Caps Aim to Stay Hot vs. Flames trucc

Caps continue lengthy homestand with eight-game point streak, 16-game home point streak

Feb. 25 vs. Calgary Flames at Capital One Arena

Time: 7 p.m.

TV: MNMT

Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7

Calgary Flames (27-21-8)

Washington Capitals (38-11-8)

Having extended their home point streak to 16 straight games (11-0-5) with a 7-3 thumping of the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday, the Caps continue the season’s longest homestand on Tuesday night when the NHL’s other Alberta franchise – the Calgary Flames – makes its once a season trek to the District.

Washington has not lost in regulation at home since Nov. 23 when the New Jersey Devils eked out a 3-2 victory here. Sunday’s win over the Oilers concluded a prosperous weekend for the Caps, who rolled out of a 13-day break with an 8-3 victory over the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon. After scoring 15 goals in just under 24 hours, the Caps rested on Monday, taking a scheduled day off.

Saturday’s win was fueled by offensive contributions from 15 different skaters – including all six defensemen. Led by two goals from Jakob Chychrun, all six blueliners picked up a point; four had multi-point games. Nine of the dozen Washington forwards also found the scoresheet.

One who didn’t collect a point on Saturday – Caps captain Alex Ovechkin – was the prominent and dominant figure in Sunday’s win over Edmonton, but The Great Eight had company up and down the lineup as the Caps continued their extended stretch of excellence.

Ovechkin recorded his 32nd career hat trick and his 135th game-winning goal in Sunday’s win, and, with 882 career goals, he is now 13 goals shy of surpassing Wayne Gretzky (894) for the top spot on the NHL’s all-time goals list. Ovechkin did ascend to the top of the League’s all-time game-winning goals list on Sunday; he’s tied with Jaromir Jagr in that category.

Edmonton became the 20th franchise Ovechkin has victimized for a hat trick, tying him with Brett Hull for the all-time NHL lead in that department.

“Extremely entertaining,” said Caps coach Spencer Carbery in the aftermath of Sunday’s win. “I thought as good as we’ve played all season, from start to finish. I know there’s a couple plays that [the Oilers] get [in the third period], but I don’t even factor those in. We were so dialed in from puck drop to the end of that game – the bench. Not only what guys were vocalizing on the bench, but what they were going and doing, every shift after shift after shift, against as good a team as there is in the League, on a back-to-back. So a lot of different circumstances in play. We were fantastic [in the] first, second, and even us finishing the game off was impressive.”

In both games, Washington goaltenders made key stops at important moments of the game when the score was still close. The defense was steady when it needed to be, and the offense came from everywhere.

Another noteworthy feature of Sunday’s victory was the work P-L Dubois’ line did in neutralizing Edmonton superstar Connor McDavid. Dubois and linemates Tom Wilson and Connor McMichael combined to hold McDavid without a shot on net in just over 20 minutes of duty. McDavid did collect a secondary assist on Leon Draisaitl’s power-play goal in the second minute of the contest.

Not only that, Wilson and McMichael both scored at 5-on-5 with McDavid and mates on the ice. McMichael’s goal is his 20th of the season; he joins Ovechkin, Wilson and Aliaksei Protas in reaching that plateau in ’24-25.

“Dubie is obviously an amazing two-way center,” says Wilson. “Whenever I’m skating with him, you know he is going to be detailed and you know he is going to skate well, and I just try and complement him every way I can. And Mikey’s got good wheels, too, so I thought we did a good job of shutting them down.

“It’s a little bit lucky when you can do that; McDavid has been a phenomenal player and it’s always a lot of fun to play against him and see what he does. It was a group effort tonight to get it done.”

After the frenzy of returning from a lengthy break and leaping right into two games in less than 24 hours, the Caps can now settle in at home for a spell. Tuesday’s game with the Flames is the second installment of a five-game homestand for the Capitals, who will also settle into a pattern and rhythm of playing every other day from Tuesday through March 15, when they finish up a three-game California tour in San Jose.

Washington is 18-4-5 when playing with one day between games this season, and its resulting .759 points percentage is tops in the League in that situation. Winnipeg (26-10-2) is second at .711.

Late last month in Alberta, the Caps knocked off the Oilers and the Flames a week apart during a five-game trip out week. The Jan. 28 win in Calgary was a 3-1 affair in the penultimate game of the trip, led by a 32-save hometown performance from Logan Thompson. That win followed the lone regulation loss the Caps have suffered in calendar 2025, a 2-1 loss in Vancouver. Washington is 13-1-6 since the calendar flipped, and it is 5-0-3 since falling to the Canucks.

Calgary has been even at 3-3-1 since the two teams last met. The Flames ended their own Four Nations break a day later than Washington, jumping back into action on Sunday with a 3-2 home ice win over San Jose.

Tuesday’s game marks the Flames’ first road game in more than three weeks; they had a four-game homestand wrapped around the break. It’s also the opener of a six-game road trip. Calgary will return home hours before the March 7 NHL trade deadline.

As they embark upon this crucial excursion, the Flames find themselves in ninth place in the Western Conference standings, just a point south of Vancouver for the eighth and final playoff berth on that side of the table.