The Washington Capitals opened their 2025-26 regular season against the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on Wednesday night. After walking into the rink via red carpet for their Home Opener, the Capitals got to business against a Bruins team under new head coach and former Caps winger Marco Sturm.
Neither team could break the scoring deadlock in the first period, and they combined to record only 11 shots on goal. David Pastrnak opened the scoring midway through the second period, lofting a wrister through traffic and past Logan Thompson. Tom Wilson tied the game with a snipe early in the third period.
Elias Lindholm put the Bruins back on top not long after, converting on a pretty passing play by Pastrnak while up a man. Morgan Geekie sealed the Bruins victory with an empty-net marker.
Bruins beat Capitals 3-1.
- Welcome back, folks. We’ve been apart for what feels like an eternity, but we are about to spend the better part of nine months back together. So, dig in, as we’ll be in this foxhole for a while.
- I don’t love to start with some negativity, but the Capitals were not good at all in the first period of the season. The Bruins controlled almost all of the five-on-five play, notching six of the seven scoring chances and the lone high-danger chance. A lot of the first frame was played on the power play, but the Caps weren’t exactly too successful there either.
- Alex Ovechkin took to the ice for his 21st season in the NHL and his 17th as the captain of the Capitals. I strongly recommend that everyone take a moment to appreciate every game he plays this season.
- If you are a member of the Capitals’ fandom who checked out for the entire summer and training camp, I wrote up a not terribly long primer to catch you up on some of the major storylines that took place. It’s not all-encompassing by any means, but I think we hit a lot of the main things. Alright, back to the game stuff.
- Much, much, much better in the second period, but the score at the end of 40 minutes unfortunately didn’t show that. The Capitals ended the frame unable to convert on a whopping nine high-danger chances, and the Bruins took a 1-0 lead with a complete nothing shot from near the point. Sometimes, you create more than two expected goals in a period and still end up with a negative goal differential. That’s NHL hockey, folks.
- I can’t wait for Joe B and Locker to be back on the call, y’all. There should be a policy that no team’s first game of the season can be a national TV exclusive.
- Tom Wilson absolutely leveled Mason Lohrei three separate times in the second and showed some great restraint when approached by Mark Kastelic for a fight after one of them. Wilson is way too important to the Capitals to be fighting someone for clean hits, especially Kastelic, who has never scored more than seven goals in a season.
- Justin Sourdif looked really lively to me on almost every one of his shifts. He has some serious speed and elusiveness to him that is fun to watch. The team’s fourth line could be dangerous if he makes the zone entries easy for Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime to start their usual great work down low.
- The third period was just okay; there wasn’t enough pressure in Boston’s zone. Tough luck loss to start the season overall. Some good things, some bad things.
- Wilson scored the Capitals’ first goal of the season, getting the puck from skate to stick in a split second. The third-period snipe came on the team’s 29th shot of the game, beating Jeremy Swayman. Wilson scored a career high 33 goals last year and is fighting for a spot on Team Canada’s roster at the 2026 Milan Olympics later this season.
- The big story is, of course, the powerless power play. The Capitals went 0-for-5 while up a man, including failing to convert on about a minute of 5-on-3 time. That’s game-deciding ineptness.
National TV game to start the year, so we’ll wait on our first true Joe B Suit of the Night. For the Home Opener, here’s our thread of looks from the Capitals as they walked the red carpet before puck drop.
The Capitals are off on Thursday and then head out on the road for two straight against the New York Islanders and New York Rangers. They won’t be back at Capital One Arena until October 14, when they host the preseason-hardened Tampa Bay Lightning.
