Halfway To Crazy – The Caps are back in town for a three-game homestand, their first homestand of at least that length in five weeks. It’s all Western Conference opposition for Washington for this homestand – and for the next five games overall – as the Caps seek to gain some traction in the standings and stack some wins together.
Tonight’s tilt with the Hawks kicks off the second half of the 2025-26 season for the Capitals, who are 11 points behind the pace they set in the first half of last season when they finished atop the Eastern Conference standings with 111 points. The Caps are currently on a pace that would produce 94 points over a full 82-game slate, and they’ve tumbled from the stop spot in both the Eastern Conference and the Metropolitan Division on the morning of Dec. 11 to seventh place in Conference and fourth in the Metro heading into tonight’s tilt with Chicago.
“The thing that sticks out to me on the film is the length [of the players] on the back end,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of the Hawks. “They have those young bucks, but they are big, big human beings back there, that all can skate and all are very, very long. And tons of speed through their lineup with not only the young guys, but guys like Ilya Mikheyev. It feels like on each line there’s [scoring] threats.
“So, they’re playing well, big, long [defense corps] and I feel like just the speed through their forward group – if you’re not ready for that – can cause you a lot of issues.”
Out since Halloween night after undergoing surgery on his abdominal and adductor muscles, Caps center P-L Dubois skated on his own before today's morning skate. That's progress for sure, but the timeline for Dubois' return remains what it was from the beginning – three to four months. Carbery says Dubois won't return to action before the February Olympic break, and the coach also notes there could be some alterations to the lineup from what we saw Thursday afternoon in Ottawa.
"We've got a few game time [decisions]," says Carbery, "so we'll know more tonight."
Space Oddity – The compressed Olympic year schedule has made things more challenging for all 32 NHL teams this season, but starting with Thursday’s game in Ottawa, the Caps have the relative luxury of playing a dozen straight games on one day’s rest – they play every odd day of January through the 23rd of this month – which has been their sweet spot throughout the Alex Ovechkin era.
Beginning on Oct. 5, 2005 – the night of Ovechkin’s NHL debut – the Caps’ .607 points percentage is second only to Boston’s .616 among the 30 NHL teams that have been in existence for the entirety of that time. But when playing on one day’s rest, the Caps’ .640 points pct. is tops among those same 30 teams across that same timespan.
“Yeah, it's funny,” says Caps defenseman Jakob Chychrun. “When you put it that way, I guess it's kind of nice. It's of one of those years you don't really think any part of the schedule looks too good, but yeah, we'll take it, I guess with not too many back-to-backs here for a little stretch.
“And being home is nice, for sure. It's funny coming to the practice rink today. I don't think we've been here since before Christmas. It felt like I haven’t been here in a month, so it’s nice to kind of get back into our home rhythm here a little bit. And yeah, hopefully we can get some energy here for January.”
Washington is 12-8-2 (.591) when playing on a single day’s rest this season; it was 29-12-5 (.685) under those circumstances last season, tops in the Eastern Conference and second only to Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg (.713) among all clubs in the circuit.
“I think that’s what you’re built for,” says Caps center Dylan Strome of playing every other day. “Your body, it seems like that’s the perfect amount of time to rest and recover, and also still feel as good as you can from the game before, so I think you don’t lose it. But also, if you didn’t play well or the team didn’t play well, it’s a good day to reset and forget about it.
“I guess we’ve got at least five straight against Western Conference teams, so it’s a time to make up some ground and put some points on the board. In this crazy part of the season, this is a favorable schedule for us. And adding the dads’ trip on the back end will be a good boost for us that we need.”
New Year’s Resolution – Just under a month ago – on the morning of Dec. 4, 2025 – the Caps owned the fourth best points percentage (.643) in the NHL, trailing only Colorado (.815), Dallas (.732) and Carolina (.654). And with an average of just 2.46 goals against per game, the Caps ranked second in the NHL behind only Colorado (2.19). With an average of 3.50 goals per game, Washington also trailed only the Avalanche (4.04) in that department.
Since then, however, the Caps have scuffled to a 4-6-3 record over their last 13 games, they’ve been unable to string together consecutive wins, and the team’s .432 points pct. is tied for 27th in the League over that span.
The primary culprit for the slide is their play in their own end of the ice. Yes, the Caps have scored at a significantly slower rate (2.69 goals per game, 24th in the League during that span), but their slide in goals against has been more precipitous. Washington has yielded an unsightly 3.46 goals per game over those 13 games, the sixth highest rate in the circuit.
“There's, a couple different things, I think,” says Chychrun. “Overall, just continue to work for one another, break out pucks clean. Usually when we're breaking out pucks and we have good wall play, we're not spending as much time in the [defensive] zone. So, get back to that; I think we have had a lot of success with that. And just continuing to support one another, make sure we're doing everything we need to do to be successful in that area, and then just not compounding problems.
“We're going to make mistakes. It's a matter of making sure once there's a breakdown, we’re not making the matters worse for us, and we’re working to support our buddy and make sure we're getting out of any breakdowns we have, and not making it worse in ourselves.”
The numbers bear that out, too. For much of the early part of the season, the Caps were typically among the top three to five teams in the NHL in controlling shot attempts at 5-on-5. But they’ve slipped to eighth overall at 51.88 percent, and that’s largely attributable to them ranking 19th in the League at 48.65 percent over their last 13 games.
“First of all, our breakouts haven't been as good as they were at the beginning [of the season],” says Strome. “That starts the whole thing, because I feel like just recently, we've been spending more time in our own zone. And then – like any team that spends more time in their own zone – you're going to get guys on your team that are tired, and you're going to be chasing guys around, or you're going to be sitting back, and they're just going to be circling the wagons, like what happened [Thursday] in Ottawa, and like what happened against New Jersey [a week ago]. Not as much against the Rangers; I thought we played pretty well that game for the most part.
“When you don't get out of your own end and you're stuck there, and let's say you have a good shift in the [offensive] zone, you come back and they dump a puck in and you can't get out, and then they have fresh guys on the ice, and it's like a fresh team against a tired team, and I think that's where we get in some trouble. I think if we can break out the puck a little cleaner, and just spend less time in our zone, it's going to be beneficial for us.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson starts against Chicago tonight. After starting the season with nine straight starts in which he allowed two or fewer goals against, Thompson has yielded three or more goals against in each of his last five starts (1-4-0) for only the second time since he joined the Capitals. Thompson also had a run of five straight starts with three or more goals against from Feb. 1-25, 2025 (2-1-2).
Lifetime against the Blackhawks, Thompson is 4-1-1 in six appearances – all starts – with a shutout, a 1.99 GAA and a .930 save pct.
Spencer Knight is the likely starter for Chicago tonight. In his most recent start on Thursday against Dallas, Knight halted a personal six-game slide (0-5-1) with a 25-save performance, helping the Hawks to victory in their first game of the New Year.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Knight is 1-2-0 in four appearances – two starts – with a 3.84 GAA and an .892 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Blackhawks might look on Saturday night in the District and how the Caps looked on Thursday in Ottawa:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
72-Beauvillier 26-Dowd, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 53-Frank
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
80-Dubois (abdomen)
CHICAGO
Forwards
59-Bertuzzi, 20-Greene, 28-Burakovsky
86-Teravainen, 11-Moore, 76-Lardis
8-Donato, 16-Dickinson, 95-Mikheyev
34-Dach, 17-Foligno, 84-Slaggert
Defensemen
72-Vlasic, 46-Crevier
44-Kaiser, 55-Levshunov
48-Grzelcyk, 5-Murphy
Goalies
30-Knight
40-Soderblom
Healthy Extras
24-Lafferty
25-Toninato
38-Del Mastro
Injured/Out
91-Nazar (upper body)
98-Bedard (shoulder)
