The Washington Capitals wrapped up their four-game homestand with the visiting Seattle Kraken in town for their annual matchup at Capital One Arena. The Caps came into the night looking for some revenge on the Pacific Northwest after dropping a game to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
Nic Dowd got his first goal of the season after he finished off a pretty pass from John Carlson. Ryan Leonard doubled the lead with his third goal of the year, and Jakob Chychrun converted on a power play to make it 3-0. Jaden Schwartz pounced on a great bounce to get the Kraken on the board. Tom Wilson added an empty-netter.
Capitals beat Kraken 4-1!
- A far better first period than their one against the Canucks saw the Capitals take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. All four lines were really lively in the offensive zone, forcing the Kraken into several turnovers with their forechecking. The defense also did a great job converging around Logan Thompson to keep the Kraken to just one shot after their few successful zone entries. No penalties in the period, fun hockey.
- The fourth line is finally on the board after Nic Dowd potted his first of the 2025-26 season. Brandon Duhaime kicked the chance off with an excellent zone entry and feed to a wide-open John Carlson. The veteran rearguard then made one more pass to Dowd down low, and he had the entire empty net to aim for from there. Duhaime’s play in particular was great to see because head coach Spencer Carbery literally just spoke about Duhaime doing that exact sort of thing more often as he’s grown his game with the Capitals.
- Ryan Leonard, after being bloodied by some friendly fire from Aliaksei Protas earlier in the first period, absolutely ripped a gorgeous shot off the crossbar behind Matt Murray. The release on that thing was bonkers. He then fired another past Murray in the second, but this time into the back of the net.
- Through 40 minutes of regulation, the Capitals did not allow the Kraken to record a single high-danger chance. They created 10 of their own and owned over 80 percent of the expected goals. Total and complete domination.
- There was one shift after a power play that wasn’t too great, as it saw Martin Fehervary and Trevor van Riemsdyk stay on the ice for almost four whole minutes. However, the Caps did a fantastic job boxing out in front of Logan Thompson and really sank into their defensive coverage, keeping everything to the outside.
- I thought Hendrix Lapierre, Connor McMichael, and Tom Wilson looked ridiculously good as a trio. They didn’t get on the scoresheet, but they dominated every single one of their shifts together. I didn’t love Carbs going away from that line at the end of the second and putting Protas back on it over Lapierre. They were cooking.
- I believe Joe B made a 6-7 joke during this game, if I heard him correctly, and if you don’t know what that is, ask anyone in your household under the age of 21. If you are unable to do so, just know it originates from a rap song that includes the following few lines: “Doot, doo-doo, doo-doo, doot. Dump truck, baby shark, doo-doo-doo-doo.”
- The third was a bit of a scrambly mess, but the Kraken still didn’t create much. Felt like the Capitals sat back way too much, though.
- Unless Lapierre got hurt at some point in this game, I have no idea why he just didn’t really play in the third period. The Capitals were dominating the game before the lineup got messed with. I don’t know why the bench needed to be shortened, and chemistry was messed up.
- If you were wondering why you could hear some random chants and songs during the game, there was a group of about 60 UK students there. They brought some of the European soccer culture to the arena, which we really could use more of over here. According to Katie, one kid was even going down to the bottom of the section to conduct multiple times.
The Capitals will have a full day off on Wednesday before getting back to practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Thursday. They’ll then travel up to Columbus and play the Blue Jackets on Friday night.
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