Nothing lasts forever, and so it goes for the Capitals’ six-game winning streak as well as their 12-game point streak, the longest in the NHL this season. Quinn Hughes scored twice, and Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves to lift the Vancouver Canucks to a 2-1 victory over the Caps on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
Dating back to their final meeting of last season here in mid-March, the Caps and Canucks have played to three straight 2-1 decisions, with the Caps taking two of the three, one of them in overtime. Saturday’s setback was the first the Caps have suffered in regulation in calendar 2025 (8-1-3).
“I would say first five minutes of the game [were] excellent,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We came out ready to play, had a couple of strong shifts to start the game, grab momentum, and then I felt like we lost it for a good portion.
“And like we saw in our building [on Jan. 8] against a team that defends really hard, is really structured, big, strong, physical, there’s not a lot of real estate. And we did some good things, but when you’re playing against a goaltender like that, you’re going to have to work your way to the inside [for] screens, tips.”
As Carbery notes, Washington had a strong start, but for just the second time in their last seven games, they were nicked by a goal against in the first period. Shortly after their first power play opportunity of the game failed to bear fruit, the Capitals fell down by a goal.
Vancouver’s Nils Hoglander carried up the right side in Washington ice, then dished to Hughes at the left point. Detecting some available ice in the middle, Hughes carried to the slot area, going all the way to the inside of the right circle before unleashing a wicked, against-the-grain backhander to the far left side of the net, and a 1-0 Canucks lead at 12:23.
Washington killed off a carryover power play that bled into the middle period, but less than a minute after the Caps completed that kill, Hughes dug the hole a goal deeper. After gaining the zone, Vancouver’s Brock Boeser carried behind the Caps cage and went low to high, feeding Hughes at the Washington line. The dynamic defenseman walked the line until he found a shooting lane he liked, and he threaded a shot through traffic and past Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren, doubling the Vancouver lead to 2-0 at 1:24 of the middle frame.
Hughes’ second goal put the Caps down by a pair of goals for the first time in nearly a month, since a Dec. 29 game in Detroit.
The Caps rang iron on at least three occasions on Saturday in Vancouver, and they had some good looks that went by the wayside because they weren’t able to get a stick on the puck or to settle it. Other good looks missed the net altogether.
Alex Ovechkin had seven of Washington’s 33 shots on the night – the Caps’ highest single-game total since Dec. 12 – including three “pocket” shots, those that came immediately after an offensive zone draw win, pulled right to the tape of the Caps captain.
“The second chance I have in the first period,” begins Ovechkin, “I don’t think [Lankinen] saw that shot; it just hit him. Sometimes you have those kind of looks, and it just doesn’t go your way.”
Washington’s third periods have been top notch for most of the season, and that was the case on Saturday, too. But while they were able to spend more time in Vancouver ice and have more possession time there, they were only able to halve the deficit, and that happened in the back half of the third. Washington went low to high, and Connor McMichael delivered the puck from the point to the net front, where Aliaksei Protas and P-L Dubois were stationed. Lankinen wasn’t able to corral it, and Protas was able to jam at the puck until it popped loose and went into the paint, where Dubois buried it at 12:31.
“I saw [Trevor van Riemsdyk and Jakob Chychrun go D to D,” says McMichael, “And [I found] a little pocket up top, and I just filled that spot, and Chychy made a nice play to me. I just tried to get it to the net. We talked about getting more traffic in front and just getting pucks there, and things will open up after that. And Pro had a great screen and a nice little bump play there to Dubie. We'll take it, but we’ve just got to do more of that from the start of the game.”
Carbery concurs.
“It's interesting,” says Carbery. “You look at Quinn Hughes, and everybody will talk about how great he is, and he is great. I'm not taking anything away from him. He creates those two goals. But for me, those goals are [Linus] Karlsson and [Elias] Pettersson. They scored those goals because they just anchored themselves right on top of Chucky, and he couldn't see the puck. So yeah, it's a great shot by Hughes, but those two guys are willing to go to the net, and we just weren't.”
“We did in the third period, and you Dubois gets rewarded for it; we're all over the net, Protas on the screen. And I just felt like it was one of those games tonight where we didn't do a good enough job getting to the inside, and they did on two plays, and that's the difference.”