After sitting around and watching the first three days of the NHL season unfold without them, the Capitals came out like lions on Friday night against the defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes. The Caps poured three pucks past Carolina goaltender Brandon Bussi in the first period and that was the difference as they rolled to a 5-2 opening night victory over the Canes at Lenovo Center.
Logan Thompson turned in a typically stellar performance, particularly during a run of six straight Carolina power plays in a span of 22 minutes and 39 seconds of playing time from early in the second period to early in the third. He finished the night with 31 saves.
Newcomers Alex Tuch and Boone Jenner made their presence felt immediately as well; Tuch scored two of Washington’s first period goals and both players ate a lot of PK minutes. Jenner won 13 of 17 draws, including five of seven while the Caps were down a man.
After Friday’s morning skate, Caps coach Spencer Carbery mentioned the need for his team to counter punch against Carolina. The Caps did even better; they did the punching in the first 22 minutes of the game and then Thompson and the Washington penalty killers fended off Carolina’s counter punches for the remainder of the evening.
“Yeah, definitely,” Carbery concurs. “When you get up one or two in this League, in this day and age, that game is far from over. You still know that they know they're right there. Then you get up three, and still we kept pushing, we kept pushing.”
Following an early and interesting stretch of 4-on-4 hockey in which two Caps defensemen – Cole Hutson and Martin Fehervary – combined to give the latter a great look on a 2-on-1 rush, the Caps started the scoring at 6:33 of the first with a goal on the forecheck. Pierre-Luc Dubois raced into Carolina to negate an icing call, then went behind the Carolina net and stripped Carolina goaltender Brandon Bussi of the puck. Dubois threaded it perfectly to the net front where Tuch casually deposited his first goal as a Capital into a vacant cage.
“I don't think I scored many of those goals in my career,” says Tuch. “That was really nice. Great play by Dubie on the forecheck there.”
Exactly five minutes later, the Protas brothers combined to set up Cole Hutson for a goal that doubled the Washington lead. After Aliaksei Protas rolled the puck around the wall, brother Ilya pulled it off the right half wall, cut to the middle and fed Hutson, who beat Bussi from the inside of the left circle.
And just under three minutes after the Hutson goal, Tuch tallied again. From the left point, Alex Ovechkin ripped a shot that Dubois tipped on net, and it trickled through Bussi and wobbled toward the goal line, where Tuch pushed it across for a 3-0 lead at 14:23.
“I might have been able to let that one go in, but I wasn't taking any chances,” says Tuch. “It was a little slower than I wanted it to be, so I made sure it was in the back of the net.”
The first period was played without any power plays, but the second period more than made up for it. Washington benefited from the first man advantage of the game in the second minute of the second period, and Jakob Chychrun pushed the lead to 4-0 with a center point drive at 1:36.
The Caps were guilty of taking each of the next six penalties, giving Carolina several opportunities to climb back into the contest. Washington’s penalty kill weathered the better part of eight minutes in the middle frame, and 12 of the 15 shots Thompson faced in the middle period came while the Canes had an extra dude. Thompson stopped 11 of the 12 shots; only Sebastian Aho’s shot from the left circle eluded the Washington netminder. Aho’s goal cut the Caps’ cushion to 4-1 at 16:50 of the second.
Not to worry, kid.
Dylan Strome won the ensuing center ice draw, and after an exchange with Chychrun, Strome gained the zone on a 2-on-1 rush and sent a sublime feed to Ryan Leonard, who beat Canes winger Taylor Hall to the back door, then beat Bussi to re-establish the four-goal lead, just eight seconds after the Aho goal.
“Whenever you're the next line up and you're the shift after a goal, you're trying to do something to gain some positive momentum,” notes Leonard. “We were just looking for a rim going to my side, and next thing I know, I was looking at Stromer on a 2-on-1 and just had to get to the back door. He made a hell of a play.”
Logan Stankoven scored midway through the third period to account for the 5-2 final, but it was an excellent first showing for the newly minted 2026-27 Caps, who now move on to another tough task on Saturday night when they supply the opposition for the Lightning’s home opener in Tampa.
But they will and should find time to savor this one on the way to Florida.
“Teams like Carolina, Florida, and even Vegas; those are always measuring stick games,” says Thompson. “Those are teams that have a track record of winning and going to the Stanley Cup final. So, I think that was a great first game for our group.”
