Down a couple important players, the Washington Capitals hopped down to Raleigh to visit the Carolina Hurricanes – a rematch of that 5-2 win in the season opener.
Boone Jenner scored first, continuing a torrid streak to start his season. In the second period, Andrei Svechnikov tied it by shoving the puck through Thompson’s pads, a goal that narrowly survived a goal review. Justin Holl scored in his first game as a Hershey call-up, on a brilliant pass from Strome – more on that in a moment. At the tail end of the second, Eric Robinson finished a slick rush attack with Jackson Blake to tie the game after forty minutes.
The third didn’t go well. Andrei Svechnikov exploited a defensive misplay to convert a power play, then he set up Mark Jankowski for an empty-netter.
Canes beat Caps 4-2.
- Boone Jenner has already exceeded whatever expectations you had for him. Ryan Leonard – currently Washington’s leading scorer – found Jenner going to the part of the ice where you and I both know players should go if they want to score to but for some reason they seldom do. Jenner has goals in three games straight.
- The Caps knew they needed a fix for the Dylan McIlrath problem. I was skeptical they could find one from within the organization. Maybe that’s still true but Justin Holl‘s goal – perhaps more of an express muffin delivery than a goal – was a great first impression for a veteran player on a new team.
- A Proton kinda/sorta scored a goal, but it was washed out for pushing goalie Pyotr Kochetkov‘s pads. A good call. Then Eric Robinson did somewhat the same thing and, despite Washington’s challenge, the goal stood.
- Taylor Hall left the game early in the second period and did not return. That’s a big loss. Not Matt Roy plus Rasmus Sandin plus Pierre-Luc Dubois big, but still big.
- Also leaving the game: me, frequently quitting and reloading the Monumental app. When I said I was having no stability issues, that was on my decent Sony TV. On this cheap TCL, I can’t watch a whole period without it hanging. On a wired, fiber-optic connection – so it’s got to be an app performance issue.
- Logan Thompson got clipped by Jakob Chychrun, but he stuck with it.
big game#joebsuitofthenight
— Good Skeet Pete (@peterhassett.net) 2026-10-13T23:01:25.017Z
Those were nice bullets but the real story of this game was discipline and the lacking of it. Chychrun committed two minors. Leonard did two. Hutson and Sourdif each had one. The Canes got five in a row to close out the game, and close out the game they did.
Shake it off. Canadiens tomorrow.
