Back-To-Back \u2013 The Caps and Penguins kick off a set of weekend home-and home games on this final weekend of the 2025-26 NHL regular season. Saturday\u2019s opener marks the first meeting between the two longtime rivals from the old Patrick Division days as well as the current Metropolitan Division situation since Nov. 6 when Pittsburgh prevailed 5-3 in the first of just three meetings between the two clubs this season.<\/p>\n
Today was also likely to mark the 100th meeting across the 21-season careers of Washington captain Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, but Crosby is one of several regulars sitting out Saturday\u2019s contest to rest up a variety of upper body dents and lower body bumps for Pittsburgh, so if the odometer is going to turn over to triple digits in the Ovechkin-Crosby rivalry this season, it will have to wait until Sunday afternoon\u2019s rematch in Washington.<\/p>\n
For Saturday\u2019s contest, the Caps will ice the same lineup that sparked them to a 4-0 win over the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Wednesday night in their most recent outing, a victory that kept their flickering playoff hopes alive into the weekend and the final three games of the season. After facing the Pens on Saturday and Sunday, the Caps travel to Columbus for Tuesday\u2019s regular season finale against the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n
The Caps need to win all three of their remaining games and they need some help from outside sources if they\u2019re going to shoehorn themselves into the playoffs just ahead of the season\u2019s final buzzer, as they did two seasons ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I could say \u2018yes,\u2019\u201d says Caps coach Spencer Carbery, asked whether the experience of the successful late season sprint to the playoffs might help his team do the same across these final three games of 2025-26. \u201cThere is a lot of belief in our team; there\u2019s a handful of guys that are around from that year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. I know how our coaching staff feels about us winning [Saturday] and just getting two points, and I know our group has a lot of confidence; they have all year, even when we\u2019ve been in difficult spots and eight points out, so I think there is belief in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh has already clinched a playoff berth; the Penguins will be returning to the Stanley Cup playoffs after a three-year absence. Under first-year head coach Dan Muse, the Pens have managed an 18-point improvement in the standings since last season, going from 80 points to 98, and with three games remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re having a tremendous year,\u201d says Carbery of the Penguins. \u201cI think offensively, they\u2019re right up there with the top teams in the League. Special teams are both in the top 10; it\u2019s helped them a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I think just for whatever reason, a resurgent year from [them]. I know there’s more, and I’m probably forgetting one, but I look at five guys, veteran guys that have been in the League a long time, that have all had really, really good years. And not that they didn’t have good years last year, but [Bryan] Rust, [Rickard] Rakell, Crosby, [Evgeni] Malkin, Erik Karlsson \u2026 those guys seem to have almost as they get older in their career, you’re like, \u2018Ah, can they sustain it?\u2019 It’s almost like they’ve made a little push this year to get back and find the fountain of youth a little bit with those guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, we know all those names really, really well, and they’re tremendous players and have had incredible careers. And so, they’re playing at a real high level right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beau Knows PK \u2013 Anthony Beauvillier is \u2013 along with Brandon Duhaime and\u00a0Ovechkin \u2013 one of three Capitals to have played all 79 of the team\u2019s games to this point. Now in his 10th season in the NHL, Beauvillier has taken on a new role to him with the Caps this season, working on Washington\u2019s penalty killing unit.<\/p>\n
Prior to this season, the veteran forward had averaged more than 30 seconds a game in shorthanded ice time only in 2017-18 (45 seconds) and in 2019-20 (39 seconds), the second and fourth seasons of his NHL career, respectively.<\/p>\n
But entering today\u2019s game, Beauvillier is averaging 1:11 per game in shorthanded ice time this season, the highest figure of his decade in the League.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take a lot of pride in being able to kill penalties,\u201d says Beauvillier. \u201cI think it just adds something to my game, and it’s fun; I like it. I think it just makes you feel more important to the team, and it feels like the team needs you at obviously important times of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beauvillier scored the first of his two career shorthanded goals in 2019-20 with the Islanders, and he added a second one last season, while playing here in Pittsburgh, where he averaged just 17 seconds a game in shorthanded ice time.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 3 in Philadelphia, Beauvillier recorded the first shorthanded assist of his NHL career when he set up an Aliaksei Protas shorthanded goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019ve just got to wait for a certain break to come up, whether it’s a loose puck or whether it’s a battle you win,\u201d says Beauvillier of knowing when to go and when to hold back offensively on the penalty kill. For me, at least, it has to be obvious; the puck is there and I have a chance to beat him 100 percent. If I’m 80 percent, maybe it’s not the risk to take, and you\u2019ve got to stay back and be a little bit more poised about your play.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the 16 games since the departure of Nic Dowd in a March 5 trade with Vegas, Beauvillier has assumed a larger portion of the PK responsibilities. He has averaged 2:09 in shorthanded ice time across that span, fourth highest among Washington forwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s done a real good job in the penalty kill overall,\u201d says Carbery of Beauvillier. \u201cI’m not selling Dowder short by saying this, but in his absence, we needed players to step up, and Anthony Beauvillier was right at the top of that list to get that opportunity to move into our top four killers, and he’s done an excellent job, and the kill overall hasn’t missed a beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, that’s been a big part of us being able to stay in this race, is we’ve been able to win a few tight games, and it was clean slates or nothing given up on the penalty kill. And so that area of our game deserves a lot of credit for the last month of us being able to grind some wins out and be able to stay in this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Dowd\u2019s departure, Washington\u2019s penalty killing outfit has held its own, successfully snuffing out 85.4 percent of its shorthanded assignments and ranking fifth in the NHL.<\/p>\n
In The Nets \u2013 Logan Thompson makes his 100th appearance in the Washington nets today in Pittsburgh, aiming for his 30th victory of the season. He comes into Saturday\u2019s contest on the heels of a 21-save shutout performance on Wednesday night in Toronto in his most recent start.<\/p>\n
Lifetime against the Penguins, Thompson is 3-1-0 in four appearances \u2013 all starts \u2013 with a 2.52 GAA and a .919 save pct.<\/p>\n
For the Penguins, Arturs Silovs is Saturday\u2019s starter. \u00a0Acquired from Vancouver for a prospect and a pick last July, Silovs is now on the cusp of his first 20-win season in the NHL, entering today\u2019s game with a 19-10-8 mark to show for his 37 appearances \u2013 all of them starts \u2013 with Pittsburgh this season.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Latvian netminder is 1-0-0 in his lone career appearance against the Capitals. He stopped 27 of 30 shots he faced against the Caps in that Nov. 6 game earlier in the season, picking up the 5-3 victory in the process.<\/p>\n
All Down The Line \u2013 Here\u2019s how the Caps and the Penguins might look on Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh:<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier<\/p>\n
21-A. Protas, 62-I. Protas, 43-Wilson<\/p>\n
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 9-Leonard<\/p>\n
22-Duhaime, 34-Sourdif, 63-Miroshnichenko<\/p>\n
Defensemen<\/p>\n
42-Fehervary, 38-Sandin<\/p>\n
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk<\/p>\n
44-Hutson, 3-Roy<\/p>\n
Goaltenders<\/p>\n
48-Thompson<\/p>\n
78-Gibson<\/p>\n
Healthy Extras<\/p>\n
27-Liljegren<\/p>\n
29-Lapierre<\/p>\n
47-Chisholm<\/p>\n
52-McIlrath<\/p>\n
53-Frank<\/p>\n
64-Kampf<\/p>\n
Injured\/Out<\/p>\n
79-Lindgren (upper body)<\/p>\n
PITTSBURGH<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
59-Chinakhov, 67-Rakell, 39-Mantha<\/p>\n
25-Soderblom, 18-Novak, 16-Brazeau<\/p>\n
15-Koppanen, 41-Koivunen, 2-McGroarty<\/p>\n
55-Acciari, 13-K. Hayes, 85-A. Hayes<\/p>\n
Defensemen<\/p>\n
5-Shea, 75-Clifton<\/p>\n
49-Girard, 3-St. Ivany<\/p>\n
7-Solovyov, 27-Graves<\/p>\n
Goalies<\/p>\n
37-Silovs<\/p>\n
74-Skinner<\/p>\n
Healthy Extras<\/p>\n
None<\/p>\n
Injured\/Out<\/p>\n
17-Rust (lower body)<\/p>\n
19-Dewar (lower body)<\/p>\n
28-Wotherspoon (upper body)<\/p>\n
46-Lizotte (upper body)<\/p>\n
58-Letang (upper body)<\/p>\n
65-Karlsson (lower body)<\/p>\n
71-Malkin (upper body)<\/p>\n
81-Kindel (upper body)<\/p>\n
82-Jones (upper body)<\/p>\n
87-Crosby (lower body)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back-To-Back \u2013 The Caps and Penguins kick off a set of weekend home-and home games on this final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-550543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-capitals","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-capitals","13":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116387831144072487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}