Oct. 13 vs. Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center
Time: 6:45 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio Network
Washington Capitals (3-2-0)
Carolina Hurricanes (5-1-1)
After taking two of the three games on their first homestand of the young season, the Caps are taking their second road excursion of the season. They’re heading to Raleigh for the second time in less than two weeks; they’ll take on the Hurricanes there Tuesday night, 11 nights after opening their regular season schedule there with a convincing 5-2 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Tuesday’s tilt also starts a set of back-to-backs for the Capitals; they will host the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night in the opener of a season-long five-game homestand that is spread across a span of 15 days.
The Caps took down the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers, respectively, to start their homestand, but they couldn’t crack the Seattle Kraken on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena. Washington held a brief 2-1 lead late in the first period and it pulled even with Seattle at 3-3 on a Boone Jenner goal – his second in as many games – in the first minute of the third. But a pair of miscues led to a pair of late Kraken goals in the final six minutes of regulation, sending the Caps to a 5-3 loss, their first home ice setback of the 2026-27 season.
Seattle’s two third-period goals equaled the combined number of goals yielded by Washington in the final frame of its first four games this season, and one of those was an empty-net goal in a road loss to the Lightning.
Washington has been playing without defenseman Rasmus Sandin (lower body) since the start of the season, and it has been without Matt Roy since the second period of an Oct. 3 game in Tampa, the Caps’ second game of the campaign. In Sunday’s game against Seattle, the Caps were without center Pierre-Luc Dubois (illness).
Dubois was not present at Monday’s practice, and he will not travel with the team to Carolina. Roy is not making the trip to Carolina either, so the Caps will be missing a pair of key players from their opening night win against the Canes on Oct. 2. Forward Alex Tuch took a maintenance day on Monday, but he will make the trip to Raleigh.
The Caps have installed veteran Dylan McIlrath on the blueline in Roy’s absence, and McIlrath has suited up for three straight games, something he last did in the 2024-25 season. McIlrath has been deployed sparingly since entering the lineup, and on Monday morning – with a set of midweek back-to-backs looming – the Caps made some roster adjustments.
Washington moved Sandin to long-term injured reserve, placed Roy on injured reserve, and it announced the recall of veteran blueliner Justin Holl from AHL Hershey. The 34-year-old Holl – a veteran of 405 NHL games and a second-round Chicago draft choice in 2010 – signed as a free agent with Washington on July 1 of this year. He had a good training camp showing with the Caps and skated in two games before clearing waivers and being loaned to Hershey. Holl has played three games with the Bears this season without recording a point.
Caps coach Spencer Carbery stressed that he is not displeased with McIlrath’s performance through the three games on the homestand.
“I thought he has been solid,” says the Caps coach. “He's done pretty much everything that we've asked him to do or we've expected him to do. I know he doesn't play a ton [against Seattle; it] was a little bit of an odd one. I think [assistant coach Patrick Wellar], from a deployment standpoint, the way the game flow was going, we were really trying to find our game, so we were leaning a little heavier on the other five guys, but I think he's done and played up to his standard and done exactly what we would have expected.”
Holl got into nine NHL games with St. Louis last season, averaging 15:40 per night in ice time. McIlrath has logged 42 games with Washington across the last five seasons, while averaging 10:28 per night. The addition of Holl ahead of a set of back-to-backs against a pair of teams with potent and swift attacks should give the rest of the Washington blueline a bit of a breather.
Jakob Chychrun has averaged 25:08 per game this season, about three and a half minutes above his career nightly average. Martin Fehervary (21:49) is running about two and a half minutes over his previously established average, and those two have logged a lot of heavy minutes in the early going, helping the Caps protect late leads in three of their five games to date.
“He's a big right shot, puck moving, defensive-minded defenseman,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Holl. “So I think it just gives us an option going into a back-to-back to potentially use him in Carolina or [against] Montreal. He has a lot of experience, has played a lot of National Hockey League games, and so I think you know what he could potentially bring us of a stabilizer back there to help with some of our left shots, and then just give us a good option and give us some good, solid, reliable minutes.”
With Dubois out of Sunday’s game against Seattle, Carbery and staff altered each of the team’s four forward lines, and some were altered again within the game. And with Tuch and Dubois not practicing on Monday, both Ethen Frank and Ivan Miroshnichenko were full participants. Frank and Miroshnichenko were both healthy extras for the first four games of the season, and Frank stepped into the lineup on Sunday in Dubois’ absence.
At Monday’s practice, Frank skated with Anthony Beauvillier and Justin Sourdif, while Miroshnichenko was with Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson. Both Frank and Miroshnichenko took reps with the second power play unit at Monday’s practice session.
Regardless of who is in the lineup for Washington on Tuesday, the Caps will be seeking to replicate the best parts of their winning recipe over the Canes from their Oct. 2 visit to Lenovo Center. That’s never an easy task in that building against that team, but the Caps at least have a fresh blueprint for success when they go up against Carolina on Tuesday.
“If I could sum it up without going into all the little X's and O's of handling their pressure and how we did that through exit support – all the jargon – I would say that we counterpunched their pressure,” says Carbery. “We were able to push back and not just sit in the corner like a boxer and just take body shots and let them hammer away. We came back at them.
“So, what does that mean? We were able to break their pressure and put them on their heels, see if we can find a few [offensive] zone shifts, let's see if we can find an odd man rush or two to be able to attack, and then snowball that into some sustained pressure, some momentum. And I felt like we did a really good job of that.
“And that's how you build a lead against them, which usually they're not in that scenario, especially playing at home. And so, we built that lead and were able to hang on to win the game. So, I would say that, that the ability to counter punch a team that is mostly – or is –known for being the team that's dictating the pace and really controlling play and putting you back on your heels.”
Carolina opened its season with a 1-0 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers, and then it suffered the Oct. 2 setback to the Capitals at the Lenovo Center. Since then, the Canes have been on fire. They enter Tuesday’s game with a five-game winning streak, with four of the five victories coming on the road.
Most recently, the Canes handed the Flyers their latest setback, a 4-1 defeat Sunday evening in Philadelphia. Carolina has already made both of its trips to Philly this season, winning both games.
