After years of playing against the Washington Capitals, newly-acquired winger Alex Tuch is glad to be on their side of the ice. The Capitals’ 2025-26 season may have ended without a playoff run, but the team’s skill still impressed Tuch, enough to convince him to ink an an eight-year deal in a sign-and-trade between the Capitals and Buffalo Sabres in June.
Tuch’s most memorable games agains the Capitals came during the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, when he went up against Washington in his rookie season with the Vegas Golden Knights (and was famously on the wrong side of Braden Holtby’s legendary save in Game 2). But once he joined the Sabres in 2021, he faced the Caps more frequently as an in-conference opponent, and he doesn’t remembers those games fondly.
“The Capitals were miserable to play against. I thought they were heavy, they were hard,” Tuch told 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies last week. “They move the puck really well out of their D-zone too, which was something I was looking around and was like, holy crap, these guys look like the Harlem Globetrotters breaking the puck out.”
Battling against savvy puck movers like Cole Hutson, Ryan Leonard, and Jakob Chychrun reminded Tuch of the Globetrotters’ signature trick shots and high-level skills, executed with precision and cohesiveness.
“They’re all connected, five-man units coming out of the zone,” Tuch said of the Capitals.
In addition to their awe-inducing moves, Tuch paid attention to the Capitals’ strong record over his decade-long NHL career, watching Washington win four Metropolitan Division titles. He wasn’t deterred by the Capitals’ missing the playoffs this spring, especially after their Eastern Conference-winning season in 2024-25.
“Coming in, I was like ‘Okay, I don’t think this team is very different than they were two years ago when they won the Metro, and they were looked at as contenders,” he said. “I just think they ran into some injury trouble. And sometimes teams can get derailed.”
Tuch cited Pierre-Luc Dubois’ injury as an especially tough blow for the Capitals. Dubois missed more than three months of the season after undergoing abdominal and abductor surgery and ultimately played just 29 games in 2025-26.
Tuch also spoke highly of Spencer Carbery, who signed an extension earlier this offseason. “The coach is young, [he’s a] Jack Adams winner and just signed for another three years,” he said on Grant and Danny. “That stability really helped.”
Ultimately, Tuch said, coming to Washington gives him a chance to compete. “The most important thing to me is winning,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why I joined the team.”
