The Caps officially kicked off the 2025-26 season last night against the Bruins. Unfortunately, it didn’t exactly go to plan – and their struggles with the extra man seem to have followed them into the new season.
The Caps had a chance to show off their new-look power play in the first period after David Pastrnak hooked Tom Wilson while going for a loose puck in the corner. The first entry saw Alex Ovechkin entering on the right side instead of his usual office, finding himself with a lot more space than he typically gets these days as he received a pass he wasn’t quite ready for. While he’s been a mainstay on the team’s second power play unit, that wasn’t the case last night, that time instead ceded to Aliaksei Protas, who lit up the scoresheet at five on five but rarely glimpsed time on the power play. There were some rough edges, but the Caps looked threatening on their first power play of the night.
They also didn’t score.
That would be a theme of the evening, as the Caps would be given five chances with the man advantage in the first two periods and come up empty on all five. Whether it was difficulty entering the zone or Jeremy Swayman standing on his head to the tune of 35 saves, they failed to score, and then the karmic debt from that sin was paid midway through the second period thanks to David Pastrnak’s first goal of the year.
A Tom Wilson goal early in the third period would tie things up, but only for 38 seconds before Elias Lindholm received a nifty pass from Pastrnak and put it home to put Boston right back up by one…on the power play, no less.
That was all Boston needed as Swayman withstood the rest of the Capitals’ onslaught, keeping the Caps out of the Win column to open the season.
Next up, the Caps tackle their first back-to-back set of the season as they head to the Empire State to take on the Islanders and Rangers over the weekend.