Urgency Up North – The Caps are in Calgary tonight, carrying a four-game regulation losing slide for the first time in nearly three years, and set to face the Flames tonight in the front end of a set of back-to-back road games. Washington visits Edmonton on Saturday night, and then, for the first time in calendar 2026 – and the only time between now and the February Olympic break – the Caps will have more than one day between games before taking on the Kraken in Seattle on Tuesday night.
With just 31 games remaining now in the 2025-26 season, urgency is the commodity Caps coach Spencer Carbery is seeking from his team not just tonight, but for the next three months.
“That’s what we have to do at this point in the season with where things are at,” says Carbery. “With the condensed schedule and how many games we’ve played, we’re running out of runway here quickly. And so, we’re not by any stretch hitting the panic button, but the urgency level needs to be through the roof tonight in our game, and that needs to be reflective of how it looks for 60 minutes tonight.
“We need to come away, and I don’t care what the score of the game is, but coming away from the game, if you look at our game and look at how it played out in the individual performances inside of it, guys were just scratching and clawing, desperate for everything that we could possibly get tonight, from puck battles to physicality to winning 1-on-1s, winning space, to diving in front of shots or trying to get loose pucks. That’s the way it needs to look.”
You Like Apples? – With two assists on Wednesday night in Vancouver, Caps defenseman John Carlson reached the 600-assist plateau, becoming just the 21st defenseman in League history to ascend to that milestone and just the fifth American-born player to do so.
Just over half (307) of Carlson’s assists have been primary helpers and 368 have come at even-strength with the other 232 coming on special teams (225 on the power play and seven shorthanded). Carlson has recorded 162 of his career assists on Alex Ovechkin goals, the most he has dished out to any single player.
Carlson also joins Erik Karlsson (699), Brent Burns (666), Victor Hedman (635) and Kris Letang (619) as the fifth active NHL rearguard to achieve the feat.
Of the 16 blueliners with 600 or more assists who are eligible for induction in the Hockey Hall of Fame, 15 have already been inducted, as have several who have fallen short of 600 apples.
“I think it’s special,” says Carlson of his latest significant milestone. “I think it’s extra special to do it with one team as well; I think that’s a nice carrot on top of everything. When you’re talking about personal achievements and all that, I think they’ll resonate a lot more when you’re done playing. But certainly, numbers like that are nice to achieve in the hardest League in the world.
“I owe a lot to my teammates, my coaches and everyone like that that has played a huge, integral part of my career in many different ways. It’s just one of those things that when you talk about personal achievements, there is so much ore underneath it.”
Perhaps most impressively, Carlson is not slowing down. Although he celebrated his 36th birthday earlier this month, his 31 assists and 40 points this season both rank eighth among all NHL defensemen this season. Carlson is currently on pace for 50 assists this season, a level he has reached four times previously, most recently in 2021-22 (54). He notched a single-season career high of 60 assists in just 69 games during the pandemic-abbreviated season of 2019-20.
“I think you’ve got to try to constantly change and stay with the times,” says Carlson. “And I felt like I've really been trying to do that. And certainly, I think the way that I see the game, it doesn't matter what ebbs and flows of the changes that do happen in the League, I think they always rely on my ability and my talent, my skill, and certainly how I can read the game. And I think that's been one of my greatest assets since I was a mite.
“So, leaning on all those things, and I’m hungrier than ever to win again and to continue to be as successful as I have been.”
In The Nets – A year ago in late January during the Capitals’ longest road trip of last season, the Caps and Logan Thompson announced they had come to terms on a six-year, $35.1 million contract extension. The deal was announced on Jan. 27 of last year, and Thompson celebrated by going into his hometown of Calgary and notching his sixth consecutive victory with a 32-save effort in a 3-1 Washington win one night later.
Earlier this week in Vancouver – where his signing was announced just under a year ago – 18 months down the road from joining the Caps in a June 2024 trade and a year after signing on with them for six seasons, Thompson took some time to reflect back on the trajectory of his career over that span.
“It’s always nice to get on this road trip,” he says. “I know it’s long, but for me it’s coming back to Canada and coming back to home; so I always really enjoy it. I love playing in Vancouver, and last year I signed the deal here, so it’s a pretty special place. I’m lucky to sign for six years and to make DC my home.
“I’m just really excited. There’s a lot of good memories here, and then obviously we go to Calgary where I played my whole minor hockey career. So overall, it’s just tons of memories and nothing but positive thoughts of this city for sure.”
Tonight in Calgary, Thompson will have parents Mark and Tammy and a host of friends looking on as he goes up against his hometown team. At this time two years ago, he was still a member of the Vegas Golden Knights. But a sit down discussion with Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon altered the course of his career.
Thompson was that rare athlete that exercised the right the rest of us frequently exercise without scrutiny or judgement, the right to decide where we work and who we work for.
“People don't really see it from our point of view,” says Thompson. “I think the fans maybe take it a little more personal when a GM comes out and announces that I was the first player ever to ask for a trade, right? It almost maybe sometimes puts a target on your back. But the way I went about it, I thought me and Kelly had a really mature conversation, and they made it very clear that they didn't see me being a number one goalie. It never was about money for me; I just wanted opportunity. And I think that was the biggest thing, even though I loved playing for Kelly – I played for him basically since I was 14 years old – and to be honest, I only ever wanted to play for him.
“And when you're being told that you're not going to be the number one guy there, I think that I had to do what's best for my career, right? It didn't come down the money and anything like that. I just wanted to show people that I believed in myself to be the number one goalie. And looking back at that, I'm really thankful for Kelly in that conversation. But there was nothing that I ever took as really negative. I thought it was just trying to do what's best for my career.”
Thompson came to DC and went 31-6-6 in his first season with Washington, securing a deal to spend the next half dozen seasons there.
“When you sit and look back at it, it seemed like it was so long ago now,” says Thompson. “But overall, probably the best thing for my career was probably asking for a trade, and that’s not to be disrespectful toward the Vegas organization. All I really needed was for a coach and a GM to believe in me, and I got that here in DC.
“I feel like I’ve always been able to play at this level and I feel like I’ve got a lot more to go and a lot more to give, and I know I can be a lot better in this League, so I think I’m just going to get better as time goes on.
“But it’s been a long road, and I’m just really thankful for it. And I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the Washington Capitals, and also if it wasn’t for Vegas. So, overall, I’m just thankful for both organizations.”
Thompson bet on himself and won. And as he indicates, he has gotten better as time has gone on. He arrived in DC with 56 wins in 103 NHL appearances (95 starts). In just 79 games (78 starts) with Washington, he has already racked up 48 wins, and his qualitative numbers have also shown improvement over that span. And he landed a coveted roster berth on the Team Canada Olympic squad at next month's Winter Olympics in Milan.
Lifetime against Calgary, Thompson is 4-3-0 with a 2.51 GAA and a .926 save pct. in seven appearances, all starts.
For the Flames, we are expecting the Caps to get their first look at Devin Cooley in the Calgary nets tonight at Saddledome. Cooley got into six games with the Sharks in 2023-24 but has blossomed as a 28-year-old undrafted free agent with the Flames this season.
The Denver U. product has a 6-4-3 mark on the season, with a 2.18 GAA and a .922 save pct.in 16 appearances (13 starts). Cooley is 3-0-1 in his last four starts, and he has yielded just seven goals against across that span.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Flames might look on Friday night in Calgary:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
24-McMichael, 17-Strome, 9-Leonard
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson
42-Fehervary, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
80-Dubois (abdomen)
CALGARY
Forwards
17-Sharangovich, 11-Backlund, 27-Coronato
76-Pospisil, 91-Kadri, 92-Gridin
10-Huberdeau, 16-Frost, 86-Farabee
70-Lomberg, 47-Zary, 43-Klapka
Defensemen
37-Kuznetsov, 52-Weegar
7-Bahl, 28-Whitecloud
44-Hanley, 94-Pachal
Goalies
1-Cooley
32-Wolf
Healthy Extras
23-Kirkland
48-Brzustewicz
Injured/Out
18-Beecher (upper body)
20-Coleman (upper body)
24-Bean (undisclosed)
29-Honzek (upper body)
