The Washington Capitals took their first regulation loss in 2025 to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night and also Sunday morning, but it only counts for one. Vancouver’s lone non-complete mess of a player, Quinn Hughes, and goaltender Kevin Lankinen handed Washington the unlucky 2-1 defeat.
Outside of the final result, the Capitals played a pretty great game. You can’t win all 82.
- This was another recent game in which I thought the Capitals had more of their early-season magic going at five-on-five. It’s just that the hot shooting didn’t come with it. Washington controlled play, particularly in the first and third periods, out-attempting Vancouver 40-23 at five-on-five in those two frames. They created 28 five-on-five scoring chances in the game but only mustered one goal. Bad bounces, good opposition goaltending, and no puck luck.
- Pierre-Luc Dubois grabbed that lone goal, giving him 10 markers on the season. The Capitals ended their season set against the Canucks with Dubois as the only player to score against them, tallying three times. He is the ninth Caps player to hit double digits in goals this year.
- No goals from Alex Ovechkin, but I thought this may have been his liveliest game in January. The Great Eight recorded seven shots on goal, nine shot attempts, four scoring chances, and two high-danger chances.
- Charlie Lindgren made 23 stops in the loss, none more impressive than his full-stretch dive to rob Phillip Di Giuseppe in the dying moments of the third period. Per MoneyPuck, Lindgren saved 0.19 goals more than expected. Lankinen really stole the show, stopping 1.86 more than expected, which was more than the difference in the game.
- I also thought this was Connor McMichael’s most effective game in probably over a month. He grabbed an assist on the Dubois goal, and the Capitals saw positive differentials in shot attempts (+14), scoring chances (+9), and high-danger chances (+6) during his 14:28 of five-on-five ice time.
- The penalty kill was perfect again, nullifying two Vancouver chances. They have been spotless in their last six games.
