Last season’s Caps were adept at winning on the second night of back-to-backs, and they were a strong comeback team capable of digging out of multi-goal ditches to scrape points. The magic hasn’t been there in either regard early this season, and the Caps got another reminder of that in Thursday’s 5-3 loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh.
As has been the case on multiple occasions this season, spotty special teams play was Washington’s undoing in the setback.
Three Pittsburgh power-play goals supplied the difference in Thursday’s game, two of them coming in the first period. By the time the Caps found their legs and their 5-on-5 game in the middle period, they were down 3-0.
“For us to fight back in that game, and not fold at 3-0, and fight our way back into that game, but not good enough in a lot of different areas,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery.
Washington staged a furious rally in the back half of the second period, and it managed to square the score at 3-3 heading into the third period. But the Caps couldn’t grab a lead with a pair of third-period power plays, and when Dylan Strome was boxed for cross-checking Pens defenseman Parker Wotherspoon during the second Washington power play of the third period, it left the Pens with 45 seconds worth of residual power play time after the 4-on-4 sequence expired.
That’s when longtime Caps killer Bryan Rust stepped to the fore, scoring his 16th career goal against Washington at 11:16 of the third. Rust has scored six career power-play goals against the Caps, his highest total against any opponent.
In the aftermath, Strome – who started the Caps’ comeback with a short side snipe midway through the second – was still flummoxed about the penalty call that led to Rust’s goal.
“I definitely though there were some ticky tack penalties, for sure in the first period,” says Strome. “I would probably say they carried play in the first period, right? How many power plays did they get? (Three.) I thought we carried play in the second period, and how many power plays did we get? Zero.
“And it was one of those things where I felt like if they called those little hooking calls early, that’s fine. That’s fine to call a hook on the hands, but you’ve got to call it the whole game. We get that one power play [in the third period] where they swipe it out of play, and I don’t know. I just felt like my cross-check in the third wasn’t a penalty. I don’t know. I’ve never got called for cross-checking in my life in the NHL I don’t think – maybe someone will fact check me on that, but I don’t think so.
“I just felt like it was a push, trying to separate the man from the puck. He had the puck; it’s not like it was interference, not from behind. And they score on the 5-on-4.
“That’s just the way it’s going right now for us. We’re a great 5-on-5 team, but our special teams has to get better. But we’re going to be a great team, like we were last year.”
The Capitals have been a bit of a slow starting team in the early going of 2025-26, particularly offensively. Entering Thursday’s game, Washington’s total of seven first-period goals was tied for fewest in the League; only Detroit (six) had fewer.
Washington spotted the Pens a 2-0 first-period advantage on a pair of Sidney Crosby power-play strikes in the opening period, and the hole got a goal deeper when old friend Anthony Mantha buried a loose puck early in the second period to put the home team up 3-0.
To this point of the contest, there wasn’t much to indicate the Caps could dig out of that three-goal ditch, especially playing on the second night of back-to-back games. But as the second period wore on, Washington gradually warmed to the task, and it took advantage of a vulnerable Pittsburgh team that coughed up a 3-0 third period lead by yielding four third-period goals – all at 5-on-5 – to the Leafs in Toronto.
Strome started the spree at 9:41 of the second, firing a shot past the earhole of Pens goaltender Arturs Silovs to get the Caps on the board.
Just under five minutes later, Washington appeared to have pulled a goal closer when Ryan Leonard put a backhander behind Pens goaltender Arturs Silovs, but the Penguins issued a successful coach’s challenge to take the goal off the board.
Less than a minute after that goal was disallowed, Rasmus Sandin struck for his first goal since last November, when he scored all four of his goals from last season. Sandin scored a beauty as the late guy into the zone in transition, taking a sublime cross-ice feed from Strome and ripping a shot past Silovs from the inside of the left circle to make it a 3-2 contest at 14:55.
Sensing blood in the water, the Caps attacked the net late and their hard work paid off when Tom Wilson netted his ninth of the season with just 3.6 seconds left in the period, finding a loose puck and firing it home from one knee from the slot.
Pittsburgh shored up its 5-on-5 game in the third, and the Caps couldn’t convert on their two power plays, the second of which was abbreviated. But for the fourth time in as many back-to-back games this season, the Caps didn’t help themselves early.
This past Saturday in Buffalo, they scored the first two goals of the game before the three-minute mark of the first. But the Sabres rallied back for three of their own in the first, and that’s the only game in which the Caps have had a first-period lead on the second night of back-to-backs this season, in four games.
“Like I tell our guys, you’ve got to give yourself a fighting chance to get into the game,” says Carbery. “And we just failed to do that tonight. When you do that, you lose momentum right away in the hockey game. You mismanage pucks, you don’t play a smart, intelligent game to start a back-to-back on the road, so now you're chasing the game. Now, all of a sudden, you're taking penalties, now you're penalty killing.
“When you set the table and try to set up, what's an ideal road game on a back-to-back? Here's what it looks like. Slow the game down, control play, not a lot of action on either side, everybody gets some shifts under their belt. We did the exact opposite tonight. It was fire wagon, penalty kills, guys are giving up Grade A’s, Chucky’s under attack, and that's just not a way to play or start a game in that situation.”
The road trip continues on Saturday night in Tampa against the Lightning.
