One Game – Down 3-1 in their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Carolina Hurricanes, the Capitals are facing elimination and the end of their season as they take the ice at Capital One Arena for Game 5 of the series tonight.
Tonight, the Caps’ mentality must be a simple one; they need to win tonight to earn a return trip to Raleigh for Game 6 of the series on Saturday in Raleigh. Washington forged a 26-9-6 record on home ice during the regular season, and it has won four of its five postseason games here in the District as well. Overall, the Caps have won 12 of their last 15 games at Capital One Arena.
Since the season began last October, the Caps have won 56 hockey games, including 30 at home. They know what winning hockey looks like and feels like, and what comprises their recipe for team success.
“You’re confident, because you’ve played at a certain level and you know exactly what your identity looks like and feels like when you’re playing that way,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It’s all habitual; you don’t even need to think. You know where you need to go, you’re just playing the game and you’re reacting; you’re always in good spots and you’re always in good position, and you’ve developed good habits over the last seven months. You know exactly where you need to be at any given moment on the ice, and that’s what you have to rely on in these moments, especially.
“It’s no different whether you’re on the edge of elimination or you’re playing a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final. The pressure builds, builds, builds, builds – it’s what team can stay in the moment, do a better job of executing their structure and relying on all the habits that have been ingrained all year. And then obviously, your opponent has something to say about that, but who can impose their game a little bit more.
“And that’s going to be our challenge. We just need to do a little bit more in a bunch of different areas to get over the hump and get some results against Carolina.”
The Caps need to get some results against Carolina tonight to earn the opportunity to get some results in Carolina on Saturday. One thing at a time.
“I think we know what we’ve got to do out there,” says Caps forward Aliaksei Protas. “I think we’ve talked about it enough, the things that we need to improve to win the game. Now, it’s just the time to go out there and do it.”
More Than This – Four games deep into their second-round series with Carolina, the Caps’ most glaring issue is their lack of offense. In splitting the first two games at home, the Caps scored just four goals, the fourth one an empty netter. In Games 3 and 4 in Raleigh, the Capitals were shutout for over 105 minutes before they finally found the back of the net early in the third period of Game 4; Jakub Chychrun’s goal at 5:18 of the third period cut the Carolina lead to 2-1 at that juncture of the contest.
The Caps never trailed in Games 1 and 2 and they never led in Games 3 and 4. Jaccob Slavin’s overtime goal that gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 victory in Game 1 is essentially the difference between an even series and Washington having its backs to the proverbial wall as we go into Game 5.
At this time of year, goals are hard to come by, and few teams are more aware of that fact than the Caps. Including the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs – but excluding the three “preliminary round” games they played in the 2020 “bubble” playoffs – the Capitals have played 311 playoff games over the course of their half century history in the NHL. They’ve scored two or fewer goals in 137 of those games, or 44 percent of all their postseason games.
It's difficult to win games – regular season or postseason – with just two goals, and the Caps’ all-time playoff record of 19-118 (.139 winning pct.) when scoring two or fewer goals backs that up. Excluding those meaningless preliminary games in the bubble in 2020, the Caps are 0-18 when scoring two or fewer goals since they hoisted the Cup in Vegas almost seven years ago.
Evgeny Kuznetsov’s overtime goal on May 7, 2018 in Pittsburgh gave Washington a 2-1 victory in Game 6 of that series with the Penguins, and that also marks the Caps’ most recent victory in a playoff game in which they were limited to two or fewer goals.
“It starts with scoring,” says Protas. “Obviously, you can’t win if you don’t score the goals. We can do down the list, and pretty much everything we’ve got to get better at and get to the levels to win games in the playoffs. We know how to do that, and we’ve got to do it to stay alive, and leave everything out there.”
The Caps are far from alone in their second-round struggles to put pucks in the net. Carolina’s Frederik Andersen is one of three goaltenders who has authored a shutout streak of at least 120 minutes in length in the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, and not coincidentally, the opponents of those three goaltenders are in peril, and one of them has been eliminated.
Last night, the Vegas Golden Knights suffered a 1-0 home ice shutout in overtime, the second straight game in which they were held off the scoreboard. As a result, Edmonton and goaltender Stuart Skinner advance to the Western Conference Final series, and Skinner goes into that series with a 127-minute shutout streak in which he has stopped 48 consecutive shots.
Also last night, Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky came within about a minute of a second straight playoff whitewash over the Maple Leafs in a convincing 6-1 victory in Toronto. Bobrovsky’s shutout streak was finally halted at 143:25, erasing John Vanbiesbrouck’s franchise record (141:31) that had been in the books since 1996.
When goaltenders get that hot while the clock ticks through a pressure filled best-of-seven playoff series, two noticeable things happen. First, opponents became reluctant to shoot and can fall into the trap of overpassing, subconsciously believing a teammate might be better suited to break the spell. And second, when opponents do shoot, they tend to put too fine a point on their shots, thinking they need to put it in a teacup to light the lamp, and ultimately causing more shot attempts to draw iron or otherwise miss their intended mark.
“A bunch of stuff,” answers Carbery, asked what his team can do better to make Andersen’s life in the crease a bit more difficult. “More volume; that would be right at the top of the list, being able to generate more. Activity, so that’s pucks in and around him, activity around there, whether it’s shots, passes, shot/passes. Pucks getting inside a lot more, and then guys fighting to get in there and stay there and win some loose pucks. That’s probably the areas that we’ve focused on the most, of making it more challenging on him and being able to generate more.”
The Caps get at least one more chance to check a few of those boxes tonight.
In The Nets – In 2023-24, his final season with the Vegas Golden Knights, Caps goalie Logan Thompson was reached for four or more goals in consecutive games on four different occasions. In his first season in the Washington nets, Thompson went through 43 regular season and seven playoff games before meeting that fate in Games 3 and 4 in Carolina.
Carolina’s potent power play had a lot to do with that, as did the score effects; the Caps hung Thompson out to dry on several occasions while trying to dig their way out of multi-goal ditches in Games 3 and 4 of the series in Raleigh.
The Caps have seen enough of Thompson to know the last two games are more of an anomaly than anything else.
“Very simply put,” begins Carbery, “when the chips are on the table and our season is on the line, he’s a pretty safe bet. He’s a pretty safe bet because you know he’s going to lay absolutely everything he’s got on the line for his teammates. And he wants to win as badly as anyone in our room, so I’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”
Before Chychrun’s goal in the third period of Game 4, Andersen’s shutout streak reached 123:24, going back to the third period of Game 2 of the series in Washington. The 35-year-old Denmark native has forged a 1.41 GAA and a .935 save pct. in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs; both figures are tops among all netminders in the playoffs. With 17 career wins with the Canes in the postseason, Andersen is six victories shy of matching Cam Ward’s franchise mark of 23.
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Capitals and the Hurricanes might look for Thursday night’s Game 5 of the second-round playoff series between the two teams:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
21-Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
88-Mangiapane, 24-McMichael, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
33-Stevenson
Extras
20-Eller
25-Bear
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
42-Fehervary (lower body)
77-Oshie (back)
79-Lindgren (personal)
CAROLINA
Forwards
37-Svechnikov, 20-Aho, 24-Jarvis
71-Hall, 96-Roslovic, 22-Stankoven
48-Martinook, 11-Staal, 24-Jarvis
50-Robinson, 82-Kotkaniemi, 53-Blake
Defensemen
74-Slavin, 8-Burns
7-Orlov, 5-Chatfield
4-Gostisbehere, 26-Walker
Goaltenders
31-Andersen
52-Kochetkov
Extras
21-Nikishin
27-Jost
41-Martin
42-Smith
54-Jaaska
56-Morrow
61-Stillman
80-Khazheyev
Out/Injured
71-Fast (upper body)
77-Jankowski (undisclosed)
