While the question of if 2025-26 is Alex Ovechkin’s final season in the NHL, the league dropped the schedule for what potentially could be the regular-season finale for the franchise’s marquee player.
The Capitals will open the season on Oct. 8 at home against the Boston Bruins, a game that will be broadcast nationally on TNT as part of a doubleheader.
Capitals vs. Penguins in home finale
The home finale comes April 12 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, in what could carry a couple of significant storylines – or perhaps not. Should Ovechkin decide to leave the Capitals after the season, it would likely be his last regular-season home game barring injury or rest, and should Washington fail to qualify for the playoffs, perhaps his last game ever at Capital One Arena. It also potentially could be the last Ovechkin-Sidney Crosby matchup barring a playoff matchup, which seems unlikely with the Penguins kicking off a full-fledged rebuild.
Washington will close the regular season on the road at Columbus on April 14, and they hope will be a step towards the playoffs – but if they don’t, that could be Ovechkin’s final NHL game if he chooses to end his career in the league there.
With the Olympic break this season, one of Washington’s traditional home games on Super Bowl Sunday isn’t being held this season with the Capitals off for the break. The Caps host Nashville on Feb. 5 and won’t play again until Philadelphia visits on Feb. 25, with some Capitals headed to Italy for the Olympics – although with Russia not in the tournament, the team’s captain will have nearly a three-week holiday.
One of the traditional games that survived is the Black Friday game, which will be held with the Toronto Maple Leafs coming in the day after Thanksgiving.
Washington also gets an unusual assignment of being the road team on New Year’s Day – which was a traditional home game for the Capitals until the Winter Classic created a blackout window for other games – as they visit Canada’s capital on Jan. 1, 2026. The Capitals do play a New Year’s Eve game against the Rangers at home to close out calendar year 2025.
Out of the gate, Washington will play a localized schedule, with six of the first nine being at Capital One Arena, and the other two being in the New York area (Islanders and Rangers) as well as one in Columbus, with the first significant road trip being one to Dallas on Oct. 28 – before returning home to face the Islanders on Halloween to close out the first month of the season.
The Capitals don’t head to California until early December, and their annual trek to the Pacific Northwest and Alberta comes in January. And like this year, Washington closes with a road-heavy schedule, with just four of its final 12 games on the road, including a trip to Utah and Vegas.
Of course, if Ovechkin does decide to hang them up after this season and head to the KHL, that long road to the end of the regular-season could be a lot like last year’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s goal mark with a lot of fanfare. But that is still up in the air, unlike the coming schedule.
