Oct. 29 vs. Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena
Time: 8:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio Network
Washington Capitals (7-4-0)
Nashville Predators (4-3-5)
The Caps finish off their slate of a dozen October games, and they also conclude a midweek set of back-to-backs when they make their lone visit of the season to Nashville on Thursday night. Thursday’s game against the Predators is the only road contest the Caps play in a span of 27 days, and it is also Washington’s first road game against a Western Conference opponent in 2026-27.
On Wednesday night in Washington, the Caps concluded a five-game homestand with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. That victory left the Caps with a 4-1-0 mark for the homestand, and a 6-2-0 record on home ice for the young season.
Offensively, the Caps have contained multitudes of late, or at least multiples. In Saturday’s 4-3 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres, Alex Tuch and Dylan Strome each struck for a pair of goals. Wednesday against the Flyers, Tuch and Jordan Kyrou each scored twice, and Strome chipped in with three assists, including a wicked cross-ice feed to Kyrou on the power play in the second period.
Logan Thompson made 23 saves to record his fifth victory of the season, and defenseman Jack St. Ivany made a strong showing in his first game in a Caps sweater, contributing a pair of assists while delivering a strong, well-rounded game overall.
Washington claimed St. Ivany off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. He arrived in the District on Sunday, and he practiced with his new team for the first time on Monday. In Wednesday’s win, he skated 14:44 with his new team – logging 7:09 in a first period played entirely at 5-on-5 – and he became the fourth Washington blueliner in franchise history to record multiple assists in his debut with the Caps.
“I liked his game a lot,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought he did a lot of the things that we talked about this morning. His breakouts were really good; I can think of a couple off the top of my head behind the net under heavy pressure. He found his outlet and got us out of a heavy forecheck from Philly situation a number of times and defended well. He had that one isolated 1-on-1 with [Trevor] Zegras late in the third period and did a nice job with his stick there.
“And he gets two helpers, so he adds that and he gives us some good, solid minutes on the front end of a back-to-back. I’m happy with the way he played.”
Thrice now in the young season, the Caps have strung together consecutive victories. They’ll take their third crack at stretching their modest streak to three games when they face the Preds.
“That's obviously a challenge,” says Strome. “Anytime you travel on a back-to-back is tough, and obviously we've had two of those this year, and we got fortunate for the game that was here against Montreal we won, but obviously you saw we kind of got outplayed in Tampa Bay.
“So, hopefully learn from that experience. And going into Nashville, I'm sure the [Predators] are resting there and waiting for us. And it's going to be a tough one [Thursday], but I feel like we're building the right way, and hopefully, we can have a good effort.”
For the Predators, Thursday’s game is the middle match of a five-game homestand. Nashville opened the homestand with a 6-2 stomping of the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, but it dropped a 4-3 shootout decision to the New York Islanders here on Tuesday.
In that contest, ex-Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov notched his first NHL victory – and the 290th of his NHL career – since Nov. 14, 2024 for the Islanders. The 38-year-old Varlamov missed all of last season while undergoing double partial knee replacements. The Caps chose Varlamov in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Along with James Reimer of the Rangers, Varlamov is one of just two netminders from that Draft to appear in an NHL game this season.
And speaking of ex-Caps, beloved former Nashville, Washington and Islanders coach and former Preds GM Barry Trotz is being inducted into the Predators’ Golden Hall in a pregame ceremony before Thursday’s game. Trotz is the lone inductee for 2026, and he becomes the sixth person ever named to the Golden Hall.
Trotz was Nashville’s first-ever head coach when the franchise was minted in 1998-99, and he held down the post for the first 15 seasons of the franchise’s existence. He came to Washington for four seasons starting in 2014-15, and he led the Caps to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2018.
Before accepting the role of Predators GM in 2023, Trotz also coached the Islanders for four seasons. Altogether, he was a head coach for 23 straight seasons in the NHL for just three franchises, and his stint in Nashville represents the third most games (1,196) with one franchise in NHL history. His career total of 1,812 games coached ranks fifth in League history, and his 914 victories ranks fifth all-time.
Inaugural inductees to the Golden Hall in 2024 were longtime Preds – and former longtime Caps – GM David Poile, retired Preds goaltender Pekka Rinne and retired Nashville defenseman Shea Weber. That trio was joined in 2025 by Preds play-by-play announcer Pete Weber – who has held the post since day one in 1998 – and former NHL player and coach Terry Crisp, who was Weber’s analyst sidekick in Nashville through 2021-22.
