Last Call – When the Caps traveled to Columbus on Monday, they still had a faint playoff heartbeat, a slim chance of sneaking into the postseason on the last day of the regular season, as they did two years ago Thursday in Philadelphia. This time around, there won’t be any last-minute miracle to get them into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
When the Philadelphia Flyers engineered a 3-2 comeback win in a shootout on Monday over the Carolina Hurricanes, the Flyers nailed down the last remaining playoff berth in the east, eliminating both the Capitals and the Blue Jackets and rendering tonight’s game between those two Metro foes in Columbus as a meaningless season finale, aside from individual goals, milestones and the like.
“I think it's that you're in a little bit of shock,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And just extremely, extremely disappointed of not being able to play in the playoffs. That's as simply put as I can put it. There's no way to make it sound any better than it is. It's a tough night last night and then this morning doesn't get much better, but that's the way it goes.”
“It’s definitely kind of a crappy way to go out,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “It’s a long season, and the fact that it comes down to one or two games is pretty crazy, but there’s not much we can say now; we’re missing out. It’s a brutal feeling and a brutal way to watch it go down, but it is what it is.”
Every team that misses out can point to a game or two or three or six that might have made a difference, if only. But in the modern NHL, with the parity created by the salary cap and the standings chaos created by the need to award standings points for losing hockey games, the margins are thin and narrow, and missteps are magnified.
“We were talking yesterday that could have been a similar situation to two years ago,” begins Wilson, “when there was a team having to win in regulation to pull their goalie, and that's how we got in last time, and it was looking like it maybe could have been the same sort of thing this year.
“Everyone likes to dissect everything, the formula and that. But we all knew what we signed up for at the beginning of the year; it hasn't changed in a while. And the end of the day, you’ve got to win enough games and collect enough points to get in the playoffs, and we didn't do that. And that's a failure on our part. That's it. There's nothing more to say about it.
“We had a good season. We won 42 games so far, or whatever. And usually that gets you in, but usually it's not good enough this year, I guess.”
The Caps were in first place in both the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference as late as Dec. 10 when they owned an 18-9-3 record through 30 games. But a prolonged fallow stretch in the middle of the season is the Caps’ undoing; they went from Dec. 5-Jan. 27 of this season without stringing together consecutive wins, a 26-game span in which they won just eight games (8-13-5), tumbling down the conference standings so far that the respectable 17-8-2 run they carry into tonight’s tilt in Columbus wasn’t enough to save them.
“We've got a game left to play tonight in Columbus, and we're looking to, you know, continue to play,” says Carbery. “The thing about our game, and how, since the [trade] deadline, since that [March 7] game in Boston, which was a tough few days for our group, losing Nic Dowd and John Carlson. And we had a really, I thought it was a powerful meeting with the group there post deadline, on how we wanted it to look whether we made the playoffs or not, how we wanted it to look on a nightly basis, and how much we were going to make a commitment to one another, to do everything we possibly could to put our best foot forward each and every night.
“And I thought our guys, I give them a lot of credit, and I'm really proud of the way that we played. Yeah, did we get kicked in the teeth some nights? No doubt, and there were some tough games in there, but what our group did do is we’d get knocked down a peg, and they got back up. And next thing you know, we're back in the fight, and next thing you know, we're back within two points of the race; you were five [points out], and now you're back to three. And so, our guys did not waver for one second when it came to continuing to battle and put everything they had into trying to win games. And I don't expect tonight to be anything different.”
In The Nets – Clay Stevenson starts for the Caps tonight, getting the nod in the regular season finale for the second time in as many seasons. Stevenson made his NHL debut on April 17, 2025 in Pittsburgh, playing well and stopping 33 of 38 Penguins shots in a 5-2 loss.
Earlier this season, Stevenson made three consecutive starts for Washington while both Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson were sidelined simultaneously. Stevenson made those three starts in a span of four nights, starting both ends of a back-to-back at the conclusion of that stretch.
Stevenson went 2-1-0 with a 2.33 GAA and a .904 save pct. across those three contests, which include his first NHL victory on Jan. 31 over Carolina at Capital One Arena.
Jet Greaves is expected to mind the twine for the Blue Jackets tonight. Greaves has earned 26 of Columbus’ total of 40 victories (26-18-9) on the season to date.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Blue Jackets might look for Tuesday night’s season finale in Columbus:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
21-A. Protas, 62-I.Protas, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 52-McIlrath
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
44-Hutson, 3-Roy
Goaltenders
33-Stevenson
48-Thompson
Healthy Extras
27-Liljegren
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
64-Kampf
Injured/Out
38-Sandin (lower body)
79-Lindgren (upper body)
80-Dubois (upper body)
COLUMBUS
Forwards
86-Marchenko, 19-Fantilli, 21-Lundestrom
4-Sillinger, 3-Coyle, 83-Garland
17-Marchment, 38-Jenner, 43-Heinen
11-Wood, 23-Monahan, 91-Johnson
Defensemen
8-Werenski, 15-Fabbro
9-Provorov, 5-Mateychuk
2-Christiansen, 44-Gudbranson
Goalies
73-Greaves
91-Merzlikins
Healthy Extras
6-Zamula
27-Aston-Reese
65-Del Bel Belluz
Injured/Out
7-Smith (lower body)
10-Voronkov (hand)
24-Olivier (upper body)
78-Severson (upper body)
