Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, the Capitals and the Blue Jackets put a wrap on the 2025-26 season. The two Metropolitan Division rivals had been gearing up for what might have been a most meaningful game with playoff berth implications, but the Philadelphia Flyers popped that balloon for both the Blue Jackets and the Caps with a Monday night shootout victory over Carolina.
The Caps rallied from a 1-0 deficit to claim a 2-1 win in Tuesday’s season finale; Jakob Chychrun’s power-play goal with 4:07 left in the third period stands up as the game-winner. The goal snapped a 1-1 tie in a quick and briskly played contest.
Getting the start in the final game of the season for the second straight April, Clay Stevenson improved to 3-1-0 in four NHL starts this season with a sparkling 27-save performance. Stevenson kept the Jackets close until Washington could find its footing and begin to generate some offense around the middle of the second period.
“We grinded tonight, no doubt,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It wasn't a great start, but we sort of hung in there. Clay was fantastic tonight, and pretty emblematic of a lot of the ways that we've found ways to win games throughout this season, of just hanging around, keeping that thing tight and then get a big power-play goal. So, a lot of credit to our guys.
“This is a really, really difficult game for both teams to play in. Not because there's a lot of teams playing in games that don't mean anything this time of year – some have been playing for a few weeks – but just because of the freshness of last night. And all of a sudden, you snap your fingers, and both teams are in the fight. And then in 12 hours, they're not in the fight. And now your season's basically gotten to plans to figure out when you're headed home, or when you're not going to be coming to the rink anymore, so that that made it a really, really difficult game today. But I again, give our guys credit for finding a way to dig in and get two points and win the game.”
“It feels a little weird – anti-climactic,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “You win the game, but you’re done, so it kind of sucks. We’ve been playing really well lately, we just came up probably a game short.”
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin might have wrapped up his illustrious 21-season career on Tuesday in Ohio’s capital city, but Ovechkin’s future is not nearly as precise and definitive as the final score of the season finale.
Ovechkin, who assisted on Chychrun’s game-winner and led Washington in scoring for the season with 64 points (32 goals, 32 assists), will decide sometime over the offseason as to what his future holds.
“Probably like right now, we’re going to have end of [season] meetings,” says Ovechkin. “And then I’m going to stay a little bit in DC. I don’t know when we’re going to fly; probably in May we’ll fly back home.
“Yeah, consult with Carbs, [GM Chris Patrick, Brian MacLellan], and obviously with my family, and going from there.”
After a scoreless and penalty free –- and swiftly played – first frame, the Jackets grabbed a 1-0 lead on Boone Jenner’s shot from the slot off the rush, just 27 seconds into the second period. Mason Marchment made a sublime feed to Jenner in the middle of the ice, and the Columbus captain fired it home, beating Stevenson high on the stick side.
The Caps were held without a shot on net for the final 9 minutes and 27 seconds of the initial period, and they were held without a shot for the first 10 minutes and 46 seconds of the middle period as well. But that first shot of the middle frame went behind Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves, tying the score.
From deep in his own end, Trevor van Riemsdyk spotted Anthony Beauvillier up ice and well behind a slew of weary Blue Jackets; Columbus had mounted a lengthy offensive zone shift and van Riemsdyk just regained possession for Washington. He fired a laser of a stretch feed straight up the gut to send Beauvillier in on a breakaway, and the Washington winger deked and scored on the first shot Greaves had faced in over 20 minutes of playing time.
Late in the third, Jackets winger Miles Wood was boxed for hi-sticking Martin Fehervary. On the Washington power play, Wilson, Ovechkin and Chychrun formed a triangle up top, exchanging the puck and body positions until Wilson put it to Chychrun in the middle. The blueliner crept up a couple up strides to just above the tops of the circles and let a wrist rocket fly to the twine behind Greaves.
Chychrun’s goal was his 26th of the season, tying him with Sergei Gonchar for third-most in a single season by a Washington defenseman. The marker was also Chychrun’s eighth game-winning goal of the season, tying former Arizona teammate Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s NHL record for most game-winners in a season by a blueliner.
Ovechkin had the puck on his stick with a shot for an empty-net goal late, but the puck rolled on him at the last second, and the shot went wide.
“I felt like I just wanted him to maybe – if this is it – to ice it with one more empty-netter,” says Carbery. “He had a good look at it; the puck just was rolling. So, I wanted him to be out there for the last bit.”
There were plenty of red sweaters and Caps gear to be seen throughout Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night and on the streets of this fair city for the last couple of nights. Many die-hard Caps fans made the trek to Ohio to watch the captain one more time, in case that one more time was also the last time. And Ovechkin, as ever, was appreciative of the support.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Ovechkin. “And the fans who came here from DC and from different spots to watch the game, it was very nice. I can hear them cheering for me and screaming, ‘One more year!’ That’s important to show that stuff, so yeah, thanks for that support.”
