A Six Pack To Go – Two weeks ago tomorrow, the Caps opened their exhibition slate with a Sunday matinee match against the Bruins in Boston. Tonight in DC, the Caps finish off their six-pack of preseason contests with a rematch against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Caps claimed a 4-3 victory over the Jackets in Columbus on Tuesday night.
Washington has trimmed its training camp roster down to 27 players (15 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders), and it will need to pare four more players from the roster ahead of Monday’s 5 pm deadline for the submission of official opening night NHL rosters.
After tonight’s preseason finale, the Caps will take Sunday off. Then they’ll go through the final two practices of camp on Monday and Tuesday before opening up the 2025-26 season on Wednesday against Boston at Capital One Arena.
“It actually felt a lot different,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of this year’s camp. “But I thought overall, we got what we needed to out of camp, from a structure, evaluation, getting the veteran players on our team up and running, and shaking the rust off.
“And tonight will be a big step for that. A couple of our guys are playing in just their second preseason game, so I think tonight’s an important night for the Tom Wilsons of the world, Pierre-Luc Dubois, John Carlson, Alex Ovechkin, Marty Fehervary. I just named real big parts of our hockey team, so I think them playing their second game and really getting up to speed and getting read for Wednesday [ is important].
“I do think it was a successful camp. We’ll look back in a month or a couple of months and see how that fares in the first few weeks [of the season]. It was a unique one – and we’ve talked about this through camp – from the scheduling and the heavier [concentration] of games at the back end. And we’ve talked about more of an evaluation of five, six or seven guys instead of two or three, that you’re really trying to evaluate, that are going to make the opening night roster.
“I don’t remember it being like that in the past. There are so many guys so close [to the NHL]. It provided uniqueness and different challenges, but I felt like we got what we needed out of it.”
New Blood – Last season’s opening night roster featured eight new players from the prior season. This time around, the Caps are essentially returning the same group, with the exception of a pair of offseason additions that came in a couple of deals during the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles.
The Caps picked up 23-year-old forward Justin Sourdif in a trade with Florida on June 26, and two days later, they also added 25-year-old defenseman Declan Chisholm. Both players fit in with the Caps’ ongoing trend toward becoming a younger team overall, and both arrive in the District with fewer than 100 NHL games under their belt; Chisholm’s next game will be his 100th NHL contest.
“It’s been nice,” he says of his move to the area. “I came in early before camp and got to know everyone. The guys have been super nice and welcoming, the staff and everyone. It’s been a really easy transition, which makes it easier for me on the ice, not to have to worry about anything outside of hockey. It’s been nice so far.”
Drafted by Winnipeg in the fifth round (150th overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft, Chisholm broke in with the Jets in 2021-22, but he gained the lion’s share of his NHL experience with Minnesota, which claimed him off waivers from Winnipeg in January of 2024.
Tonight, Chisholm skates in a preseason game for the fourth time. He’ll be paired with Dylan McIlrath tonight, the second time these two have formed a blueline tandem during the preseason. As he continues to settle into the DC area and latch onto the Washington system, Chisholm has also partnered with Trevor van Riemsdyk and John Carlson.
“Yeah, it’s nice; I feel like you’ve got to adapt your style with each individual guy,” says Chisholm. “But everyone is NHL caliber and making the right plays out there, so it’s not too different. But it’s a nice feeling to get a different look with different guys. I’m back with Mac tonight, and I’m excited.”
Going back to his junior career at OHL Peterborough and his AHL days, Chisholm was always a guy who was capable of lugging the puck up ice and using his head, feet and vision to help augment his team’s attack. Now, as he enters his sixth pro season, he feels like his game away from and without the puck has caught up.
“It’s been night and day since Peterborough,” he says. “Turning pro, you really realize how much you have to work on the defensive side of the game. And Winnipeg really started that, and then in Minny, getting NHL experience and playing in the League, I think that was one c my main focuses, especially for last year. I think it has improved tremendously, and if you can’t play defense in this League, you’re not going to play.
“The offense – for me – I usually just let that take care of itself; make reads when it happens. But I definitely focus a lot on defending.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson is the expected starter in goal for Washington tonight, and the plan is for him to go the distance in this final preseason tune-up. Last season, Thompson and goaltending partner Charlie Lindgren rotated starting assignments game-by-game for large chunks of the season, but Carbery stated on Friday that it will be different this season.
“Logan, with the year that he had [in 2024-25], has earned an opportunity to get a good crack at being our starting goalie,” says Carbery. “But also, we feel great about Chucky as well. We’ll use both guys … We have two world-class goalies that we feel really really good about, and shame on us if we don’t utilize both of them.”
Thompson’s previous preseason starting assignment also came against Columbus. This past Tuesday, he stopped 36 of 39 shots – including 31 of 32 at even strength – to earn No. 2 star of the night honors in a 4-3 victory over the Jackets in Ohio. Asked after that game what sorts of elements of his game he’s concentrating on this camp, Thompson responded thusly:
“Yeah, reads,” he says. “I’m trying to move less, controlling my movements, and tracking. Those are the areas I want to keep improving on, and it’s stuff you can always get better at, and I thought it was a good job today.”
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Caps to look when they take the ice Saturday night at Capital One Arena, and here also is a roster of expected Blue Jackets for tonight’s game:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
63-Miroshnichenko, 29-Lapierre, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 34-Sourdif
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
47-Chisholm, 52-McIlrath
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
COLUMBUS
Forwards
3-Charlie Coyle
4-Cole Sillinger
10-Dmitri Voronkov
11-Miles Wood
19-Adam Fantilli
21-Isac Lundestrom
23-Kirill Marchenko
24-Mathieu Olivier
27-Zach Aston-Reese
38-Boone Jenner
59-Yegor Chinakov
91-Kent Johnson
Defensemen
2-Jake Christiansen
5-Denton Mateychuk
9-Ivan Provorov
15-Dante Fabbro
44-Erik Gudbranson
78-Damon Severson
Goaltenders
73-Greaves
90-Merzlikins
