Capitals Fall To Carolina In Ovechkin’s Farewell

Alex Ovechkin’s farewell tour officially got underway on Tuesday in Raleigh, as he made his final regular-season appearance for the Washington Capitals in the rink where he was drafted first overall in 2004.

The occasion was marked by a recognition during a play stoppage, with his stats shown on the screen, followed by him waving to the crowd with a round of applause.

The Capitals offense early on was fueled by a pair of less-heralded signings from the offseason, but it wasn’t enough as Washington fell 4-2 on a late power-play goal by Andrei Svechnikov.

Boone Jenner’s four-year deal continues to pay dividends early in the season for Washington, scoring in his third straight game by converting a Ryan Leonard pass and beating Pyotr Kochetkov for a first-period tally.

It’s the first time Jenner has had goals in three consecutive games since late March 2025, when he was a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Canes tied it early in the second on a goal by Andrei Svechnikov that the Capitals unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference.

”I thought the puck was under my pad, and, you know, in my opinion, that’s a cover, and, you know, if he doesn’t, uh, you know, jam it, jam through my leg, it’s in, but, you know, it’s hard nowadays with the goal interference, you never really know. I think it’s not really black and white anymore.”

“I think it’s worth a challenge because to me, it’s under his pad, and he pushes his pad in the pocket. So I’ve seen lots that get brought back in that scenario,” Spencer Carbery said afterwards. “So, and then the challenges we’ve talked about before, I think it’s just like you just don’t know what’s going to happen = nobody does.”

Justin Holl got his first goal in his first game up from the Hershey Bears, shooting through traffic for a 2-1 Capitals lead.

”Obviously, I want to play for the Caps, and, um, you know, to be able to get in there and contribute is, uh, is good for me,” he said. “We would have rather won the game, obviously, but it’s a long season where you’re just gonna have to learn some things and move forward.”

Leonard picked up an assist on the Holl goal, giving him 6 points this season (2 goals, 4 assists). However, he did get benched after a penalty in the third.

”I mean, he did some good things, but, like I said, cannot happen,” Carbery said afterwards. “And not happen, and he’ll learn from it, but he didn’t see a shift for the rest of the game … You just cannot take a frustrating penalty and slash a guy twice when the game’s on the line.”

Carbery said he felt the Capitals lost momentum in the second half of the period and never got it back.

”Everything [was] going well, playing well, but you lose a little bit of momentum in the back half of that period after the penalty kill,” he said.

Carolina tied it back up late in the second on an Eric Robinson goal that ramped up off Martin Fehervary and past Logan Thompson.

The Hurricanes took advantage of a late penalty on Justin Sourdif, as while Washington was effective on the penalty kill most of the night, Svechnikov caught Thompson crouching and beat him high with 6:04 to play.

Carolina added an empty-netter to even the season series at one apiece.

Thompson, making his fifth start in six games, dropped to 3-2 on the season after a couple of hard-luck goals and despite a 31-save effort.

“You can see why they’re the Stanley Cup champ,” he said. “Um, they, uh, smothered you and took well over our time, and, uh, yeah, they, they came out to play them. fun game, back and forth game. I’m sure it was fun for their crowd. But, yeah, I’m not happy with the result.”

The loss was Washington’s first divisional loss of the year, and dropped to 1-2 on the road – where they won’t be until the last game of the month in Nashville.

After their brief one-game road trip, the Capitals return home Wednesday to kick off a five-game homestand with the Montreal Canadiens in town, marking the first time Cole and Lane Hutson will square off in an NHL contest.

Charlie Lindgren, who appeared in Washington’s 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay early this month, may draw in on the Capitals’ second back-to-back of the month and looking to snap the two-game skid.