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RALEIGH, N.C. — The Washington Capitals were trying to say all the right things.
Their frustration levels were rising as they kept finding ways to lose games, though they were playing reasonably well and were one of the best teams in the NHL by the underlying analytics. A day off Sunday after a loss in Tampa the night before gave them an opportunity to cool off, and Monday, Coach Spencer Carbery was right back on message, preaching positivity and consistency amid a difficult stretch.
Looking for the game summary that appeared in print? Jump to it on desktop by using the navigation on the right or scroll to the bottom on mobile.
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Washington Capitals were trying to say all the right things.
Their frustration levels were rising as they kept finding ways to lose games, though they were playing reasonably well and were one of the best teams in the NHL by the underlying analytics. A day off Sunday after a loss in Tampa the night before gave them an opportunity to cool off, and Monday, Coach Spencer Carbery was right back on message, preaching positivity and consistency amid a difficult stretch.
“It’s really challenging because as you know in this business, there’s not a lot of moral victories,” Carbery said after Washington’s practice Monday. “When you don’t get two points, it really doesn’t matter how it looked, you have an L in the column that matters the most. … It really tests us as coaches to stay with your process and [believe that] over time, things will shift.”
Or, as center Dylan Strome summed it up Tuesday in Raleigh: “You try to tell 20 hockey players that you’re great analytically — but you’re .500. It doesn’t go so well.”
The Capitals beat the Hurricanes on Tuesday, 4-1, and their sense of relief was palpable. Washington’s last win was only a week ago, a 6-1 rout of the St. Louis Blues last Wednesday, but it had started to feel like it was way back in the rearview mirror for the Capitals as their skid continued.
The night after that victory over St. Louis, Washington went to Pittsburgh and lost, then dropped a tightly contested game in Tampa to fall to 7-7-1 on the year with just one win in its last seven games.
“We’ve got to find ways to score goals and come out on top,” defenseman John Carlson said Saturday. “It does us no good feeling like we’re playing good if you don’t win. It doesn’t matter.”
Beating the Hurricanes on Tuesday makes it two wins in the last eight games, so the Capitals know they’re far from out of the woods. Their upcoming slate is a gauntlet, with a matchup against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Thursday, a return home Saturday to face the Metropolitan Division-leading New Jersey Devils and then a stretch of three games in four nights starting Monday.
But beating Carolina on the road, in a building that has been anything but kind to Washington in recent memory, in a comprehensive, start-to-finish fashion, was a step forward that these Capitals desperately needed to take.
“Our group knew this was a big hockey game for us. This was a really, really important game for our team, for a bunch of different reasons,” Carbery said. “You could go down the list of us struggling. You could go down the list of the issues that we’ve had with this team, in this building. I think it’s been a couple years since we won here, including the playoffs.
“There’s a lot of reasons why tonight was really important for us to put a good performance on display. … It was an important game. It’s one game, I understand that, but I think it’s a little bit of an affirmation [that] we’re doing the right things.”
Washington had to work for the victory. The Hurricanes put up a serious fight, and Washington ran them over anyway.
It’s that all-out commitment to finding a way to win and getting back in the win column that gives the Capitals a bit more belief that they can turn things around.
“I sure hope so. That’s a heck of an effort,” defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “That’s one we’re going to look to build off of, no doubt. I think it’s just a very well-rounded game.”
Added Strome: “Huge. Huge. Just feel the vibes. It feels good. It feels good to get a win, especially here.”
The Capitals have looked restless and unsettled for most of this season so far. The tension between their belief in their play and their lack of wins was mounting, and one good night in Raleigh won’t be the panacea to that sense of anxiety unless they’re able to turn it into a sustained stretch of results.
But for the first time in a while, Washington has been injected with some confidence.
“To come in here and dictate terms and grab ahold of the lead and play well on special teams and sort of take it to their penalty kill, which has had their way with us for — the majority of our guys have felt that,” Carbery said. “You go through that, and you can succeed in those moments and put a well-rounded effort and just clicking on all cylinders for the majority of the night, it gives you some confidence to go on. Hopefully, now, it gives us a little bit of momentum moving forward after going through a tough stretch.”
Capitals register a rare win in Raleigh
For the first time in nearly two years, the Washington Capitals left Lenovo Center happy.
The Capitals hadn’t won here since December 2023. In their previous visit, they dropped Games 3 and 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in May.
But Tuesday night, in the third game of a four-game road trip, Washington came away with a 4-1 win. Logan Thompson made 30 saves for the Capitals.
For the second time in as many games, Washington’s fourth line of Nic Dowd, Ethen Frank and Brandon Duhaime created the opening goal. This one came just 5 minutes 42 seconds into the proceedings. Dowd won a forecheck battle behind the net and sent the puck to the low slot for Frank, who found Duhaime at the back post for a tap-in finish.
Other than the first shift of the game, the Capitals (8-7-1) controlled most of the first period. They went on their first power play just 55 seconds in, when K’Andre Miller was whistled for tripping Frank. And though Washington didn’t score, it was the first time in several games that the power play didn’t sap momentum from the Capitals.
Dowd bumped into Carolina netminder Frederik Andersen late in the first period, sparking a melee that involved just about everyone on the ice. The fracas put Washington on the penalty kill, and with two seconds left in that kill, forward Connor McMichael was sent off for hooking. The Capitals killed off both penalties, then killed off another after defenseman Jakob Chychrun was boxed for holding in the opening minute of the second period.
Center Dylan Strome scored off the rush on an assist from captain Alex Ovechkin at 5:59 of the second. That proved to be a goal that Washington needed when Nikolaj Ehlers — who signed with Carolina (11-5-0) as a free agent in July and was also in negotiations with the Capitals — batted a rebound past Thompson at 13:56.
Washington’s fourth power play resulted in its third goal of the game, a much-needed tally for a man advantage that has had a dismal start. Chychrun scored at 5:46 of the third, off a rebound of a shot by winger Ryan Leonard, for his fourth goal of the season and the 100th of his career.
Chychrun went off for cross-checking with 3:22 to play. Washington killed the penalty, even after the Hurricanes pulled their goalie for a six-on-four advantage, and secured the win. Ovechkin scored into the empty net to seal the deal.
The post A much-needed win gives the Capitals something more — belief
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