📸 : RMNB
The Washington Capitals have won three games in a row after dropping their Home Opener to the Boston Bruins. The team’s latest victory came on home ice, 3-2 in overtime, over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
After a less-than-impressive start to the game, the Capitals really got going in the second period and didn’t look back. Great start to the season.
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Like I said in the intro, the Capitals had a really sloppy start to the game, which saw them head into the second period down 1-0. They really flipped a switch at five-on-five after coming back out onto the ice, though, owning 18 of the remaining 28 scoring chances in the game and eight of the remaining high-danger chances. Total and complete defensive domination in the final 40 minutes, leaving a power-play goal against as the lone blemish. Good play-driving trends abound to begin this season.
Tom Wilson led the way with three points (1g, 2a), reaching the 400-point plateau in his 839th career game with the Capitals. He is the 19th player to record 400 points with the Caps, and if he has another 65-point year, he will pass Kelly Miller (408), Alexander Semin (408), Sergei Gonchar (416), Dave Christian (417), Kevin Hatcher (426), Scott Stevens (429), and Dennis Maruk (431) to become the 12th-highest scorer in franchise history.
In their first game without Pierre-Luc Dubois, the new-look second line, made up of Wilson, Connor McMichael, and Aliaksei Protas, put together a great performance in their matchup against Nikita Kucherov’s line. With the two lines on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals owned positive differentials in shot attempts (+5), shots (+4), scoring chances (+2), and high-danger chances (+2). The three Caps forwards combined for five points (2g, 3a).
With a win on Tuesday against Tampa Bay, Washington has started the season with three wins in their first four games for the third time in the last five years and the 13th time in franchise history.
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) October 15, 2025
Hendrix Lapierre provided the “reliable minutes” that Spencer Carbery wanted from him in his return to the team’s lineup. In his 8:16 of five-on-five ice time, the Capitals owned positive differentials in shot attempts (+4) and high-danger chances (+1). The 23-year-old pivot also went 50-50 in the faceoff dot, winning three of his six draws.
The Capitals have scored a power-play goal. After beginning the season 0-for-10 while up a man, Dylan Strome lofted a shot towards the Lightning net that Wilson guided past Andrei Vasilevskiy. The assist was Strome’s first point of the season, and he’d add a second on Jakob Chychrun’s eventual overtime game-winner. While not exactly ideal, the Capitals are playing really great hockey without getting much production from Strome and Alex Ovechkin, their top two scorers from last season. Now, imagine if those two heat up.
John Carlson is off to a phenomenal start to the season, trying to match what was a tremendous play-driving 2024-25 campaign. Through four games, the Capitals have owned 61.9 percent of shot attempts, 72.8 percent of expected goals, 67 percent of scoring chances, and 77.1 percent of high-danger chances during Carlson’s 70:03 of five-on-five ice time. I believe he has somehow become significantly underrated both locally and nationally. Are you watching Bill Guerin and the rest of Team USA?
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.