Something Wild – The Caps’ four-game homestand continues tonight when the Minnesota Wild visit the District for the only time this season. After opening the season with a pair of games against Metropolitan Division foes and two more against Atlantic Division denizens, the Caps now face a trio of Western Conference clubs – Minnesota, Vancouver and Seattle – to close out the first of their three four-game homestands this season.
In four games this season, the Caps have yet to put forth a sizzling first period start. They’re looking to do so tonight.
“I would absolutely like to see that, without a doubt,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And I think it’s going to be a good test for us, because here is what you see now, is you see three teams from the Western Conference. No rivalries, unfamiliar with them, fan base is kind of, ‘Ah, the Wild, Kraken. It’s not the Rangers.’
“And that’s not meant disrespectfully, that just means it’s not the Tampa Bay Lighting who we’ve played 30 times over the last four years [forget it; he’s rolling] and had playoff series with, or the Rangers or the Flyers or the Penguins. Those games come with a certain level of animosity and buzz and energy, and they are a little bit easier to get up for.
“Now, we’ve got three Western teams that we have to find a way to create that energy early in the game and find a way to play with that emotional investment that you saw in period two and period three of the Tampa game [Tuesday].”
Washington is 1-5-2 in its last eight games against Minnesota; its lone win across that span came in a shootout here in DC on Oct. 27, 2023, early in Carbery’s tenure as Washington’s bench boss.
Fight The Power – Minnesota’s power play has struck for 10 goals in the team’s first four games of 2025-26, and it has dented opposing penalty kills for multiple extra-man tallies in each of its last three games. Kirill Kaprizov (four goals, three assists) and Matt Boldy (three goals and three assists) lead the NHL in power play scoring with seven and six points, respectively, and Zeev Buium (one goal, four assists), Joel Eriksson Ek (one goal, three assists) and Vladimir Tarasenko (four assists) all rank among the League’s top eight in scoring with the extra man.
The Wild is getting it done every which way, with net front presence, tip-ins from in tight, cashing in on second and third opportunities with diligent puck retrievals, winning board battles and making quick, sharp plays. Minnesota also boasts a 27.8 percent shooting pct., scoring 10 times on just 26 shots.
“There was a lot of stuff going on,” reports Carbery after studying film of the Wild’s prolific power play. “And it’s not your prototypical set of five guys, and here’s where they’re going to be. [Buium] is going to be a player in this League … he’s good, he’s stepping in and running their first unit power play. He is your prototypical [Quinn] Hughes/[Cale] Makar type of defenseman, with lateral mobility, deception, holding onto pucks, finding shot lane seams. And then a lot of what they do is like we talked about [Thursday]; Eriksson Ek at the net front is just – I saw it on the film and it confirmed what I’ve seen for years; he does an amazing job of not only being a scoring threat from the goal line to the net front, but screening the goaltender. I think he’s the best in the League at it.
“If I could sum it up with one thing, it’s that there are a lot of different ways that they can attack you, and it doesn’t always look the same. That’s really hard, because it’s hard to pre-scout. You can show 50 different things of what they’re going to do, and now you’re players are like, ‘Okay, just be ready for every possible option.’
“If you’re a power play, that’s what you’re trying to do. And as a penalty kill, that makes it really, really hard.”
Six of the 10 goals have come in the first minute of the power play, one came seconds after the front end of a 5-on-3 advantage expired, and the Wild also cashed in on both ends of a 5-on-3 advantage in a 7-4 loss to Columbus, a game in which all four Wild goals came on the power play.
That game marked the first time in nearly nine years that an NHL club scored four or more goals on the power play and did not come away with two points; St. Louis suffered the same fate in a Nov. 12, 2016 game at Columbus.
“Obviously, I was able to see those guys every day, and see how skilled they are and how special players they are,” says ex-Minnesota winger Brandon Duhaime, who will be going up against his former teammates as part of Washington’s penalty killing outfit. “A big thing for us is going to be staying out of the box and keeping them off the power play is going to be key.”
That sounds clichéd, but clichés typically don’t become clichés without containing more than a shred of truth. Among the penalties that led to those 10 Wild power play goals in four games were two delay of game calls for a puck over the glass, one delay of game call for a failed coach’s challenge, an instigator, a bench minor for too many men on the ice, and a cross-check.
Many of those type of penalties can be avoided, and the Caps will certainly need to be mindful of not taking selfish or gratuitous calls tonight against the Wild.
Move To Work – Thursday afternoon, the Caps learned they’d lost defenseman Vincent Iorio on waivers to the San Jose Sharks. Iorio, Washington’s second-round choice (55th overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut with the Caps in San Jose on March 4, 2023, picking up his first NHL point – an assist on an Alex Ovechkin goal – that same afternoon.
The personable native of Coquitlam, BC appeared in nine regular season games and one playoff contest with Washington, and he played on both of AHL Hershey’s back-to-back Calder Cup championship clubs in 2023 and 2024.
Carbery called the loss of Iorio “bittersweet.”
“I would say it's bittersweet,” he says. “I'm happy for Vinnie. He's going to get an opportunity to play in San Jose for a great coach [Ryan Warsofsky] who I know very well, a good organization and a chance to play in the National Hockey League right now. Bitter in the sense of, he's been a good player in our organization and has done a lot of things in Hershey, and is right there.
“He's still a young player and still has time to develop and that, it's just unfortunate with our circumstances and the way that our roster works out right now, we had to make a really, really difficult decision, and we wish Vinnie nothing but the best. He's such a great person – first and foremost – he has worked his butt off over the last few years, won multiple Calder Cups, been a big part of Hershey's team, and he's put a lot of work in to earn this opportunity to play in the NHL. We wish him nothing but the best, and we'll see him along the way.
“But yeah, a really difficult decision.”
When a player enters an NHL organization via the Draft, his career path could go in any of 32 different directions, depending on which team selects him. Iorio got some NHL games in each of his first two seasons as a pro, but the remarkable health and effectiveness of Washington’s top six defensemen last season left little for the depth players to pick up. In another organization that was a bit more barren on the blueline, Iorio might have already established himself or played several more games in the NHL.
Iorio was recalled briefly early last season, but he did not get into a game. The two depth defensemen in DC last season – Alex Alexeyev and Dylan McIlrath – saw a combined 25 man-games of duty between them in 2024-25, a season in which each of the team’s top six defenders played at least 69 games, and four of the six played at least 79 contests.
Over the summer, the Caps upgraded the defense by replacing Alexeyev with Declan Chisholm, who is getting some work in the early going. Trevor van Riemsdyk played all 82 games last season, but he will sit out – for the second time this season – in favor of ex-Wild blueliner Chisholm tonight.
“I've said this before and it plays into the Vinny decision,” says Carbery. “We have seven NHL defensemen – and Mac [who is on IR] as well, that's played a long time and has a specific role on this team – but just focusing on the seven right now, they all have over 100 games in this league.
“All have demonstrated that they can play at a high level, and so it's my job to keep them all involved. Does that mean that we're going to rotate 50/50? Probably not, but it's important to be mindful of that and making sure that guys are getting game reps, and making sure that it's also holding the entire group accountable; and it's not just TVR, it's our whole [defense] corps. And will that mean maintenance days, rest, performance-based; who knows where it goes? But I do know this, we have seven guys that have played over 100 games in this league, and are all real good defensemen, and it's my job to make sure that they're we're utilizing all of them.”
Center P-L Dubois skated on his own prior to Friday’s morning skate, but he will miss a second straight game tonight. The Caps recalled forward Ethen Frank from AHL Hershey on Friday morning; Frank is expected to be a healthy extra for tonight’s game.
In The Nets – Logan Thompson is the expected starter in goal for the Capitals tonight. After delivering three straight strong starts, Thompson makes his fourth appearance of the season tonight. He enters tonight’s game with a 2-1-0 record in three starts, with a 2.01 GAA and a .921 save pct. Thompson has surrendered just two goals against at 5-on-5 in his three starts.
Lifetime against the Wild, Thompson is 3-1-0 in five appearances (four starts) with a 1.57 GAA and a .950 save pct.
Filip Gustavsson is expected to mind the twine for Minny tonight; like Thompson, he’ll be making his fourth start of the season. Gustavsson enters the game with a 1-2-0 mark, a 3.06 GAA and an .888 save pct.
In his career against the Capitals, Gustavsson is 3-1-0 in four appearances (three starts) with a 2.72 GAA and a .912 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals and Wild to look on Friday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 34-Sourdif
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
6-Chychrun, 47-Chisholm
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
53-Frank
57-van Riemsdyk
Injured/Out
52-McIlrath (lower body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
MINNESOTA
Forwards
97-Kaprizov, 23-Rossi, 12-Boldy
90-Johansson, 14-Eriksson Ek, 91-Tarasenko
13-Trenin, 38-Hartman, 17-Foligno
28-Ohgren, 22-Yurov, 18-Hinostroza
Defensemen
25-Brodin, 7-Faber
5-Middleton, 46-Spurgeon
8-Buium, 24-Bogosian
Goalies
32-Gustavsson
30-Wallstedt
Healthy Extras
39-Jones
48-Hunt
55-Jiricek
Injured/Out
36-Zuccarello (lower body)
78-Sturm (upper body)
