May 15 vs. Carolina Hurricanes at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: TNT, truTV, MAX
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (51-22-9)
Carolina Hurricanes (47-30-5)
Game 5 – Carolina leads series, 3-1
Down three games to one in their best-of-seven second-round playoff series with the Carolina Hurricanes, the Caps will battle to keep their season going when they host the Hurricanes in Game 5 of the series on Thursday night at Capital One Arena.
After splitting the first two games of their series with the Hurricanes here in DC, the Caps failed to score in each of their first five of the six periods of hockey they played in Carolina last weekend in Games 3 and 4. Washington was unable to play with a lead or bring back a victory from those two games in Carolina last weekend, and as a result, they’re facing elimination when they take the ice for Thursday’s Game 5 in the District.
Although it’s an uphill climb against a strong opponent, there is no lack of belief from within the Caps’ locker room that they can still come back and win the series. It’s a matter of keeping the focus short; rather than trying to win three hockey games, the Caps are seeking to win Game 5 in Washington, which would then force a Game 6 on Saturday in Carolina.
“We believe in here,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “We know what this team can do. We’ve been one of the best teams in the League all year.
“It starts with one game; we’ve won one game plenty of times. My job is to go out there and play my game and try and lead the way the best that I can. Everybody in here, when we’re playing the same way and the right way, it’s a tough team to beat. So we’re confident in our group, we’ve had resiliency all year, we love each other in here and we just want to go out there and leave it all out there, and to start to slowly try to push them out of the series.”
All throughout the regular season, the Caps were resilient. They routinely avoided long losing streaks, and they often did so with significant offensive outbursts. In the games immediately following their 31 losses – 22 in regulation and nine in overtime/shootout – the Caps averaged 3.94 goals per game, roughly half a goal a game over their per game average of 3.49 goals per game throughout the 2024-25 season. The Caps finished second in the circuit in goals during the regular season.
In the first round of these 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Caps followed their only loss with a 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens. And after dropping the opener of this series – a 2-1 overtime decision to the Canes – the Caps responded by evening the series at 1-1 with a 3-1 victory in Game 2 here one week ago.
But when the series shifted to Carolina last weekend, the Caps’ offense – which had produced only four goals in the first two games of the series at home – dried up. The Caps lost Game 3 by a 4-0 count, a game in which they couldn’t capitalize on a number of early scoring chances, and a game that was still scoreless midway through the second period.
Two nights later, the Caps again squandered a number of early chances that might have allowed them to play with a lead, though they were finally able to break the shutout spell of Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen with a pair of goals in the third. But Washington entered the final period of that game trailing 2-0, and it also yielded untimely goals against on odd man rushes in what eventually became a 5-2 loss, a setback that leaves them on the cusp of summer.
“I thought we played – at times – pretty good road hockey,” says Wilson. “I think if you look at those games, if we get a goal at certain times or in a timely manner and we can capitalize on our chances, I think it will change the momentum a little bit more in our favor. So I think finding the back of the net and working to do that, we’re going to use the energy in our building to get us going. We’ll start from the first period and go from there.”
Washington will almost certainly need to score more than two goals in Thursday’s game to extend the series. In 36 playoff games since they won the Stanley Cup in 2018, the Caps have been limited to two or fewer goals scored in exactly half of those games. They’re 0-18 in those games and 12-6 when they manage to score three or more in their last three dozen postseason contests.
“It’s probably already been said, but we just focus on [Thursday’s] task,” says Caps center Dylan Strome. “We’ve been a great home team all year; we’ve found ways to win important games, and [Game 5] is no different. One game at a time, hopefully win Game 5 and put a little pressure on.”
Washington returned home from its trip to Carolina in the wee hours of Tuesday, a scheduled off day. When the Caps reconvened at Wednesday’s practice, the forward lines had been altered in hope of generating not just scoring chances and good looks, but goals.
“We don’t really look at it big picture wise; it’s just one game,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “So there’s the starting point, it’s just winning one hockey game, and then what gives us confidence we can do that? We’ve done it in this series, we’ve been a great hockey team all year long, we’ve been a good home team all year long, so that’s really where the confidence is drummed up for, is winning one hockey game on home ice.”
You’ve got to get one before you can get two.
“It’s a close group,” says Wilson. “When you talk about resiliency, it means being able to look at the guys next to you and knowing that [Thursday] night we’re going to get his ‘A’ game. I think that’s a cool thing and I have doubt with this group that the guys sitting on either side of me and across from me is going to bring everything they have. And we’re going to do our best to show up and fight. And if we do that, we’re confident we’re going to make some noise and start with one.”
Washington got through the first 57 games of the 2024-25 regular season before losing three consecutive games for the first time, and it’s a fate they met twice all season. It’s also the fate they’re seeking to avoid on Thursday night.
“Of course at this point of the year if you lose two in a row, it’s usually not a good thing,” says Strome. “We did a great job all year of finding ways of not letting one loss pile into two and three, and obviously we need that now. Our backs are against the wall of course, but I’ve got a lot of belief in this team and what’s to come. We’re excited.”
Although they still have a handful of players remaining from their 2018 Stanley Cup championship team, the Caps are also among the youngest and least experienced of the eight remaining playoff combatants. Washington has 11 players who are getting their first taste of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and that’s more than double the total of each of the other seven teams.
Aside from Washington, Winnipeg has five players in the second round for the first time. That’s the most of the other seven clubs, and with a combined total of 921 games worth of playoff experience, the Jets are the only remaining team with less aggregate playoff experience than the Capitals’ 948.
“My mentality is you wake up, and you get ready to leave it all out there,” says Wilson. “You just do the best you can, and if everybody gets close to their max effort and their best game, we’ll have a good chance.”
