The Capitals of Washington, DC had an awful Tuesday night as Texas put up a surprisingly strong performance. The Dallas Stars had the Caps goalie solved from the drop.
Joel Kiviranta punished Logan Thompson for a poor clear, the only goal of a low-shooting first period. The next three goals all belonged to the same guy: Jason Robertson, recording a natural hat trick and chasing Thompson from the net. Jordan Kyrou cracked Jake Oettinger‘s shutout with a funky rebound off Dylan Strome‘s leg, but Mikko Rantanen responded by beating replacement goalie Charlie Lindgren. Ryan Leonard hit up Boone Jenner for a great goal, and Jakob Chychrun converted a late-period power play. Things looked up.
Then Roope Hintz got a lucky bounce off Marty Fehervary, and the game fell out of reach. Playing for pride, Justin Sourdif fought in the paint to hang a fourth goal on Oettinger. With just over a minute left, Ryan Leonard went short-side to bring the Caps within one, but that was as close as they got.
Stars beat Caps 6-5.
- It’s probably best to start with Not LT’s night. Maybe I’m being too polite there. His team was playing just fine in the early going – a rarity lately – but Logan Thompson made a bad play before the Kiviranta goal and then was defeated thrice by Robertson in the second. His skaters put up four goals, so this L is on him.
- Thompson had not been pulled in nearly a year. Stats-wise, he won’t get credited with the loss. That’ll fall to the Chuck. Doesn’t seem right.
- I love Jason Robertson. I don’t even care. (Editor’s note: He cares a lot.)
- In the first period, Jakob Chychrun lost a skate blade and looked silly. In the second period, he scored a power-play goal and looked cool as hell.It was the kind of goal the Caps expect from him and the kind of goal which he had not been providing enough of so far. It was a good goal, but I’m still going to embed the skate blade part. Entertainment value.
- Dylan Strome got the primary assist on Jordan Kyrou’s goal, and he paid dearly for it. It was a stinger off his leg. He persevered and set up Chychrun goal.
- Hell of a game from Justin Sourdif, the only Caps to have a plus-three goal on-ice goal differential somehow. He was fighting for the win until the very last shift. That plus the Leonard-to-Jenner goal are how I wish this team would play all the time.
- The Monumental app on my TV – and confirmed by others – was fully bugged. The play bar would not go away. This on the day the network put out a press release about how improved their product is. I had to cast the whole game from my phone.
ohhhh MARBLE, now I get it #joebsuitofthenight
— Good Skeet Pete (@peterhassett.net) 2026-11-04T00:03:47.032Z
After finishing October strong, the Caps have lost two agonizing games in a row. I respect their battling late in this one, but in hindsight it was lost 30 minutes earlier.
Now we get yet another three-day break (!!!) before the Caps bring the Panthers to town for a 12:30 game. It’s going to be a total show.
