Blue Afternoon – The Caps debut their blue Hometown Remix jerseys this afternoon against Florida as they seek to salvage something from a three-game homestand.
Today’s game concludes that homestand, and, at long last, a home-heavy opening stretch of the season the Panthers. Saturday’s game is already Washington’s 11th home game of the season, the most of any team in the NHL until later in the day when Nashville hosts its 11th game. The Predators, however, have had three actual road trips, none of which was fettered to having to play games on back-to-back nights.
Each of Washington’s three short forays away from the District has been attached to back-to-back games, and five of the Caps’ first seven “road trips” this season will consist of a single road game; five of them are also attached in some way to a set of back-to-backs.
Saturday’s game also features the seventh different local start time of a Capitals game this season. Most importantly, the Caps are seeking to shake off consecutive losses on home ice, an indignity they hadn’t suffered since Jan. 15-17 of this year.
Washington is the only team in the NHL to play just four games on one day’s rest to this point of the season. Today, they’re playing on three days rest for the fourth time this season; Los Angeles is the only other team in the NHL to play as many as three games on three days rest.
Fourteen Floors – Caps defenseman Cole Hutson logged 14 games with Washington at the tail end of last season, totaling three goals and seven assists for 10 points while averaging 17:27 per night in ice time. He has now skated 14 games in 2026-27, totaling four goals and five assists for nine points while skating an average of 19:21 per game.
During a short chat with the Caps’ dynamic 20-year-old defenseman, we wondered about the biggest difference between those 14 games at the end of last season and the 14 to start 2026-27.
“I think just realizing how hard it is,” says Hutson. “You get a team's best every night, so just being able to battle and try and compete at the highest level every night is definitely tough. But I’m just going to keep grinding away, and hopefully it keeps going.”
Since being partnered with Jack St. Ivany after the latter was claimed off waivers from Winnipeg two weeks ago this afternoon, both blueliners have seen shot attempts swing Washington’s way by over 60 percent, tops among all the team’s defensemen in those four games. The tandem has looked dominant at times, and it has been on the ice for five goals for and three against in those four contests.
“It definitely helps with confidence a little bit, knowing you can do it once and then trying to do it again the next shift is big,” says Hutson. “I’m not really looking too much into it, other than it’s a confidence thing. I think the more confident I play, the better I am and that’s just who I am as a person.”
Since entering the NHL, Hutson’s total of 19 points in 28 games gives him a points-per-game rate of .679 for his brief NHL career, and .643 for this season, his rookie campaign. Former Capital – and Hockey Hall of Famer – Larry Murphy holds the all-time NHL record for points per game from a rookie defensemen; Murphy rolled up 76 points (16 goals, 60 assists) as a 19-year-old for Los Angeles in 1980-81, setting the bar high at .95 points per game and holding the mark for nearly half a century now.
At .643 this season, Hutson slots in just behind 14th place Bobby Orr at .67 in 1966-67.
Growing up, Hutson enjoyed watching a different Boston blueliner ply his trade.
“I watched a lot of Torey Krug growing up,” says Hutson. “I hate to admit it, but Boston was one of my favorite teams, but obviously not anymore. But Torey Krug back in the day was a guy that I looked at; he played physical and was offensive. I think we play very similar in some ways, and he is a guy I liked to watch growing up for sure.”
Although he isn’t the biggest of Washington’s defensemen, Hutson’s rate of 3.1 hits per 60 ranks second only to Martin Fehervary (5.56) among the four defensemen who have played all 14 games for the Caps this season.
“That’s just the fun of the game,” says Hutson of displaying his physicality. “I don’t think too much into it, other than there is no better feeling than making a big hit for the team. And obviously, when you’re making big hits, you’re going to have to take some too. So just be prepared for that and try to change the momentum of the game as much as you can.”
Twenty-eight games into what looks like a long and promising career, Hutson has shown he has multiple ways of changing the momentum of the game.
The Clock Strikes Twelve – Former Caps center Lars Eller is in his first season with the Panthers – and his 18th season in the NHL – in 2026-27, and he logged his 1,200th career NHL game in Florida’s most recent contest, a 5-3 win over the Blackhawks on Wednesday night in Florida.
Eller is the all-time leader among Danish-born players in games played, and in the summer of 2018, he became the first player to bring the Stanley Cup to Denmark. This season with Florida, Eller is averaging 15:50 per night in ice time, his highest figure since he averaged 15:58 for the 2023-24 Pittsburgh Penguins.
Eight seasons after winning the Stanley Cup with Washington, Eller is one of just eight remaining players from that 2017-18 Cup championship team who is still playing in the NHL. Among those eight players, only Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson remain with the Caps.
Across his lengthy NHL career, Eller has been teammates with Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, three of the best players of his generation.
“It’s been really special,” Eller told me in a lengthy interview from 2025. “I feel like I've been very fortunate to be around them and see how they go about their life and the game. They all go about it in very different ways, they’re very different personalities, but they all, of course, have a deep, deep passion and love for the game, which is what they have in common.
“And after that, they don't have so much in common, right? But that just shows, goes to show that there is not one way you have to be to succeed.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson will be in net for Washington this afternoon, making his 11th start of the season and seeking his sixth victory. In his most recent start, Thompson was pulled early in the second period of Tuesday’s game against Dallas after yielding four goals on 11 shots in 25:17 of work. It marked just the second time in Thompson’s 110 regular starts as a Capital that he was pulled from a start for non-injury related reasons.
Lifetime against Florida, Thompson is 4-4-0 in eight appearances – all starts – with a 3.28 GAA and an .894 save pct.
For the Panthers, we will see ex-New Jersey netminder Akira Schmid today. Seventeen-year NHL veteran Jacob Markstrom has a 2-8-3 lifetime mark in his 13 career appearances against Washington, so the Cats will go with Schmid this afternoon.
Originally a New Jersey fifth-round pick (136th overall) from the 2018 NHL Draft, Schmid is in his first season with the Panthers. Coming off a career high 16 wins (16-10-6) with Vegas last season, Schmid has won five of his first eight starts with Florida (5-2-1).
Lifetime against the Capitals, Schmid is 2-2-0 in five appearances – three starts – with a 2.31 GAA and a .911 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and Panthers might look on Saturday afternoon in DC:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
89-Tuch, 17-Strome, 25-Kyrou
21-A. Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 34-Sourdif, 72-Beauvillier
22-Jenner, 62-I. Protas, 9-Leonard
Defense
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
42-Fehervary, 27-Liljegren
44-Hutson, 29-St. Ivany
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Injured/Out
38-Sandin (lower body)
73-Desharnais (appendectomy)
Healthy Extras
1-Poirier
53-Frank
63-Miroshnichenko
FLORIDA
Forwards
8-B. Tkachuk, 9-Bennett, 19-M. Tkachuk
23-Verhaeghe, 13-Reinhart, 95-Vilmanis
27-Luostarinen, 15-Lundell, 20-Eller
14-Imama, 79-Schwindt, 21-Hathaway
Defense
42-Forsling, 5-Ekblad
77-Mikkola, 3-Jones
7-Kulikov, 6-Gudas
Goaltenders
25-Markstrom
40-Schmid
Injured/out
12-Gadjovich (upper body)
16-Barkov (lower body)
63-Marchand (lower body)
Healthy Extras
26-Balinskis
29-Reinhardt
