New Year’s Eve – The Caps close out the 2025 portion of their 2025-26 season today by hosting the New York Rangers in a New Year’s Eve matinee at Capital One Arena. Washington is still trying to emerge from a free fall that covered much of December; the Caps enter today’s game with only two wins in their last nine games (2-5-2). They have been unable to accumulate wins since their six-game winning streak was snapped in a shootout loss at Anaheim on Dec. 5.
A little over a week ago, the Rangers were in town for both teams’ final game before the NHL’s three-day vacation. The Caps led 3-2 in the third period of that game, only to be overwhelmed by an unanswered five-goal eruption from the Rangers in the final third in what became an ugly 7-3 loss, the only game the Caps lost this season while leading after 40 minutes of play (17-1-0).
“We definitely talked about some structural things,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “There were a few things we took away from this game that we could do a better job with, and some adjustments we’ll make tonight. I thought we did a lot of good things throughout the game, and then we made a few key mistakes, especially in that third period, that ended up putting us in a bad position.”
Today, the Caps hope to advance better against the Blueshirts. Washington enters with a 5-5-3 record for the month of December and carries an 8-3-2 mark against its Metropolitan Division compatriots.
Washington will add defenseman Dylan McIlrath to its lineup today, according to Carbery.
So that I can rest – Coming out of the three-day vacation, the program brought even more excitement to the Caps. They had to wake up at dawn last Saturday and fly to New Jersey for the first of four games in five and a half days, with travel required for all four contests.
It’s a pretty daunting time at any time of the season, let alone going into it after spending three straight days away from the rigors of the ice rink. Washington was able to hold a Sunday afternoon practice at Ft. Lauderdale, but it canceled a scheduled practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Tuesday, an unusual occurrence given back-to-back afternoon starts on the horizon.
But the reality of the condensed schedule to accommodate the NHL’s participation in the 2026 Winter Olympics is that coaches must be more mindful of giving their players more rest and recovery time as the number of games remains the same this season. Each team still plays 82 games, it’s the rest and recovery time that is the hardest to come by.
“This year is just unique,” Carbery says. “You adapt as you coach, no matter what, over the last 15 years. Rest has certainly become much more of a tool than in years past. It just allows us to gain knowledge of what is really needed to prepare, I’m not even saying NHL games, I’m saying AHL, ECHL; it doesn’t matter. Rest is an important part.
“And I also think what I find funny is that the players are so well taken care of and they take care of themselves at such a level that back in the day, you used to practice to ‘sweat.’ You went on the ice, and that’s how it worked, you went out and you practiced every day, and you went skating in the morning. It’s 25 minutes. 25 minutes, and then you play.
“It’s completely different now. But as far as this year, in the condensed schedule with the Olympic holidays, I think that’s the special thing about this year, is that we’re figuring this out on the fly, what works and what doesn’t work. So, I’ll give you an example. We’ve given a lot more days off, like [Tuesday] than us. [Tuesday] being a day off, I would have been extremely reluctant to do this in the past, based on a 12:30 schedule. [p.m.] game just because, now you walk right into a game. You haven’t touched a puck, whether it’s been 36 years or however many hours it’s been since our last game.
“So now you know you’re looking or trying to find ways to incorporate rest, recovery and being effective on the ice. It’s a little bit of learning on the field and seeing what works for your group. I feel like we’ve found a pretty good sweet spot, but that doesn’t mean it won’t change and make adjustments along the way.
“You also need to have a really good feeling about your group, and that’s where communicating with your leadership group and how they feel. [is important]. How can we act in a situation like today? I will keep a close eye on our vision from an energy point of view. How is our execution going?
Today against the Rangers and tomorrow against the Senators in Ottawa, the Caps will play the last two of these four games in five and a half days.
In the nets – In Charlie Lindgren’s first start of the season, on October 12 against the Rangers in New York, he earned a 1–0 shutout victory over the Blueshirts. Today, he starts in the Caps’ last game of the 2025 calendar against the same team.
In five career starts and appearances against the Rangers, Lindgren is 4-1-0 with two shutouts, a 1.19 GAA and a .957 save percentage.
For the Rangers, we expect to see Igor Shesterkin in goal today. Lifetime against the Capitals, Shesterkin is 9-5-1 in 15 appearances and starts, with a 2.73 GAA and .915 save percentage.
All along the line – Here’s what the Capitals and Rangers could look like Wednesday afternoon in Washington:
WASHINGTON
Attackers
24-McMichael, 34-Sourdif, 8-Ovechkin
21-Spirit, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
9-Leonard, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 72-Beauvillier
Defenders
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 52-McIlrath
Goalkeepers
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Healthy Extras
15-Milan
47-Chisholm
57-van Riemsdyk
Injured/Away
80-Dubois (lower body)
NEW YORK
Attackers
10-Panarin, 93-Zibanejad, 13-Lafreniere
94-Perreault, 16-Trocheck, 22-Brodzinski
50-Cuylle, 42-Laba, 14-Raddysh
78-Othmann, 39-Carrick, 73-Rempe
Defenders
44-Gavrikov, 4-Schneider
24-Soucy, 17-Borgen
29-Robertson, 60-Tomorrow
Goalkeepers
31-Shesterkin
32-Quick
Healthy Extras
18-librarian
43-Shearing
65-Berard
Injured/Away
8-Miller
23-Fox
84-Edström
