Do It Again – The Caps finish up a home-and home set of games with the New Jersey Devils tonight at Capital One Arena. Two nights ago in Newark, the Devils took the front end of the set with a 5-2 victory over Washington. Thursday’s final score was deceiving; the score was even or within one goal either way for the game’s first 57 minutes.
The Devils enter tonight’s game on a 12-2-0 run in their last 14 games while the Caps have won seven of their last 11 contests (7-4-0).
After taking Friday off, the Caps reconvened for a Saturday morning skate. Defenseman Vincent Desharnais – sidelined since undergoing an appendectomy late last month – skated with his teammates this morning in a light blue non-contact sweater. Desharnais was expected to miss 4-6 weeks, and he last played on Oct. 20 so he is nearing the early part of that timeline.
Rasmus Sandin (offseason knee surgery) continues to work his way back as well, and both recovering blueliners will join the team on Sunday’s road trip to Tampa for Tuesday’s game with the Lightning.
Power Up – Washington’s power play enters tonight’s game with a 19.6 percent success rate, ranking 21st in the NHL to this point of the season. In Thursday’s loss to the Devils, the Caps went 1-for-2 with the extra man, getting seven shots on net in their first attempt of the game and scoring on the seventh shot with three seconds left in the advantage. The Caps’ second extra-man opportunity in Thursday’s game produced no shots, and just one attempt, a miss.
Last season, the Caps finished the campaign with a 17.8 percent extra-man success rate – Washington’s lowest rate since 2011-12 – ranking 25th in the circuit.
This season’s power play units feature a handful of players who weren’t here at the start of the 2025-26 season, including the likes of Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, Cole Hutson and Ilya Protas, and there have been some ups and downs to this point of the season. Thursday’s game was a bit of a microcosm in that regard, showcasing one productive and successful opportunity, and another that was far less so.
“Tough question to answer, are we seeing consistency from our power play?” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It's a hard thing to answer because if you ask it over 17 games, the answer would be no. If I felt like the other night that it was consistent, I really liked the first one, didn't like the next one where we couldn't get set up for basically the whole two minutes.
“So again, not to go through the whole process of what I look for from a power play, but what you're trying to get out of a power play is momentum. You're trying to generate a few shots, maybe a scoring chance, some zone time, and then the goal and the chances come after that. You're not even to that part of it, so that that's all that we're looking for is for the power play to be consistent. It's not going to happen every time, but a majority of the time, get us some momentum. It doesn't have to score every time; it doesn't have to score majority of the time. It just needs to get us some momentum and look organized with what we're trying to do entry-wise and in zone and puck recoveries and all that that stuff.”
The first power play on Thursday, midway through the first period, was good. There were six shots that led up to the goal, five of which came from distance. Ryan Leonard’s power-play goal came off a regroup, a zone entry and a nifty play by Cole Hutson, so it wasn’t a “traditional” extra man strike that came about as a result of sustained zone time and well-choreographed movement of both bodies and pucks.
But the idea sometimes is to get pucks and bodies to the net, and to create tip and/or rebound opportunities that could result in goals, but it should at least stress the opposing penalty kill.
“I think we were just moving it quick,” relates Jakob Chychrun of Thursday’s successful power play. “Nobody was holding on to it too long. I think quick passes, and I obviously shot a couple from the top. The first one I saw [Tom Wilson] try to get a little bit of a high tip. We didn't have a net front guy, but I figured if he could tip it, it's got a pretty good chance of going in. And then the second one I shot in was just to [Alex Tuch] in front of the net. And again, I think if he tips it, it's got a good chance of going in.
So, like I said, we're zipping it well. I think we need to do a better job of getting more than one guy around the net and hopefully bang a couple more of those home.”
As an assistant coach in Toronto, Carbery ran the Maple Leafs power play and he is definitely an expert on the subject. And he has been coaching in the League long enough as a head coach and as an assistant to see the difference a consistent power play can make in a parity-filled League with a salary cap where the margin between winning and losing games is often razor thin.
“It's been inconsistent and we're trying to find combinations, we're trying to find first unit [personnel], all those things,” says Carbery. “And you see the other night's a prime example. And this is where special teams play such an important part in the National Hockey League, and I said it the other night after the game, the margins are super thin. It felt like this [Tuesday] in Ottawa as well. In Ottawa, we go up 1-0 [on Matt Roy’s goal in the first minute] right off the bat. Okay, up 1-0, and we're certainly in a hostile environment. And you get a power play.
“Imagine you go up 2-0. Those are the moments in these games. Same thing the other night [in Newark]. It's tied; can you get that one to give you the lead in that game? And now you're not playing from behind. So, I know we can say every power play you want to score, but there are key moments in a game where a good power play – and what we want to look like – can get you some really good momentum and potentially score a massive goal that'll be the difference in the game.
“And that's what we're searching for. And it's not a lack of effort, and I know the guys care and they want to do the right things. We just have to have coaches and players get us to that spot where it's giving us momentum.”
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren will be between the pipes tonight for Washington, making his fifth start of the season and his first since authoring a 25-save victory over the Predators in Nashville on Oct. 29. Lindgren enters tonight’s game having won each of his last three starts; he did absorb a tough-bounce loss in relief of Logan Thompson on Nov. 3 vs. Dallas in DC.
“I think with just the amount of games that LT has played of late, it felt like this was a good opportunity to get Chucky in,” says Carbery. “And [goaltending coach] Scott Murray and the goalie plan with how we find opportunities to get Chucky in the net [concurred]. So, this is the day it falls on.”
Lindgren is 3-2-0 on the season with a 3.08 GAA and an .881 save pct. Lifetime against the Devils, he is 5-4-0 in nine career appearances – all starts – with a 3.79 GAA and an .880 save pct.
Connor Hellebuyck starts again for the Devils tonight. He limited the Caps to two goals on 28 shots on Thursday in Newark, racking up his sixth victory in as many starts with the Devils since he was traded from Winnipeg to New Jersey on Oct. 23.
In 16 career starts and appearances against the Capitals in his career, Hellebuyck is 9-5-2 with a couple of shutouts, a 2.23 GAA and a .923 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and Devils might look on Thursday night in Newark:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
89-Tuch, 17-Strome, 25-Kyrou
21-A. Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 34-Sourdif, 72-Beauvillier
22-Jenner, 62-I. Protas, 9-Leonard
Defense
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
42-Fehervary, 27-Liljegren
44-Hutson, 29-St. Ivany
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Injured/Out
38-Sandin (lower body)
73-Desharnais (appendectomy)
Healthy Extras
4-Holl
53-Frank
63-Miroshnichenko
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
81-Gritsyuk, 86-J. Hughes, 63-Bratt
28-Meier, 13-Hischier, 77-Evangelista
11-Noesen, 17-Rodrigues, 16-Brown
70-Boqvist, 12-Glass, 29-Hameenaho
Defense
71-Siegenthaler, 43-L. Hughes,
47-Chisholm, 7-Hamilton
5-Dillon, 52-Silaev
Goaltenders
37-Hellebuyck
34-Allen
Injured/out
8-Kovacevic (lower body)
18-Kolyachonok (illness)
22-Pesce (illness)
24-Casey (lower body)
39-Mantha (upper body)
Healthy Extras
93-Lombardi
