April 12 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena
Time: 12:30 p.m.
TV: ABC, ESPN+
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (50-19-9)
Columbus Blue Jackets (36-33-9)
The Caps head into the final week of the 2024-25 NHL regular season with a weekend set of home-and-home, back-to-back games against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The set starts Saturday afternoon in Columbus and finishes up early Sunday evening in Washington.
Thursday night in DC, the Caps honored and celebrated Alex Ovechkin days after he ascended to the top of the NHL’s all-time goal scoring ledger with his 895th career goal last Sunday on Long Island, dislodging Wayne Gretzky (894) from the top perch he occupied for just over 31 years.
While the Caps traveled to Columbus on Friday, the ongoing celebration of Ovechkin continued back home in the District, and that celebration continues with Ovechkin. He stayed back in DC for a Friday afternoon celebration event at Capital One Arena while his teammates took a short flight west.
After honoring Ovechkin prior to Thursday’s game with Carolina, the Caps managed a 5-4 shootout win over the Hurricanes, notching their 50th victory of the season in their 50th anniversary campaign. This season marks the sixth time in franchise history the team has reached the half century mark in victories.
Both the Canes and the Caps lost hold of a two-goal lead in Thursday’s game, and the Caps ended up sending Carolina home with a single point (0-3-1) to show for a four-game road trip. Washington followed a dismal first period with a strong second period, scoring three times to carry a 4-2 lead into the third.
P-L Dubois got the Caps started, scoring on the power play late in the first period of Thursday’s game, cutting the Carolina cushion to 2-1 just ahead of intermission. Dubois’ 20th goal of the season returned him to that level for the fifth time in his NHL career, and it also results in a single-season career best in points (64). Dubois also finished the night with a flourish; he was the lone skater on either side to score in the shootout.
Dylan Strome tied the game on the power play early in the second; the Caps are now a gaudy 8-for-16 (50 percent) in their last six games. Nic Dowd and Tom Wilson scored less than a minute apart late in the second, with the former establishing career bests in goals (14) and points (26).
In assisting on Dowd’s goal, linemate Brandon Duhaime had two-thirds of a Gordie Howe hat trick; early in the first period, Duhaime gave Carolina’s Jalen Chatfield a thumping. Duhaime’s assist was his 12th of the season, a career best for him as well.
“I play with really good players and that’s the only way that that’s going to get done,” says Dowd of his achievements. “I’ve been fortunate to be in this League, and each year I’ve played with good players. And this is no different.
“I get to play with Dewey most of the time; he also has a career high in assists now, and he’s got a career high in assists this year. It all goes hand in hand. We get to lay with an elite [defense] corps, and like I said, Dewey has primarily been my one linemate, and he’s a high-end player. He does all the right things and it allows me to get rewarded for his work.
“And [Anthony Beauvillier] has also played really well, and [Taylor Raddysh] and other guys like [Connor McMichael] that I’ve played with, so I can honestly hand it to the guys that I’ve played with. They get me there.”
After being dominated in the first period of Thursday’s game with Carolina, the Caps turned the tables in the middle frame, returning to the blueprint for the way they’ve played collectively over the lion’s share of their first 70 games this season. That’s the level the Caps are seeking as they head into the final week of the regular season.
“In the first period, you could see they tilted the ice; shots were 15-4,” says Dowd. “It’s hard to get out of your own end and play any offense when you’re 25 seconds int your shift, and the best you can do is try to chip it out and try to get off the ice. And then they get it, they change, they dump it back in and they get to restart, and our fresh guys are coming into the [defensive] zone.
“In the second period, we did a much better job of moving pucks quick; we made their [defensemen] go back. I don’t care if you’re the best defenseman in the world, if you have to go back under pressure and try to make a play when you don’t know where everyone is, that’s a challenging play. We did a good job of making them go 200 feet trying to break the puck out, and we hemmed them in for some extended shifts, and had some good changes, and that’s where you’re going to get your offense.”
Saturday’s game between the Caps and Jackets is the first between the two Metro Division rivals since a Dec. 12 game in Columbus. The Caps slipped past the Jackets in a 2-1 overtime decision that night, getting two goals from Aliaksei Protas that evening, some 50 games ago. Protas is currently sidelined on a week-to-week basis with a lower body injury sustained a week ago in a game against Chicago.
Beginning with the tragic and untimely death of star winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew when a vehicle struck them while they rode bicycles in their home state of New Jersey, Columbus has had more than its fair share of adversity this season. And throughout the ’24-25 campaign, the resilient Jackets rose above the tragedy and adversity, contending for a playoff spot virtually all season long.
A recent tailspin has the Jackets on the verge of elimination this weekend, but they’ve got nothing to hang their heads about. Through a spate of injuries and the ongoing sorrow over the loss of one of their – and the League’s – top players, Columbus got a terrific season from top defenseman Zach Werenski and saw many promising performances from a burgeoning crop of talented young players still years from their respective primes. And under the tutelage of Dean Evason, the Jackets exceeded the expectations of most and should be looking ahead to a much brighter future.
After a 5-3 win over Detroit here in Columbus on March 1, the Jackets were in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, two points up on the eighth-place Wings and four points in front of ninth-place Ottawa. Although they enter Saturday afternoon’s game against the Capitals with two straight victories, the Jackets are 6-11-1 since March 1, while both Montreal and Ottawa have heated up and forged past them in the standings.
If Montreal defeats Ottawa in regulation on Friday night, the Jackets and every team south of them in the Eastern Conference standings will be eliminated.
