The Washington Capitals enter the final stretch of the 2025-26 NHL regular season sitting outside the playoff picture, looking in. After their 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, the Capitals remain two points out of third in the Metropolitan Division and the second wild card spot.
The two points are the first of 32 that head coach Spencer Carbery believes the team needs to collect over the next seven weeks to ensure they are locked into a playoff position come mid-April. Carbery spoke about his projection and the standings landscape around the Capitals after the club’s morning skate on Wednesday.
“I think just with the way the East has shaken out this year, and if you look at the teams that are on the outside looking in, I’m going to forget everybody, but I’ll just use us and Columbus,” Carbery said. “There’s probably four other teams, Ottawa, Toronto, you could even put Florida, Philly. I just think with that many teams that are on the outside looking in, whether it’s the wild card or the Metro, you’re going to have to get to 12, 13, 14 games above .500 probably to get in.
“And so that puts you right around that 97, 98 points. Is it an exact number? No, but I think that’s somewhere in that ballpark. We won’t talk about it anymore – I hardly even think about it. I just feel like that’s what we’re going to have to do.”
In the win against Philadelphia, the Capitals became the first team in the NHL to reach 60 games played this season. Given that, the teams in and around the playoff race in the Eastern Conference all hold games in hand on the Caps, including the Pittsburgh Penguins (4), Columbus Blue Jackets (4), Philadelphia Flyers (3), Florida Panthers (3), Ottawa Senators (3), Boston Bruins (3), New York Islanders (2), Detroit Red Wings (2), and the Toronto Maple Leafs (2).
NHL standings heading into 2/26 games
Last season, 91 points were good enough to buy you a ticket to the postseason in the Eastern Conference, which highlights just how close the race is this year. Most of the teams fighting for the final spots are also expected to compete to the very last week of the season, with very few committed sellers around the league at this year’s trade deadline.
“I think it’s important to know where you need to get to,” Capitals forward Nic Dowd told Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir. “Once you can establish a goal, you need to understand where we are in the season. It would be unfortunate for us not to mentally see where we need to get to and by the end of the year go, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize.’”
According to Tankathon, the Capitals have an easier remaining opponent slate this season (.567) than all but three other teams in the East. Only one of those three teams, the Panthers (.562), is directly in the playoff hunt with the Caps, and Florida is not in the Metro Division.
The Capitals will need to be on top of their game right out of the Olympic break, as they face three games in four days to end February. After playing the Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens on Friday and Saturday, the Caps will then get some respite, playing just twice in the first eight days of March.
