Metro Station – The Caps play their fifth home game of the season this afternoon against the New Jersey Devils. The Devils are the third Metropolitan Division team to come into Washington this season, and the Caps have also faced down the Carolina Hurricanes twice in a pair of early season road games, so they will have seen half the division after today’s game. Philadelphia comes to town for the homestand finale on Oct. 28, and the Caps won’t get their first look at Columbus and the New York Islanders until the week following the NHL’s three-day holiday pause for Christmas.
The Caps have held their own against some of the swiftest teams in the NHL in the early going, but New Jersey’s speed brings several challenges against a Washington team that is missing some key defensive components today.
“I think there's a lot that goes into it,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Absolutely right up near the top is your ability to recapture gap, your ability to track and reload, puck management, because if you mismanage a puck through the neutral zone and give them any type of daylight where you don't have gap, where you've lost numbers, you're in a vulnerable spot. I think sort-outs [will be important], all these different scenarios – and you'll see [today] – they are an excellent offensive zone team because of their skating ability; they can get you in the soup, and we want to limit the amount of times that happens.
“But inevitably, it's going to happen. They are one of the top teams in the league in generating [offensive] zone time and putting teams in the blender. So when you get into those spots, how do you hang on and not give up a real dangerous look, even though it's a stressful scenario, and everybody's circling around. And you want to make sure that you limit the amount of times a that you get into those situations, and to try not to give up a high danger look.”
In the early weeks of the season, the Capitals have been able to usher home victories over the likes of Pittsburgh, the Rangers and Montreal with strong third period performances in tight contests.
“One of the biggest things is going to be a neutral zone,” says Caps defenseman Vincent Desharnais. “We have to make sure that we're on the same page in the neutral zone, that we're connected – forwards and defensemen – and not have too big of a gap.
“And with that being said, if our neutral zone is good, we're going to slow them down. We want them to dump the puck as much as we can, and not let them come in with full speed and full control of the puck. They have [Jesper] Bratt, [Jack] Hughes, [Timo] Meier, [Nico] Hischier; they have a lot of weapons that can control the game, control the puck, slow down or speed up.
“We don't want that. We want them to come through in our hands, and slow them down through our neutral zone. Good sticks are big against those teams like Carolina and Montreal. They're all fast teams that you want to slow them down as much as you can, because if they have too much room, that's when they start getting creative and that's when we start getting hemmed into our zone.
“It's going to be another really good challenge for us. It's another different type of team, and we're going to have to get used to every type of team if we want to go all the way. Every game is just a new challenge, a new test, and yeah, where I think everyone here is pretty excited.”
Sick Boys – Less than 10 games into the 2026-27 regular season, the Caps have reached down to AHL Hershey for a second time, summoning center Jonny Brodzinski for this afternoon’s Metropolitan Division matchup against the Devils. With two of their better defensive centers – Pierre-Luc Dubois and Justin Sourdif – both battling illness and unavailable for today’s matinee match, the Caps have placed Dubois on injured reserve retroactive to last weekend to make room for Brodzinski on the roster.
Dubois is missing his fourth straight game because of illness; today’s contest is the first game Sourdif will miss this season. Carbery said Dubois was at MedStar Capitals Iceplex early Saturday morning, and that he was likely to skate there along with defenseman Matt Roy (lower body).
The Caps lost the services of Roy two weeks ago in the second game of the season, and he will miss his sixth game today. With Roy out of the lineup, the Caps have gotten some good work from 34-year-old veteran Justin Holl, who became the first defenseman in franchise history to score in each of his first two games with Washington.
Now, they’ve summoned the 33-year-old Brodzinski, who had an excellent training camp and was one of the Caps’ final cuts at training camp’s end.
“I think that's why you spend so much time planning training camp,” says Carbery, “and making the point of what I said on day one at training camp is the average NHL team utilizes 35 players every year. So, 23 are going to get named to the opening night roster, but if you do some quick math there, you're going to need 12 other guys who are going to play for you – on average – at some point during the year.
“It's happening to us a little bit earlier than maybe you would like, but that's the reason that you have – or you try to have – really good depth inside the organization, i.e. Justin Holl, i.e. Jonny Brodzinski. Tough decisions in training camp when they don't make the opening night roster, but when an injury does come up, they have an opportunity to perform. And Hollsey's starting to take advantage of that, as you've seen. And hopefully, Jonny can do similar things.”
In The Nets – After Charlie Lindgren defeated the Montreal Canadiens here on Wednesday night in the opener of a five-game homestand, Logan Thompson is back between the pipes this afternoon against New Jersey. Thompson’s most recent start – Tuesday against the Canes in Carolina – was the 200th of his NHL career. He has yielded two or fewer goals against in two of his five starts
Lifetime against New Jersey, Thompson is 4-1-3 in eight appearances – all of them starts – with a 3.26 GAA and an .894 save pct.
For the Devils, we are expecting to see 14-year NHL veteran Jake Allen between the pipes, making his fifth start of the season. He has won three of his first four starts (3-1-0) this season, posting a 2.98 GAA and an .885 save pct. in the process.
Lifetime against Washington, Allen is 7-7-1 with a shutout, a 3.40 GAA and an .893 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how we expect the Caps and the Devils might look on Saturday afternoon in DC:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
89-Tuch, 17-Strome, 25-Kyrou
21-A. Protas, 33-Jenner, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 62-I.Protas, 63-Miroshnichenko
72-Beauvillier, 76-Brodzinski, 9-Leonard
Defense
6-Chychrun, 27-Liljegren
42-Fehervary, 73-Desharnais
44-Hutson, 4-Holl
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Injured/Out
3-Roy (lower body)
34-Sourdif (illness)
38-Sandin (lower body)
80-Dubois (Illness)
Healthy Extras
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
81-Gritsyuk, 86-J. Hughes, 63-Bratt
28-Meier, 13-Hischier, 91-Mercer
39-Mantha, 17-Rodrigues, 11-Noesen
93-Lombardi, 12-Glass, 70-Boqvist
Defense
43-L. Hughes, 22-Pesce
71-Siegenthaler, 7-Hamilton
47-Chisholm, 8-Kovacevic
Goaltenders
34-Allen
50-Daws
Injured/out
16-Brown (lower body)
24-Casey (lower body)
72-Bjugstad (upper body)
77-Evangelista (illness)
Healthy Extras
1-Poirier
5-Dillon
