Back In The Saddle – The Capitals and the New Jersey Devils are two of the 26 NHL teams jumping back into action on this late December Saturday, the first day following the NHL’s annual three-day holiday break. The Caps convened at Dulles around dawn and flew to New Jersey, where they conducted a morning skate at Prudential Center, the team’s first time back on the ice together since a 7-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena.
“We went a little bit longer,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Saturday’s morning skate. “We did a couple of extra things just to shake off the rust a little bit, handle a few more pucks for guys in different situations.
“When you’re off for three days, you can’t go crazy here in a morning skate, but you also want to do everything you can to set the group for success. Just going an extra five minutes isn’t that big of an adjustment, but for them to be able to move the puck around and face some situations after having been off for three-plus days, usually and you hope that when the game starts it looks something like it did four days ago.”
Not too many years ago, the break was just two days, but that didn’t allow players much time to head home for the holidays. Teams typically don’t schedule travel for the day of the game, but it’s mandatory for the 13 visiting teams in action today.
“I'll tell you something I did learn in my previous organization, you do not leave the day before, even if the players want to you,” laughs Carbery. “When they say travel day of, they mean travel day of.
“I think it's the same for everybody. You're coming back, guys are flying in, getting back from certain spots, from back home. So, it's a congested 24 hours, but everybody's in the same boat. For us, it's a little bit more challenging with the day of travel. But it's an hour flight, and whether you woke up and drove to the rink or whether you drove to the airport and sat on an airplane for an hour, it's not that drastic of a difference.
“So, it's just about who can get back up to speed and get themselves into game mode, and that's what we'll try to do tonight, an important game on the road against a team we're neck and neck with. We know this team very, very well, and this stretch of our season, like I said the other night, is huge.”
“I think it’s both ways,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson. “You’re probably not going to feel like your best self, especially right away, early on in the game, but the travel these days and coming in early to skate before, and having the afternoon, I think that makes a big difference. You never want to fly in on the day of a game, but I don’t think there’s much of an advantage in that.
“I think it’s just trying to navigate through those early parts of the game, depending on how you or the team feel, and getting through those moments.”
Washington faces a daunting schedule between now and the Olympic break in early February. Beginning tonight in Newark, the Caps play their next 22 games in a span of just 41 nights. And coming straight out of the break, the Caps will play four games in a span of about five and a half days, a stretch that brings them into calendar 2026 and the exact midpoint of their 82-game regular season schedule.
The Caps went into the break with just one win in their last seven games (1-4-2), and they’ll come out of the break in seventh place in the extremely tight Eastern Conference standings, where they’ve slipped six rungs over the span of those last seven games. Washington will need to be urgent straight out of the starting gate; its next four games are against the four teams immediately behind it in the Conference standings.
“The 22 games [leading up to the Olympics], they’re all going to be massively important,” says Carbery. “I just look at the whole conference as a whole. And if you look right now, at the separation and the teams playing well – the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh and Philly, and just go down the list. If you're playing in your conference – and we'll go out west at a certain point during this stretch – you're probably playing against the team you're neck and neck with just based on what the Eastern Conference looks like.
“So, it starts tonight and we'll focus on short term. I know we've talked a little bit of big picture and talking about the big segment as a whole, but we'll be narrowly focused on these individual games and putting everything we need to into the New Jersey Devils tonight.”
The World Is Turning – The 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship got underway on Friday, with six Capitals’ prospects competing in the tournament for five different teams. Defenseman Cole Hutson and goaltender Nicholas Kempf are representing Team USA while Leon Muggli skates for Switzerland, Milton Gastrin plays for Sweden, Petr Sikora captains the Czechia squad and Maxim Schafer plays for Germany.
Hutson helped Team USA to a 6-3 victory over Germany on Friday, picking up a pair of primary helpers and registering a plus-5 while skating a team high 24:20. Sikora had a goal and an assist in Czechia’s 7-5 setback at the hands of Team Canada.
Gastrin and Schafer were held off the scoresheet in their first action of the WJC on Friday, and Kempf did not play. Muggli’s Team Switzerland gets its first taste of action today against Team USA.
In The Nets – Logan Thompson is expected to tend the twine for the Capitals tonight in New Jersey. Since the start of last season, Thompson has made 24 appearances with three days of rest – as he’ll be doing tonight – and he has a .910 save pct. in those games, ranking 23rd among all NHL goaltenders with 40 or more appearances across that span. For just the second time this season, Thompson enters tonight’s game having allowed three or more goals against in consecutive starts.
Lifetime against New Jersey, Thompson is 2-0-3 in five appearances – all starts – with a 3.24 GAA and an .892 save pct.
For the Devils, Jake Allen gets the Saturday night start against Washington. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Allen has made 23 appearances on four or more days rest, and his .909 save pct. in those appearances ranks 16th among goaltenders with 40 or more total appearances.
Lifetime against Washington, Allen is 6-6-0 in 12 appearances – all starts – with a shutout, a 3.60 GAA and an .888 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Capitals and Devils might look on Saturday night in Jersey:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
24-McMichael, 34-Sourdif, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
9-Leonard, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
80-Dubois (lower body)
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
28-Meier, 13-Hischier, 91-Mercer
18-Palat, 86-J. Hughes, 63-Bratt
81-Gritsyuk, 12-Glass, 16-Brown
47-Cotter, 14-Glendening, 11-Noesen
Defensemen
43-L. Hughes, 22-Pesce
71-Siegenthaler, 7-Hamilton
5-Dillon, 45-White
Goalies
34-Allen
25-Markstrom
Healthy Extras
36-Crookshank
44-Cholowski
83-Lammiko
Injured/Out
8-Kovacevic (knee)
15-MacEwen (lower body)
17-Nemec (lower body)
33-Dadonov (wrist)
