With a week of the 2025-26 regular season under their belts, the Washington Capitals came out strong with a good start, with a 3-1 record. They now possess a three-game win streak. However, there are some underlying concerns.
Last year, the Capitals started last year off 3-1 en route to the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and like last year’s club, the team overcame a sluggish opener to win three straight. While a slightly different path to six points in four games with more shifts to defensive games, Washington certainly showed that a major regression appears unlikely.
So, with that in mind, here are some answers to what you can expect to take out of the first week, and what you may see going forward.
Are the Capitals competitive again?
Any doubts Washington will be a contender for the Metropolitan Division title should have been erased by the good team’s start out of the gate, showing some of the flash that helped the Caps chase down the division’s early leader, New Jersey, and never look back by midseason.
While Washington was sluggish in a 3-1 Opening Night loss to Boston, it likely can be chalked up to some rust and lack of cohesion and playing time in preseason for some of the team’s stars – something you’re probably going to see league-wide in years to come with a short preseason schedule. The Caps had some timing passes that were off, and there was some sluggish play, but overall not disappointed in the effort despite the result.
After that, the Capitals reeled off three straight wins with two coming on the road. Saturday night on Long Island, Washington dominated the rebuilding Islanders for long stretches and held their opponent off the board for the bulk of two periods until some New York power plays brought the hosts within striking distance and put the outcome in some doubt. The next night in Manhattan, the Caps shut down the Rangers and kept them off the scoreboard in a tight 1-0 win.
Tuesday back at home, the Capitals overcame a third-period go-ahead power-play goal to win in overtime 3-2 and their first comeback win of the year – something that was a hallmark last season.
In four games, Washington has been very competitive, with perhaps their biggest weakness on display was the special teams, as the penalty kill allowed the game-winner Wednesday against the Bruins and the go-ahead goal Tuesday against Tampa – not to mention a pair of tallies on Long Island Saturday.
Overall, the Capitals look a lot like where they left off last season, with a strong effort from the net on out and chipping in enough goals to collect points.
Goaltending strong again
One of Washington’s major strengths since the start of last season has been the quality of the goaltending tandem. No. 1 Logan Thompson went 2-1 over the week, allowing just six goals in three games, posting a strong .921 save percentage, including a couple of key saves, and backup Charlie Lindgren came off the bench Sunday and posted a 35-save shutout of the Rangers, which included some highlight reel saves.
In recent years, Boston has shown their mettle by having a pair of solid netminders, which not only allows rest for the starting netminder but also prevents too much of a dropoff from the caliber of netminder on off nights. The Capitals are now showing that formula is working in the nation’s capital.
Washington’s cost of having a pair of solid netminders has brought the goaltending portion of the Capitals’ salary cap to $8.85 million this season, or just under a tenth of the allowed spending, and it has proven effective and has allowed the team to essentially pick up extra points along the way, as the Bruins had with their tandem of Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark before that tandem broke up before last season.
The Capitals’ netminding depth now rivals what they had during their Stanley Cup run in 2018, with third-string Clay Stevenson, who was rumored to have been a waiver target in preseason, safely down in Hershey should anything go awry up top. Stevenson had a strong camp for the Capitals, but with him as the Hershey Bears No. 1 goaltender, he has proven to be a solid insurance policy in case anything happens in Washington.
The goaltending is a big strength for the Capitals and allows them to play a number of different ways against an opponent, and after the team allowed just six goals on a goaltender in four games, it’s looking like it isn’t going to be a problem for Washington again this season.
Career years continue
Another question mark was how some of the players who had career years in 2024-25 would respond, and so far, some of those players have stepped up.
Aliaksei Protas, who jumped from six goals in 2023-24 to 30 last season, literally got a fast start on this season with three goals and two assists in four games, including a pair against the Islanders Saturday night, one of which in which he blocked a shot and sped past the defender for a breakaway tally. Tuesday against Tampa, he got Washington on the board and helped the Capitals find their legs against the Lightning.
Washington has scored nine goals this season, Protas has three of them, and had a hand in more than half of their goals scored so far this year.
After the Islanders game, Ryan Leonard joked about Protas’ true origins.
“Made in a laboratory,” he told reporters at UBS Arena. “It’s crazy. We all say he’s the best player in the League. It’s special. He’s a special player.”
Tom Wilson also has played well since the new season started, scoring Washington’s lone tally against Boston and then a key game-tying goal Tuesday against Tampa, and like Protas, has had a hand in more than half of Washington’s goals this campaign.
Wilson had a career-high 33 goals last year, and like Protas, has two goals and three assists, including having a hand in all three goals against the Lightning, including a nifty primary assist on the overtime winner by Jakob Chychrun.
Even with Alex Ovechkin held off the scoreboard in four games, Washington’s offense has shown that it is deeper than just their captain, and that they can expect some good follow-up seasons for some of the players who contributed to last season.
Special team woes
On the flip side for Washington, the special teams have shown they need significant improvement after a slow start that has them near the bottom of the league in both categories.
The Capitals’ power play has been an enigma for the past few years, producing well below their weight class with a setup that can be static and predictable. Last year there was some improvement finishing 13th overall, but this year started with a 0-for-10 slump that was finally broken Tuesday with Wilson’s equalizer. Still, the team will need improvement with the extra man, particularly since teams can opt to just take a minor penalty to erase scoring chances against a listless power play.
There have been some tweaks to the extra-man this season, shifting Ovechkin around to the far side and also taking him off the full two minutes on a couple of occasions, but it overall really struggled to generate offense with the extra man in the first week.
The penalty kill has been even worse, operating at just a 56 percent clip, only outdone in ineffectiveness by the Columbus Blue Jackets. More than half of Washington’s goals allowed this season have come a man down (four of seven), and in the Islanders’ case, was almost their path back to a comeback victory. Every game at least half of the opponent’s tallies have come with the extra man, and in Saturday’s case, all of them were.
The penalty killing has also failed at inopportune times, one 38 seconds after the equalizer against Boston for the eventual game-winner, one with 69 seconds left in the second period on Long Island, and then another early in the second that made a dominant effort more of a toss-up contest, and the one early in the third on Tuesday put the Lightning in front.
Washington has been very good 5-on-5 so far, but the special teams need a lot of improvement.
But, overall, it was a solid first week for the Caps, and they don’t seem to be showing much of any sign of regression.
