For the Capitals, the 2024-25 season ended the way it started more than six months ago, with a multi-goal loss to a divisional foe. On Thursday night at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena, the Caps concluded the campaign with a 5-2 loss to the Penguins.
Pittsburgh struck for a pair of goals just 15 seconds apart in the third period to expand what was already a 3-2 lead, putting the Caps in a hole from which they would not emerge.
Bryan Rust scored twice, hitting the 30-goal mark for the first time in his 11-year NHL career in this, his sixth straight season with at least 20 goals.
Neither the Caps nor the Penguins had anything to play for standings-wise in this game. Pittsburgh has played well of late and although it did not make the playoffs, the Pens were clearlly motivated to go out on a high note and to give their fans one last good showing.
For the first time all season – in Game 82 – the Caps played without a trio of their top six defensemen; John Carlson, Martin Fehervary and Matt Roy did not suit up for this one, leaving the Caps with an unusual lineup that featured 13 forwards and just five defensemen. Salary cap constraints prevented Washington from summoning a defenseman from their cross-state AHL farm affiliate in Hershey.
That’s a tough spot for a goaltender making his NHL debut, to be going up against the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on national television while playing one defenseman short, and with three regular rearguards out of the lineup.
Those are the circumstances Washington’s Clay Stevenson found himself in on Thursday. The box score will tell you Stevenson stopped 33 of 38 shots, but he was excellent from start to finish on a night when Pittsburgh’s best players were buzzing, and when the Caps were playing shorthanded and a bit out of synch.
“I guess that shows you what the NHL is, right?” says Stevenson in the aftermath of a strong debut. “I thought I showed what I’m capable of out there. It’s a special night, a lot of nerves, but I thought I played pretty free out there and gave myself the best opportunity to make the saves on the net.
“They were executing on a lot of plays tonight, as they should; look who’s on the other side of that line there. I don’t think there’s anything to really hang my head about in that game, and I think that game gives me a lot of confidence to show what you can do in the NHL.”
“I thought he was fantastic all night; [he] just laid it on the line for us, his teammates,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Stevenson’s debut. “His first start, to be put in that situation and playing in that game, I was really, really proud of the way that he fought, and how he competed and ow he played. He was fantastic.”
Stevenson was tested early and often; Pittsburgh pumped 13 shots on him in the first period, and he needed to make a sliding lateral stop on Pens captain Sidney Crosby early in the game.
For the Capitals, Connor McMichael started the scoring in the first period, snapping an 11-game dry spell with his 26th goal of the season. McMichael put back a rebound of a Tom Wilson shot on a 2-on-1 rush at 4:08 of the first.
“I haven’t scored in a few games there,” says McMichael. “When you see one drop, it always feels nice, especially heading into the playoffs.”
Rust tied it with his first goal of the game less than a minute later; his goal also came off a rebound.
With the Penguins on the power play in the second period, Crosby and Rust combined for a dazzling goal that few mortal netminders could stop. From the far right post. Corsby issued a perfect, no-look, backhand feed to Rust who quickly squeezed off the proverbial shot into the teacup to put the Pens up 2-1 at 7:19 of the second.
Dylan Strome briefly appeared to tie the score with what would have been his 30th goal of the season, but the Pens issued a successful coach’s challenge, correctly alleging that Alex Ovechkin was in the zone ahead of the puck.
Crosby made it a 3-1 game at 11:56, taking a nice feed from Phil Tomasino on a short-ice 2-on-1 to give the Pens a 3-1 advantage.
On a Washington power play five minutes later, Ovechkin took a sweet tee-up from Strome and rifled a shot home from his office, netting his 44th goal of the season to match Gordie Howe (44 goals in 1968-69 at age 40) for the most goals in a single season by a player aged 39 or older. Ovechkin’s goal at 16:56 made it a 3-2 contest going into the third.
At the first television stoppage of the first period, the Penguins displayed a video tribute to Ovechkin’s recent record-breaking goal that put him atop the NHL’s all-time goals list, and resulting in a standing ovation from many patrons bedecked in the Penguins’ black and gold colors, and culminating with chants of “Ovi, Ovi, Ovi.”
Stevenson made many strong stops on shots from the slot and shots from in tight throughout the game, giving the Caps a chance to stay in a game in which they weren’t able to establish much in the way of a consistent forecheck or offensive zone presence.
When the Caps went on the power play midway through the third, they had a chance to pull even. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Pittsburgh’s Danton Heinen scooped up a loose puck high in the Pittsburgh zone and tore off on a breakaway, firing a shot high on the blocker side to expand the Pens’ lead to 4-2 at 8:46. For all intents and purposes, Heinen’s goal was shorthanded, but it goes in the books as an even strength marker, coming just as the penalty expired.
Tomasino completed the scoring 15 seconds later, accounting for the 5-2 final.
After the game, Stevenson’s teammates congratulated him; they concurred with Carbery that he had played a whale of a game.
“I thought he was awesome,” says McMichael. “He made a lot of huge key saves, especially early there, to even give us a chance in that game. I’m super happy for him. I've seen a lot of the behind-the-scenes things that he's done; he's worked so hard, from the [ECHL] to the American League, and now to here. So I’m really happy for him, and thought he played really well.”
“He was great,” says P-L Dubois. “We didn’t make it easy for him out there. He made some huge saves for us, kept us in the game as long as he could. We're all really happy for him to get a start, and for him to first NHL game. I think his dad was here, and to play that good against a good team, against a couple good players on their team – future Hall of Famers – to make some huge saves for us. We're all really happy for him.”
There was plenty of magic for the Capitals in the 80 games in between those bookend losses on opening night in Washington and in Thursday’s finale in Pittsburgh. And even in defeat, there might have been a bit of magic for the Caps on Thursday.
“It's something special to make saves on players like that,” says Stevenson. “It’s incredible; this is a dream come true to me. And win or lose, these guys made it a really special night for me.
“And it's something special. My mom passed in 2019, and she was a big driver for my hockey career. And I could just kind of feel her out there, and that was really special for me. And I just felt really proud to be in this spot. That was the dream, since we were really young, right?”
