Duck Hunt – A month ago today in Anaheim, the Caps and Ducks faced off for the first time this season. The Ducks prevailed 4-3 in a shootout that night, ending Washington’s season high six-game winning streak. Both Anaheim and Washington have scuffled since; the Caps are 4-6-3 (.423, 28th in NHL) and the Ducks are 4-7-2 (.385, 29th) over the month since that first meeting.
Washington will be without right wing Tom Wilson for tonight’s game. Wilson departed Saturday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Blackhawks with a lower body injury in the first period, and he is now listed as day-to-day with that ailment, according to Caps coach Spencer Carbery.
“When someone goes down or is being helped off the ice,” says Carbery, “you’re hoping that it’s just something that they can go in, get checked out and come back out [on the ice]. But also when you see situations like that, you get a little bit worried when someone can’t put weight on their leg – like Willie in that scenario – your mind goes to, ‘Oh gee, this is something bad.’
“So we’re thankful that it’s just day-to-day. He won’t play tonight, but we’ll see how he is tomorrow.”
Wilson has to hate missing a game against the Ducks. He has 12 goals and 15 points in 22 career contests against Anaheim, his highest goal total by far against any Western Conference club.
Forward Aliaksei Protas (lower body) missed Saturday’s game with Chicago, and he was on the ice for Monday’s morning skate. Protas is a possibility for tonight’s game; the Caps will find out this afternoon whether he is good to go or not.
The Stack – With just four wins in their last 14 games, the Caps have been trying unsuccessfully to gain traction in the standings for the better part of a month now. When the Caps dropped the shootout decision to the Ducks in Anaheim on Dec. 5, it halted their season-long winning streak at six. Washington has not been able to cobble together consecutive victories since, and its place in the Eastern Conference standings has gradually grown more tenuous as a result.
Heading into Monday’s slate of NHL activity, the Caps remain just five points south of first-place Carolina in the Metro Division standings, and they’re also five points back of Tampa Bay, the current frontrunner in the Eastern Conference. But the Caps also have a slew of teams applying back pressure in the standings, and, as they say, objects in the rear view are closer than they appear.
With the standings point they scraped from Saturday’s shootout loss to Chicago, the Caps stand at 48, and they’re in the second wild card slot in the East, just a point ahead of Florida, which has played 41 games to Washington’s 42. Then, there are three teams – Buffalo, Boston and New Jersey – with 46 points. And behind them, three more –Ottawa, Toronto and the Rangers – with 45. Columbus brings up the rear with 43, so the 16 Eastern clubs – all of which are above what passes for .500 in the modern NHL – are separated by only 10 points.
Points wise, the Caps are as close to the penthouse of the Eastern Conference as they are to its basement.
Essentially, every NHL team aside from Colorado and maybe Dallas has had its ups and downs this season.
For the Capitals, keeping the puck out of their own night has been an issue in recent weeks, where it was a strength most of last season and for much of the first half of this one.
“But what has tried to be a foundation for our team is being a really good defensive team and a team that can give themselves a chance to win every single night by being very, very detailed, organized, and compete our butts off defensively,” says Carbery. “That’s how I believe we made the playoffs two years ago; it’s exactly what we did. We were completely comfortable winning a game 1-0 and we had that mindset.
“Are we there, where we were two years ago, with this group? No. But we do need to get that mindset back, and it’s our job as coaches to get our team in a comfortable frame of mind. It doesn’t matter what our lineup looks like night to night, we should be able to win this game 1-0, and here are the necessary steps to take to make that come to fruition.”
Since the game in Anaheim a month ago, the Caps have yielded 3.38 goals per game, tied with Vegas for 26th in the League over that span. Heading into the game in Anaheim one month ago, the Caps ranked second at 2.46 goals against per game, trailing only the Colorado Juggernaut, um, Avalanche (2.19).
“I think mainly just keeping it simple,” says Caps defenseman Rasmus Sandin. “Don't overthink things when you're getting back; everyone knows what we're going to do.
“Sometimes you want to do a little bit too much when it's not going your way; you want to try to overwork and, help out a little bit too much sometimes. And in our system, it can sometimes screw you a little bit. So, I think just take a step back and just trust what we what we're doing and we’ll be good.”
Counting The Minutes – With Protas unavailable and Wilson out for the final 40-plus minutes of Saturday’s game, both Justin Sourdif (20:51) and Ryan Leonard (20:21) reached the 20-minute mark in a game for the first time in their respective NHL careers. Sourdif hit the mark in his 45th game in the League and Leonard did so in his 44th career contest.
Sourdif is averaging 13:38 per game in even-strength ice time, fifth among all Washington forwards this season. Since the NHL began tracking ice time a little over a quarter of a century ago, only Nicklas Backstrom (14:41) and Alex Ovechkin (14:05) averaged more even-strength ice time among Washington rookies with at least 20 games played in that rookie season. Leonard averaged 13:42 late last season with the Caps, but that was across just nine games. He retains rookie status this season, obviously, and is currently at 11:48 in nightly even strength ice time in 2025-26.
In The Nets – Coming off a 22-save effort in his sixth win of the season on New Year’s Eve against the Rangers, Charlie Lindgren gets a second consecutive home start in his first start of 2026 against the Ducks tonight.
Lindgren will be making his second career appearance against Anaheim; the first was on Feb. 23, 2023, the day the Caps dealt Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway to the Boston Bruins. Lindgren stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced in that game, a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Ducks.
For Anaheim, we veteran Petr Mrazek is the likely – but unconfirmed – starter tonight. He would be making his first start since Nov. 30 against Chicago, one of his former employers. Mrazek has had two relief outings since then, the most recent of which was on Dec. 29 vs. San Jose. He stopped three of four shots in just under 24 minutes of work in that game.
Lifetime against the Caps, Mrazek is 5-10-2 with a shutout in 17 appearances – 16 starts – with a 3.14 GAA and an .895 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Ducks looked Friday night agianst Minnesota; Washington’s lineup depends on the availability of Protas. If he does not play, the Caps will dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen, and this is an absolute guess as to how that might look:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
52-McIlrath
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
Injured/Out
21-Protas (lower body)
43-Wilson (lower body)
80-Dubois (abdomen)
ANAHEIM
Forwards
61-Gauthier, 91-Carlsson, 17-Killorn
20-Kreider, 23-McTavish, 45-Sennecke
13-Nesterenko, 64-Granlund, 19-Terry
44-Johnston, 25-Poehling, 24-Harkins
Defensemen
2-LaCombe, 65-Trouba
51-Zellweger, 7-Gudas
98-Mintyukov, 74-Moore
Goalies
34-Mrazek
1-Dostal
Healthy Extras
14-Helleson
16-R. Strome
Injured/Out
77-Vatrano (shoulder)
