Dec. 16 vs. Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena
Time: 8:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (18-10-3)
Minnesota Wild (19-9-5)
The Caps finish up a two-game road trip on Tuesday night in St. Paul when they face the new look Minnesota Wild. Washington’s journey began on Saturday night in Winnipeg with a 5-1 loss to the Jets, who got goaltender Connor Hellebuyck back in net earlier than expected; he hadn’t played in four weeks after undergoing an arthroscopic knee procedure.
As they seek to rebound from a rare bad beat, the Caps will be facing a Wild squad that will look different from the one it faced in Washington in October.
More about the Wild in a bit. The Caps come into Tuesday’s game with a 10-2-3 record over the last month, the third-best mark in the League across that span. But that hot spell – which covers virtually half of the season to this point – hasn’t provided them any sort of comfort or standings equity in the tightly packed sardine cans that are the Eastern Conference and Metropolitan Division standings. Only a dozen points separate the 16 Eastern clubs.
Heading into Monday night’s slate of NHL activity, the Caps are in third place in the Metro standings, and they’re only three points clear of Pittsburgh, the ninth-place team in the Eastern Conference. Less than a week ago – and just two games ago – Washington sat atop both the Eastern Conference and Metro Division standings.
For most of the season to date, the Caps have been among the top five teams in the NHL in controlling shot attempts at 5-on-5. But Washington’s 5-on-5 game – its bread and butter in what has been a special teams-challenged season to this point – has lost some of its luster of late, and the Caps need to get it shored up.
Although the Caps have earned points in three of their last four games (1-1-2), they’ve done so largely on the coattails of Logan Thompson’s sturdy netminding combined with a defense that bends but typically doesn’t break. Since a 7-1 win in San Jose on Dec. 3 – a game in which Washington outscored the Sharks 5-0 at 5-on-5 – the Capitals have been outdone by an 8-6 count at 5-on-5 in their last four games, and they’ve controlled just 43.01 percent of shot attempts at 5-on-5, ranking 29th in the NHL in the process.
Not coincidentally, Thompson has faced four of his six heaviest workloads of the season in Washington’s last six games. He’s been excellent throughout that stretch; even on Saturday in Winnipeg when he was nicked for four tallies at 5-on-5, bounces and bad luck were at the root of most of the lamplighters.
Entering Saturday’s game with the Jets, Washington had not trailed on the scoreboard across its previous six games (4-0-2), and the Jets had trailed more often (223:02 across six games) than any team in the League over that span. But buoyed by the return of Hellebuyck and a pair of first period goals, the Jets had all the offense they would need after 20 minutes of play. Hellebuyck faced just one shot at 5-on-5 in the first period, and just 14 on the night. The Caps needed a two-man advantage in the game’s final five minutes to break Hellebuyck’s shutout bid.
The Caps never lack for effort, and that effort is typically turned up a notch when they’re coming off a performance that isn’t to their standards.
“When you're playing like that and you get scored on early, it's a tough, tough game to find after that,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson. “And so I think it's just a good wake up call to remember what got us into those situations. It wasn't waiting for guys to make the perfect plays and expecting the puck in certain situations, it was working together to get it to where it needs to be, and then obviously the good results happen.
“So, I think it's a natural thing. I think we're obviously addressing it. We see what the difference feels like on the ice when we’re playing good and winning, and how that feels, versus squeaking out wins and versus losing because it's not good enough. So everyone's hungry to get our game back, and in the shape we expect to be in.”
After taking Sunday off in Minnesota, the Caps were back on the ice Monday morning for a practice session at Grand Casino Arena.
“It’s huge,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Monday’s full team practice, a relative rarity in this season of the condensed schedule to accommodate NHL participation in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. “The challenges of the schedule are the same for everybody. And you talk to coaches around the League, practice time is just at a premium, to be able to get out and even get on the ice for 30 minutes. And even if you’re trying to accomplish just two things or one thing, it’s really valuable time to be able to do that.”
Tuesday in Minnesota, the Caps will be catching the Wild in game two of the newly cobbled Quinn Hughes era in the State of Hockey. Friday night, just hours after the Caps arrived in Winnipeg, word broke that the Wild had won the Hughes sweepstakes, acquiring the 2023-24 Norris Trophy-winning defenseman from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a hefty package: center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren and the Wild’s first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
The Wild was at home this past weekend, hosting consecutive weekend matinees against Ottawa and Boston, respectively. Minnesota won both games to extend its winning streak to four straight games, and Hughes made a dazzling debut with his new team in Sunday’s 6-2 win over the Bruins.
With its Friday night acquisition of Hughes, Minnesota – one of three Central Division teams currently among the top five teams in the circuit – has gone all in on this season. Combined with its late September contract extension for elite winger Kirill Kaprizov, Friday’s trade sends notice to the other Western Conference heavyweights. Wild GM Bill Guerin is not intimidated by Colorado’s fast start, or Edmonton’s two straight Stanley Cup Final appearances, or Dallas’ nifty acquisition of Mikko Rantanen midway through last season, or Vegas’ ability to shuttle away draft capital and prospects for necessary pieces each season.
Guerin has enough faith in his team and its staff that he made the assertive – but risky – move of dealing away some prime young talent for one of the game’s best young blueliners in Quinn, who, at 26 years of age, is heading into the prime seasons of his career. And in Sunday’s first look at the newly fashioned Wild, Hughes fit in effortlessly. He logged a team-high 26:55 in ice time – including a team high 3:21 on the power play – and netted his first goal in green.
“They’re as hot – if not the hottest – team in the NHL,” says Carbery of the Wild. “They’re feeling really good about themselves right now, they make a huge trade and Quinn comes in here [Sunday] night. I watched some of the game [Sunday] night, anytime something like that [happens] for a team, I just feel like it just plugs a little bit of added jump to your entire group when you get a player like that.
“Significant challenges [Tuesday] night for our group, but I think also a good opportunity to play against the League’s best right now in their building, and a good opportunity for us to respond with the way we’ve been playing of late.”
