"It's a good test for us," Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said Wednesday. "We know how good they've been, all the things they do at a really high level, how they make it difficult on you. It should be a good test for us at home."
Midway through the third period of Columbus's 2-0 loss to the Washington Capitals, Gaunce was caught with a high stick from Caps forward Hendrix Lapierre in front of Washington's net. Lapierre, intending to lift Gaunce's stick, drilled the opposing centerman right in the mouth with the lower shaft of his twig. The rough blow bloodied Gaunce and knocked a tooth out, which he then found on the ice and carried back with him to the Blue Jackets bench.
Screenshot: @Capitals/X Spencer Carbery gave his tired players an early Christmas present after they defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-0 at Capital One Arena, Sunday. After giving shoutouts to the penalty killers; Rasmus Sandin and Connor McMichael for their huge shot blocks; Jakob Chychrun for scoring the game-winning goal; and Logan Thompson for reaching 100 victories - "Their guy was f***ing good, but our guy was f***ing better" - Carbery ended his speech with a reward that made the players absolutely lose their minds.
📸: Alan Dobbins/RMNB Aliaksei Protas is one of the most unique goal scorers in Washington Capitals franchise history, and not because of how fast or large he is. Protas had a breakout year during the 2024-25 season, scoring 30 goals in 76 games, and came into Sunday night's Capitals-Blue Jackets game on pace for 25 goals during the 2025-26 campaign. In his career, he has scored 52 total goals, and a grand total of zero of them have come on the power play.
To be able to access the autograph signing featuring the Capitals players, you must either: Bring 3 new, unwrapped toys ($20+ value each) - that's 1 toy per player! Donate $75 cash to get autographs from all 3 players! To be able to access the autograph signing featuring the Orioles players, you must either: Bring 2 new, unwrapped toys ($20+ value each) - that's 1 toy per player! Donate $50 cash to get autographs from ALL 3 players!
"I can't give you a real detailed answer to that," he said. "Carlson took warmups, so that tells you something, that's it's hopefully not something that's going to be extremely long-term. And Sourdy, I'll have a better idea once we talk to Serbs (Capitals head athletic trainer Jason Serbus). Nothing long-term, but (he is) going to miss a little bit of time."
It feels good to do it, and then we can talk about it in the commies below, and then in a couple days we'll have the results to peruse together. The survey is very serious in the sense that you have to fill it out, but it is completely unserious as to how you fill it out. Just answer on a scale from 1 to 5 how HAPPY you are to have each player on the team.
Dowd has been activated from injured reserve ahead of the team's matchup with the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. Dowd missed his eighth-straight game with an upper-body injury on Tuesday night, missing the Capitals' 3-1 win against his former team, the Los Angeles Kings. The 35-year-old centerman was placed on IR last week, earning Trineyev the first NHL recall of his career.
"Oh my god, Matt Hendricks is one of my favorite people of all time and a well-known Cap," Boudreau told Jeff Marek on a recent episode of the Hockey Lifers Podcast. "He played for me in Washington, he played for me in Minnesota - I'll tell you how we got him in Washington. That first year in Hershey - he was on an American League contract. He had come from the East Coast League to the American League.
On an early game power play, Alex Ovechkin found Tom Wilson for a quick tap to make it 1-0. Same story in the second, with Wilson either the benefactor or beneficiary, not sure which, of a rare Ilya Sorokin misplay. Bo Horvat won a duel for a rebound to make it 2-1 with six minutes left in the game. The waning minutes were packed with icing calls, but the Caps buckled down. Aliaksei Protas chased a would-be icing to earn the first of two empty-netters.
"Little Pro comes up every day," Carbery said. "And it's not about him being called up; it's just us keeping tabs on Hershey, what's going on there, watching the highlights, reading the reports, having discussions after we watch some of the footage or hear some of the feedback from the coaches there, management, or scouts. I think the organization - I'm not going to speak for (general manager) Chris (Patrick), but he's doing really, really well down there, so that's very exciting. You love to see that."
If the Caps had lost this game, it was an easy choice to pick The Moment it happened - how a disallowed goal 20 seconds in tanked the Caps. Thankfully the boys fashioned a third-period comeback, ripping off four straight goals after falling behind 2-0 for a 4-2 win. It wasn't the prettiest win, as Logan Thompson had to come up big a few too many times,
There was some optimism reigning for about 30 minutes, then the Leafs fell back and tried to defend their two-goal lead. Great defensive teams can get away from shutting down a game like that. However, the Maple Leafs a great defensive team they are not. They let the game get away as the Capitals pummeled them. The Caps outshot the Leafs 23-10 in the first two periods. Yet, Toronto escaped with a 2-1 lead.
