Thompson sharp in return to Capitals, ready for Olympics with Canada

WASHINGTON -- Logan Thompson looks ready for the Olympic spotlight.

Thompson made 27 saves in his return from an upper-body injury to help the Washington Capitals defeat the Nashville Predators 4-2 at Capital One Arena on Thursday.

It was Capitals’ final game before the 28-year-old goalie leaves to represent Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and a victory they desperately needed to keep pace in the Eastern Conference Stanley Cup Playoff race.

Washington (29-23-7) remained four points behind the New York Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division and pulled within four points of the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the playoffs from the conference. Thompson played a big role in that in his first game since a 5-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 27.

“Probably as good a performance in the net as we’ve had all season long,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “He was fantastic tonight right from the start, made so many big saves in that game. And I’ll be honest with you, we weren’t very good, so without that performance, we’re not getting two points tonight.”

After missing the previous four games, Thompson was eager to play in at least one game before heading to Milano Cortina. Along with forward Tom Wilson, who scored the Capitals’ first goal on Thursday, Thompson hopes to help Team Canada come home with the Olympic gold medal.

So, Thompson playing well against the Predators not only was important for the Capitals, but it also helped him shake off some rust before joining Team Canada.

“Yeah, obviously, I wanted to play all of these games,” he said. “I unfortunately wasn’t able to, but, yeah, it’s important to get this one before the break and feeling good and confidence going into this big tournament.”

Thompson, Wilson and defenseman Martin Fehervary, who will play for Slovakia, were honored during a pregame Olympic send-off ceremony featuring youth hockey players holding flags of the countries. It will be the first Olympics for each of the three with the NHL not participating in the Winter Games since 2014 in Sochi.

“It’s a dream come true,” Thompson said. “I’m going to just go there and soak it all in and do any role that they want me to be. Whether that’s practice goalie, backup, handing out the water bottles, I’m just going to be happy to be there and I’m going to do whatever I can to the best that I can.”

Thompson will compete for playing time on Team Canada with Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues and Darcy Kuemper of the Los Angeles Kings. Thompson has made a strong case this season to be the starting goalie, improving Thursday to 19-16-4 with a 2.45 goals-against average, .912 save percentage and two shutouts in 39 games (all starts).

His game had slipped some before he was injured, though. In his previous five starts before Thursday, Thompson was 1-4-0 with a 3.27 GAA and .884 save percentage.

“It just didn’t look like Logan at the beginning of the year, and he was fighting it a little bit,” Carbery said. “Then he gets hurt, so now that brings the Olympics into question and him coming back and really wanting to, first, get healthy, so that he could go to the Olympics, but also get a start in before he was going to go over to Italy.”

Thompson was sharp from the drop of the puck, making 11 saves while the Capitals built a 2-0 lead in the first period. His best stops included a glove save on Michael Bunting’s shot from the right circle at 7:17 and a point-blank chest save on Jonathan Marchessault in front at 9:40.

“That’s a team that shoots a lot of pucks, so pretty easy to get into it, especially in the first period,” Thompson said. “So, overall, felt strong.”

Thompson made nine more saves in the second period, including one with his glove to rob Marchessault, his former Vegas Golden Knights teammate, on a 2-on-0 rush at 5:45.

“I knew ‘Marchy’ was going to be [ready to shoot] because of playing with him and it’s fun to stop him,” Thompson said. “So I had a feeling they were going to go back to Marchy and luckily it stayed out, so fun to stop that guy. Then he got me back with the first one.”

Marchessault finally got the best of Thompson when the puck deflected in off his skate in front to cut Nashville’s deficit to 3-1 at 17:40 of the second period. Michael McCarron brought the Predators within 3-2 by knocking in his own rebound 1:17 into the third period, but Thompson shut the door after that.

“Man, I give him a lot of credit because he’s worked the last three or four days after the Seattle start trying to get back,” Carbery said. “They give him the green light medically, and for him to play like he did tonight when we needed it most, and now going over to Italy, you just think about him going over there and feeling really, really confident and good about his game as he goes into a tournament with the best players in the world.”