Been Awhile – The Vegas Golden Knights are in town tonight, providing the opposition for the second game of the Capitals’ brief two-game homestand at Capital One Arena. Tonight’s tilt is the first meeting between the two teams this season, and the Golden Knights are – along with the Utah Mammoth – one of only two teams the Caps have yet to face this season.
Last season, the Caps played both of their games against Vegas early in the season. The Golden Knights were in Washington on Oct. 15, 2024 and the Caps visited Vegas just over a month later, on Nov. 17. The two teams did not see one another at all in calendar 2025.
The Knights come to town on the second game of a five-game trip. The opening game of the journey was Wednesday in Los Angeles when a skeleton Vegas squad erupted for five goals in the third period in a 6-4 victory over the Kings. Each of the five Vegas Olympians that competed in Sunday’s gold medal game in Italy was given Wednesday’s game off, and the two Americans – center Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin – who won gold and subsequently attended Tuesday’s state of the union address stayed in the District and skated on their own on Thursday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
“We haven’t seen them this year,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of the Golden Knights. “And coincidentally enough, I think we played them twice within the first 14 games last year. We were done with them early on.
“We haven’t seen Mitch [Marner] there. Most of the personnel is fairly similar, and [Vegas coach] Butch [Cassidy] was there, and the way that they play. [They’re a] great team; we know that. They’ve had success in the past, won a Stanley Cup.
“They’ve got elite special teams on both sides of it – power play and penalty kill – and they’re as good of a defensive team as there is in the NHL at defending in the defensive zone, their rush defense, their structure with numbers, their sticks, their ability to block shots. They make it as hard as any team to get to the most important area on the ice, where you’re going to score. They make it the most difficult.”
Tom Wilson will return to the Washington lineup tonight after a one-game absence because of illness, but John Carlson (lower body) remains sidelined for a second straight game and is still day-to-day; he won’t be traveling to Montreal for Saturday’s game either.
Keep On Growing – With Carlson out again this weekend, Declan Chisholm is likely to be in the Washington lineup again tonight. Obtained from Minnesota in a June 28, 2025 deal with the Wild, the former 2018 Winnipeg Jets draft choice will be in the lineup for the fifth time in Washington’s last eight games tonight.
On the season, Chisholm has skated in just over a third (22 of 60) of Washington’s games, totaling a goal and five points. In Wednesday’s win over the Flyers, Chisholm picked up the primary helper on Trevor van Riemsdyk’s game-winning goal late in the third period.
“It’s been fun,” says Chisholm of his recent run of game activity and having a hand in Wednesday’s game-winner. “That’s the reason why we play; so we can contribute and help the team win. It’s always nice to do that, and it’s been great to get in a bit more of an opportunity here and showcase what I can do.”
What Chisholm can do is skate and he also has good offensive instincts to his game. After the Jets drafted him in 2018, Chisholm led OHL Peterborough defensemen in scoring in each of his next two – and last two – seasons in that League, putting up 69 points (13 goals, 56 assists) in just 59 games in 2019-20, his last year in the OHL.
“I thought he played really, really well,” says Carbery of Chisholm’s Wednesday night performance. “One of his better games of the year [Wednesday] night for us, and we need it.”
Just ahead of the Olympic break, in a Jan. 29 game against the Red Wings in Detroit, Chisholm bagged his first goal as a Capital in a crucial 4-3 shootout win.
“I want to get to where I’m being relied on every game, playing every game, and contributing every night,” begins the 26-year-old native of Bowmanville, Ont., “[whether] that’s bringing pace to the game, jumping up, using my skating, breaking pressure, breaking out the puck, or defending hard. That’s been a huge thing I’ve had to focus on in making the NHL transition, is I have to defend hard and I have to be trusted by the coach, and then let my offensive instincts take over.”
Chisholm’s offensive instincts produced a rather rare scoring play – especially for a tightly played 1-1 game late in the third period – in which both Washington blueliners were deep in Philadelphia territory. Chisholm was just off the paint on the left side, and when he fed van Riemsdyk, the latter was below the hash marks on the right side.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that either,” says Chisholm. “I was shocked to see Riemer up in the rush, but it worked out well, so we’ll take it.”
“If that [pass] doesn’t connect,” says Carbery, “I’m thinking about what’s going the other way. And [Alex Ovechkin] in that sequence there, he goes and he takes coverage because he’s driving through. So the defender goes to O, lifts his stick, and that opens up the back door seam.
“You probably won’t see that for the rest of the year, but again, finding a way. We had [the Flyers in a vulnerable spot; they were changing. We had a numerical advantage and we attacked. It was a good job by Chis and Riemer, and O, driving through there to take coverage.”
Chisholm’s elite skating can also help him defensively, but he believes not overthinking and letting the game come to him are what will help him be able to round into a better defender.
“I find my biggest problem on [defense] can sometimes come from trying too hard,” he says. “Like, I'm trying to help too much, or I'm over committing. And I find when I stay more relaxed and I use my skating, I can just stay [on the defensive] side, let them come to me, and then I can close them. Because everyone is so skilled in the NHL. If you're trying to be aggressive, and you're going at them 100 miles an hour, and the guys are making moves, they're spinning around, they're cutting back. And you can get beat that way.
“So I find – especially working with [assistant coach Patrick Wellar] this year – a lot of things I've been working on is just being more calm defensively, and I think that helps a ton. If I'm just balanced, going in calmly, and you an idea of what you're going to do; you're not just going out there and trying to help the next guy. You're reading the coverage, staying with your man until there's an opportunity to maybe double. I think that's been a huge part of the learning curve for me.”
In The Nets – Two nights after earning his 20th victory of the season in a 3-1 triumph over the Flyers, Logan Thompson gets the net tonight against his former employer, the Golden Knights. Given that tonight’s tilt is the front end of a set of back-to-back games – the Caps fly to Montreal immediately after Friday’s game; they have a Saturday meeting with the Canadiens – Charlie Lindgren will also be facing a former employer in the back end of the back-to-back set.
Lifetime against the Golden Knights, Thompson is 2-0-0 in two appearances – both starts – with a 2.01 GAA and a .941 save pct.
Akira Schmid is the expected starter for the Golden Knights tonight. Schmid tended the twine for Team Switzerland in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, and after Adin Hill picked up the win on Wednesday in Los Angeles with a 15-save outing, Schmid gets his first post-Olympics start tonight.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Schmid is 2-1-0 in four appearances – two starts – with a 2.05 GAA and a .916 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Golden Knights might look on Friday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 21-Protas
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
72-Beauvillier, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 57-van Riemsdyk
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
47-Chisholm, 38-Sandin
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
29-Lapierre
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
74-Carlson
VEGAS
Forwards
49-Barbashev, 9-Eichel, 61-Stone
19-Smith, 93-Marner, 16-Dorofeyev
42-Bowman, 48-Hertl, 55-Kolesar
20-Saad, 10-Sissons, 26-Holtz
Defensemen
5-Lauzon, 27-Theodore
15-Hanifin, 4-Andersson
3-McNabb, 6-Korczak
Goalies
40-Schmid
33-Hill
Healthy Extras
17-Hutton
23-Reinhardt
Injured/Out
7-Pietrangelo (hip)
21-Howden (lower body)
46-Rondbjerg (undisclosed)
71-Karlsson (lower body)
79-Hart (lower body)
