent on Saturday, sitting out his third straight game with a lower body injury.
Alex Ovechkin and Jakob Chychrun (illness) also missed Saturday’s game for the Caps, leaving Washington without nearly a third (92 of 280) of the goals it has scored in 2024-25.
The Caps fell into an early hole in the game’s opening frame; Columbus scored on each of its first two shots on net in the first, taking a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old.
“I just think we just gave up those early goals, which puts us in a hole, and the game is essentially decided at that point,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “So then it just becomes what it was, and you just get through the periods.”
Zach Werenski continued his stellar season with his 21st goal of the season – a franchise record for Columbus blueliners – at the one-minute mark of the first. Werenski took a feed from Sean Monahan and put a wrist shot to the far side from the left dot.
Kent Johnson doubled the Jackets’ advantage with an impressive individual effort at 4:45, gaining the zone and cutting to the middle before beating Hunter Shepard—making his first NHL appearance in over 15 months – to make it a 2-0 contest.
Prior to Saturday, Shepard’s most recent NHL duty came in a Jan. 3, 2024 game against New Jersey.
In the final minute of the first, Columbus center Adam Fantilli drilled Caps winger Ryan Leonard with an open ice hit in the Jackets end, then tore off to join the rush. From the weak side, Fantilli scored after taking a feed from Johnson while Leonard struggled to get to his feet. Fantilli’s goal made it 3-0 with 35.8 seconds left.
Seconds later, Washington’s Tom Wilson was assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10-minute misconduct.
Greaves was strong in the first, making a few stops from in tight to deny some early looks from the Capitals.
Leonard had three of Washington’s six first-period shots on net in 4:52 of ice time in the opening period; he returned to action in the second, none the worse for wear.
Although the Jackets didn’t score on the carryover power play, Fantilli scored on a center point shot soon after the man advantage expired, expanding the Columbus lead to 4-0 at 2:01 of the middle frame.
Sean Monahan scored at 4:37 and Cole Sillinger followed at 5:14 to make it 6-0, and the rout was on.
Leonard and Sean Kuraly fought briefly – and both were also assessed two-minute minors for cross-checking – soon after the midpoint of the middle period. And minutes after that, Rasmus Sandin and Columbus winger James van Riemsdyk dropped the mitts and had a brief tussle as well. Once again, both also incurred minor penalties for the incidents leading up to the fisticuffs.
“I just appreciated the fact that he was right there at the forefront, competing, not backing down, involved, around the puck, had some good scoring chances, and obviously, the physicality part of it,” says Carbery of Leonard’s eventful afternoon. “So for a young player to play in that situation and not back down an inch says a lot about his character and who he is as a person – even at his age – and as a competitor coming into this league.”
Late in the third, James van Riemsdyk scored the final goal to account for the 7-0 final, and he also completed the Gordie Howe hat trick in the process; JVR had a goal and two assists in the game, in addition to his skirmish with Sandin.
Saturday marked JVR’s second career Gordie Howe hat trick, and his fifth career fight. The elder van Riemsdyk’s first Gordie Howe hat trick was part of his first NHL bout, on Feb. 15, 2011 with Philadelphia when he fought Bolts’ blueliner Randy Jones, who last played in the League with Winnipeg in 2011-12.
The two Metro Division rivals tangle again on Sunday in Washington in the Caps’ final home game of the regular season. Once again, the Jackets will be playing to stay alive while the Caps try to get their individual and collective games in shape before the playoffs begin next weekend.
