Leaving Home – The Caps conclude their first extended homestand of the season tonight against the Seattle Kraken. Having won two of the three prior games on the four-game home stay, the Caps are aiming to finish with a flourish against a Seattle team that is playing the fifth game of a six-game road excursion tonight. The Kraken is also finishing up a set of back-to-back games; it fell 5-2 to the Flyers in Philadelphia on Monday night.
“I think it’s a big game,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We’ve had a good little homestand here, and you want to take advantage of home games. And we drop one where you’d like to have a better result Sunday afternoon [against Vancouver] in a situation and a scenario that you feel like you should win that game and get two points.
“So, it’s important tonight that we rebound and respond and end a lengthy early season homestand, and you want to be on the right side of that. Because – I always do this –whenever you’re playing a significant amount of home games, you know road games coming at some point in the season to make up for it, and those are going to be challenging games. It’s really important that we’re not so concerned with the results, but our process looks really, really good tonight.”
The Caps are also seeking to follow Sunday’s loss with a win, a hallmark trait of the group from last season when Washington. During the Carbery era in DC, the Caps are 42-23-7 (.632 point pct.) in games following a loss, which is a shade better than their overall point pct. of 618 under Carbery. Last season, the Caps rolled up a strong 22-7-1 mark in games immediately following losses, preventing long losing streaks.
Only once last season did the Caps go as many as three straight games without collecting a point, and that mini slide began in late February, soon after the NHL resumed action after the Four Nations pause.
“We’ve got a mature group here,” says Caps forward Connor McMichael. “We’ve got a lot of guys with tons of experience. They’ve played in big games at the highest level, so for us, coming off a loss, they know how to respond. We’re in a spot that we’ve been in before, trying to build momentum, especially earlier in the season.
“For us tonight, if you look at our start last game is it was pretty slow, and we battled back. And that’s one of the biggest attributes of this team, is just our compete, and our will to come back in those games, and the feeling that we have of never being out of a game. It’s a big game tonight to respond and trying to come out on in the first a lot better than we did last game.”
The 300 Club – Brandon Duhaime joined the Capitals via free agency in the summer of 2024, signing a two-year deal to come to Washington. The Caps’ hockey operations department envisioned him as a good fit on the left side of Nic Dowd’s line, a shutdown unit that tends to get heavy defensive zone deployment.
They certainly got it right. Tuesday against Seattle, Duhaime skates in his 300th NHL game, and he is a different and better player now – some 88 games into his career as a Capital – than he was upon arrival, after three full seasons in the NHL.
“A lot of credit goes to the staff,” says Duhaime. “Whether it’s video sessions or skills sessions on the ice, they do a great job of, I won’t say ‘developing’ because it sounds like you’ve got to be a young guy, but you’re always developing your game no matter how old you are. It’s super important to always try and get better.”
That’s Duhaime being humble; he has a reputation as a prankster – and it’s well-earned – but he is also as driven and hard-working as anyone on the team. He is one of the last guys off the ice every day after practice; he has made it a habit to go out early and/or stay out late and work with Caps assistant coach/skills Kenny McCudden.
“Maybe just confidence with the puck,” says Duhaime, when asked to elaborate on the improvements he has sensed in his game since arriving in the District. “I think maybe when I got here, it was a little bit more of you’re just an F1 on the forecheck, and you’re just looking for a big hit here, or a contact there.
“But I think you know going in as an F1 now, it’s more you want possession of that puck, whether it’s getting a rub out and then stealing the puck, or whether it’s getting a good stick on puck, and finishing the check. I think there’s a fine line of understanding when, when those times come. And I think that’s where the improvement has come in.”
In three NHL seasons before coming to the Capitals, Duhaime played 211 games with Minnesota and Colorado, averaging 10:35 in nightly ice time. In his first full season with Washington in 2024-25, Duhaime appeared in all 82 games for the first time in his career, and he achieved career bests in goals (nine) assists (12) and points (21). He did so while averaging 13:18 in ice time per game, nearly three minutes more than his career average before arriving in DC.
“I think Dewey coming here, I didn’t know much about him,” says Carbery. “Honestly, we were looking for that type of player to play with Nic Dowd – penalty kill, energy, responsible. When we acquired him in free agency, I didn’t know him other than some film and talking to management about him, but since coming here, he’s become a big part of our team. He’s a big personality, he fits in with our group so well, he’s got such energy, enthusiasm, positivity about him that is just right from day one.
“He’s seamlessly fit in with our group, and then on the ice, I think what he’s done is he’s done a real good job of the foundational things in his game. So, penalty kill, providing energy, physicality, and being really, really reliable and smart. And I think last year, probably halfway through the year, he started to show a little bit more from a standpoint of being able to make a few more plays and hold on to some pucks and make a play off entry. And for a guy like him, that helps a lot. If you can make two or three more plays a game playing on the fourth line, it makes a world of difference for his line and also for our team, creating momentum.
“So, he’s done a good job, and now it’s a matter with him of balancing that line of, ‘How many plays can I make?’ versus not getting away for who he truly is as a player, and that’s provide energy, physicality, be really, really smart, and doing that as consistently as he possibly can, game to game.”
Last season, Duhaime logged a shade over 1,094 minutes at all strengths, and 960 of those minutes were played alongside Dowd, who has had the same clearly defined role in the middle of the ice for a number of linemates beginning with Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway in January of 2021, and with a cast of others since, including Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh last season, and Justin Sourdif in Raddysh’s vacated right wing slot early this season. Sourdif is slated to center Washington’s third line tonight.
“The way that our line is successful is three guys have to play hockey together,” says Dowd. “I need Dewey to play well in order for me to play well. And I need Sordie, or Raddy or Hath or Hags or whomever to play well. We work as a line; we don’t work as individuals. There are high-end guys that can go out and do it by themselves, and they can run a whole line. But I need my linemates to play well.
“And with Dewey, he wanted to learn. He has a great attitude, and he’s a great person. And I told him and Raddy last year, ‘This is the blueprint that I’ve had in the NHL for the last four or five years. And I guarantee by the end of the year, if we do this over and over and over again, we will come out with points, and will be where you want to be and feeling good and all that. And the points will be an aftermath of what you do throughout the season, but they will be there.’
“And last year was the same way, right? I think everybody had good years. Me and Dewey had career years and all that is, is just a byproduct of doing things the right way throughout 82 games and not getting bored with doing that for 82 games.”
At the outset of his first season as Caps head coach in 2020-21, Peter Laviolette is the guy who first gave Dowd and linemates this defined role, and Carbery has been wise enough to see how well it works, and to keep the unit going, albeit with different personnel. But as good a fit as Hagelin and Beck Malenstyn were on the left side of that line – and they’re obviously different players from Duhaime – it can be argued that Dowd and Duhaime have had the best fit of the group that came before.
“[Dowd] is a really, really easy guy to play with, and he’s such a personable communicator,” says Carbery. “And he and he cares so much about his craft and his line that there’s no stone unturned with Nic Dowd; like he is going to talk you through it. You’re going to have a long conversation about it. You might watch film together where some other guys are just like, ‘Yeah, we’ll figure it out on the fly.’
“That’s not Nic Dowd. They are going to be on the same page with everything that they do – penalty kill, face-offs, 5-on-5. And I think Dewey really appreciates that and takes a lot of pride in in his craft. They just work so well together on being very, very connected and on the same page with everything that they do on the ice together. And they actually make, make light of the fact that Dewey has taken, he’s like, “I’ve only taken two shifts away from Dowd in two seasons.’ But they, yeah, they’ve got good chemistry.”
They have the chemistry because they’ve worked to have it.
“Nic being such a pro and such a veteran,” says Duhaime, “he’s not just teaching me what he does, but coaching me up as much as he can, really. We’re just trying to play a predictable game and having chemistry. And whether it’s us watching video together or just talking between shifts, it’s a huge credit to him.”
Like Dowd before him, Duhaime arrived in DC in his late twenties. And also like Dowd before him, he is thriving in part because of the trust of the coaching staff in his abilities, and because he has a clearly defined role.
“Yeah, it’s super important,” says Duhaime of having and knowing his role. “Especially for the guys in your bottom six, you’re probably going to be more predictable than most lines. You’re not going to be making many cross-seam plays or stuff like that. I think where that success will come from for our line is going to be below-the-goal-line offensive type stuff and winning battles and getting pucks out of there and creating from a defensive standpoint.”
Dowd’s a dozen games shy of 600 in the NHL himself, and he’d probably tell Dewey that he can get there too, just by doing the things he’s been doing for 82 games a season. He might even guarantee it.
The [Two] Grand Theatre – Capitals head athletic trainer and director of sports medicine Jason Serbus will work his 2,000th professional game on Tuesday against Seattle. Now in his eighth season with the Capitals, Serbus came to the Caps in 2017-18, just in time to be a part of the team’s first Stanley Cup championship after spending the previous nine seasons with the Arizona Coyotes.
Serbus is a calm, steady hand at the wheel on a day in, day out basis in a hectic and always fast-paced and ever-changing work environment. He never gets flustered, always tells it like it is, and is a fount of wisdom on matters extending well beyond those of his professional endeavor.
Shortly before the Caps met for their pregame meeting in the theater at MedStar Capitals Iceplex Tuesday morning, and to offer their profound thanks for his tireless work and their congratulations for an impressive milestone achieved, the Washington players chipped in to give the avid outdoorsman from Bird Island, Minn. an Alaskan fishing trip.
Tapping his big heart in appreciation upon learning this news, Serbus made some short remarks of thanks.
“I will tell you, in our department, we talk a lot every day about staying energized with your attitude,” says Serbus. “And we talk about being thankful and keeping perspective. And I’m thankful that I get to work with some of the best guys on the planet every day. We get to work for an organization like this, that gives us all we have, and to respect this great League. But to come and take care of you guys every day is an honor, and it’s a pleasure. Thank you.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson gets the start in goal tonight for Washington. Thompson is making his fifth start of the season, and he enters with a 3-1-0 mark to go along with a 1.75 GAA and a .922 save pct. He has permitted two or fewer goals against in each of his first four starts of the campaign.
Lifetime against the Kraken, Thompson is 3-1-0 in four appearances – all starts – with a shutout, a 1.52 GAA and a .939 save pct.
Joey Daccord got the start for Seattle in Philadelphia on Monday night, but he was pulled in favor of ex-Cap Philipp Grubauer at the outset of the third period after yielding five goals on 21 shots in 39:30 between the pipes. Grubauer stopped all six shots the rest of the way.
Given that both goaltenders played last night for the Kraken, and the presence of veteran Matt Murray on the roster as a third option, the identity of Seattle’s starter for tonight is a bit murky.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Grubauer is 3-2-1 in six starts and appearances with a 2.53 GAA and a .924 save pct. Murray is 8-7-1 in 16 starts and appearances, with a 3.66 GAA and an .884 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals and the Kraken to look on Tuesday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 43-Wilson
29-Lapierre, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
Injured/Out
52-McIlrath (lower body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
SEATTLE
Forwards
77-Catton, 10-Beniers, 7-Eberle
17-Schwartz, 9-Stephenson, 20-Tolvanen
27-Marchment, 51-Wright, 38-Nyman
12-Kartye, 15-Hayden, 26-Winterton
Defensemen
29-Dunn, 6-Larsson
55-Lindgren, 24-Oleksiak
28-Mahura, 8-Fleury
Goalies
35-Daccord
31-Grubauer
Healthy Extras
30-Murray
39-Meyers
Injured/Out
19-McCann (lower body)
41-Evans (upper body)
62-Montour (personal)
84-Kakko (upper body)
89-Gaudreau (upper body)
