Very rarely do preseason goals have much meaning, but Ryan Leonard may have scored the rare one that does — and in sensational fashion.
After going 15 consecutive games without a goal — six in the 2024-25 regular season, eight in the 2025 playoffs, and one in the 2025 preseason — Leonard got off the schneid and scored brilliantly against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday. Leonard went coast-to-coast down the left wing, dangling past defenseman Topias Vilén and beating goaltender Jacob Markström to the top corner.
The goal marked Leonard’s first career NHL tally with a goaltender in net, as his only other goal came via an empty netter against the Chicago Blackhawks on April 4.
“That’s a pretty good one there,” Leonard said to Monumental Sports Network’s Al Koken during the second intermission. “It’s good to finally see it going in.”
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery added postgame that “hopefully, a puck going in the net and beating a goaltender gives him some confidence and can snowball into feeling good with the puck when he gets into some of those situations. Sometimes that’ll happen even if it is preseason. So good for him. It’s a great play.”
Leonard’s goal came a day after Carbery revealed that the lack of production was weighing on his top prospect behind the scenes.
“I’m working with him on trying not to measure his game by goals and assists or by the box score solely,” Carbery said, pointing to Leonard’s unique power forward qualities akin to Matthew Tkachuk.
“Why he’s going to have a long successful NHL career, is he has [high skill] but he also has this physicality, this power forward, this guy that’s going to finish checks, that’s going to go to the net front, that’s going to win puck battles, that’s going to take a puck hard to the net, and he can shoot it.”
Leonard also scored in the shootout, skating down the left wing before beating goaltender Nico Daws against the grain. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Cristall also scored for the Capitals, giving them a 3-2 victory.
“Normally I like to come down that side and do something,” Leonard said. “I saw Jack Hughes do that same type of move the same way against Chuck. I did it a couple times in practice and tried it out and it worked out. It was good to see it go in.”
Leonard skated with Dubois and Aliaksei Protas on the team’s top line. He received 17:48 of total ice time from Spencer Carbery, firing four shots on goal, blocking two shots, and throwing two hits. Leonard had the highest game score on the team.
