After a 146-day break (but who’s counting), the Washington Capitals are back on the ice for a meaningful hockey game again — and frankly, how dare they make me wait that long. So selfish.
The Capitals will take on the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the regular season tonight, and the Caps’ lineup that will chase Lord Stanley’s Cup this year looks mightily similar to the one that fell in five games to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the 2025 playoffs.
New to the team is Justin Sourdif, a minor-leaguer grinder who was acquired from the Florida Panthers for two draft picks (management really liked him). Hendrix Lapierre is back at third-line center after an incredible preseason. Bravo, Hendrix. And that unfamiliar, handsome guy in the press box? Well, that’s defenseman Declan Chisholm, a depth acquisition from the Minnesota Wild.
History could be in the air tonight, too, as Alex Ovechkin, who is now playing in his 21st career NHL season, is a hat trick away from the 900-goal milestone, which is exactly how he got to 800.
Now, for some of you, I know you weren’t as in-tune with the blog as you usually are over the summer — we see the hits. Tsk tsk. We’re shaking our heads at you right now. Anyways, because we’re cool, we prepared you a nifty primer for the season opener so you can see all the important stuff you missed over the offseason and training camp. Get a clickin’ and pushin’.
Puck drop for Capitals-Bruins is at 7:30 pm on TNT. No Joe B. and Locker, but we will persevere. By the way, we’re in this.
Lines
Washington Capitals
Boston Bruins
Tunnel idoiotcy
1st Period
Bob McDonald and Caleb Green sing the national anthem. Beautifully, might I add.
Puck is dropped. Protas-Strome-Ovechkin and Chychrun-TVR get the start for the Capitals.
Seven seconds into the game we already have a whistle. Alex Ovechkin accidentally chipped the puck into the Bruins’ bench nearly taking out Marco Sturm, their head coach and Ovi’s former teammate with the Capitals. Ovi was laughing and appeared to apologize.
David Pastrnak to the box at 1:51 for hooking Tom Wilson. Capitals going to their first power play.
Capitals don’t score. Notably, Ovi didn’t stay on for the entire power play.
Bruins almost score on themselves at the 5:10 mark. Jeremy Swayman stops a redirect by Hampus Lindholm that squeaks through his pads.
More on the Vault Suites here.
Trevor van Riemsdyk to the box for interference on Mark Kastelic at 6:46. Bruins to their first power play.
A lot of feeling out in the first 13 minutes. Both teams combined only have six shots on goal — three each.
Nic Dowd draws a tripping penalty on Sean Kuraly at 13:06. Caps back to the power play.
Ovi gets one 92 MPH one-timer off but it misses the mark.
Caps don’t score.
Henri Jokiharju to the box for cross-checking against Brandon Duhaime at 19:13. This is the Capitals third power play of the period.
Lindholm trips Wilson knee first into the boards. He’s okay but looked mighty uncomfortable at first.
At intermission: The score is tied 0-0. The Capitals outshot the Bruins 6 to 4 but Boston heavily out-attempted them 13 to 4 at five-on-five.
2nd Period
Puck is dropped.
Charlie McAvoy trips Alex Ovechkin along the end boards. The Caps are going to a 5-on-3 power play. They need to score here.
Bruins kill off all 3:06 of power-play time for the Caps.
Logan Thompson with a huge stop on Viktor Arvidsson during a breakaway.
Tom Wilson with two huge hits on Mason Lohrei. Mark Kastelic then asks Wilson to fight and Tom is like LOL no thanks.
During Spencer Carbery’s interview with TNT, he admits he’s disappointed in the Capitals level of play so far.
🚨 1-0 Boston Bruins. BOS Goal: David Pastrnak (1). Assists: N. Zadorov (1), M. Geekie (1). Time: 12:07.
Pastrnak shoots it through traffic and it eludes Logan Thompson. Fourth straight season opener David Pastrnak has scored in.
Mark Kastelic trips Ryan Leonard at 12:42. Caps back to the power play again.
Caps generating some chances but really struggling to bury the puck so far tonight.
This kinda tells the story. The Capitals have 11 shots on the power play while the Bruins just have 10 shots on goal at all strengths.
At intermission: The Bruins lead 1-0. The Capitals outshot the Bruins 18 to 6 in te period and are outshooting them overall, 26 to 10. The Capitals also lead in 5-on-5 shot attempts 31 to 26.
3rd Period
Puck is dropped.
The first six and half minutes have gone by fast with not much offense generated.
🚨 1-1 tie. WSH Goal: Tom Wilson (1). Assists: J. Chychrun (1), A. Protas (1). Time: 7:03.
Tom Wilson scores from the bottom of the right circle to tie the game 1-1 with 12:57 remaining. The goal comes on the Capitals’ 29th shot of the game.
John Carlson to the box for holding 15 seconds later.
🚨 2-1 Boston Bruins. BOS PPG: Elias Lindholm (1). Assists: D. Pastrnak (1), P. Zacha (1). Time: 07:41.
Pastrnak with an incredible pass to Lindholm in the middle of the ice, who then dekes to his backhand and beats Thompson.
That’s two goals 38 seconds apart.
Ryan Leonard with a huge hit of his own on Mason Lohrei.
Tom Wilson lights up Michael Eyssimont near the end boards. That was his fifth hit of the night.
Nikita Zadorov is yelling at Wilson from the Bruins bench after his shift ends with 2:24 remaining.
Capitals pull Logan Thompson with about 1:45 remaining.
Capitals call timeout.
🚨 3-1 Boston Bruins. BOS ENG: Morgan Geekie (1). Assists: D. Pastrnak (2), E. Lindholm (1). Time: 19:02.
Dylan Strome loses the offensive zone faceoff and Geekie goes down and scores the empty netter.
Capitals lose 3-1. Capitals outshoot Boston 35 to 21 and out-attempt them 55 to 47 at five-on-five.
Not enough offense in the Home Opener: Bruins beat Capitals 3-1
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