Caps Clash with Columbus

Oct. 24 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena

Time: 7:00 p.m.

TV: MNMT

Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network

Washington Capitals (5-2-0)
Columbus Blue Jackets (3-3-0)

After a successful 3-1-0 homestand, the Caps make a quick trip to Columbus to face the Blue Jackets for the first time in 2025-26 on Friday night. The contest is the front end of a set of back-to-back games for Washington, which returns home to host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night at Capital One Arena.

Following a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night in the homestand finale, the Caps took Wednesday off before reconvening for a Thursday practice session in preparation for the weekend set of back-to-backs. Defenseman Rasmus Sandin (upper body) was not on the ice for Thursday’s practice, but center P-L Dubois (lower body) practiced with his teammates for the first time in just under two weeks, shedding the baby blue non-contact sweater.

“He should be okay,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Sandin, who played in all 82 games for Washington last season. “He’s not traveling to Columbus, but we consider him day-to-day, so nothing long-term.”

Sandin departed Tuesday’s game against Seattle with just under eight minutes remaining in the game and he did not return. Dubois missed all four games on the homestand, but he will travel with the team to Columbus. Carbery said Dubois – who last played on Oct. 12 against the Rangers in New York – is a possibility to play against the Jackets on Friday night.

With the game-winning goal in Tuesday’s triumph over season, rookie Caps forward Ryan Leonard (20 years, 273 days) became the youngest Washington freshman to score in consecutive games since Nicklas Backstrom (20 years, 103 days) on March 3-5, 2008.

Among the 74 NHL forwards to score as many as three goals to this early juncture of the season, Leonard ranks 71st in average nightly ice time with 12:21.

Leonard’s game-winner on Tuesday came early in the second period on a bit of a broken play, and an excellent forecheck/assist from linemate Aliaksei Protas. But the 20-year-old rookie opened some eyes in the first period when he rang the iron behind Seattle goaltender Matt Murray with a dazzling shot off the rush, one in which he changed the release angle while skating in at full speed, using defenseman Vince Dunn as a screen, and getting full velocity on the shot.

“These young guys, they’ve got some good wrist flexion,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson. “They really can get around the puck. I think the best I’ve ever seen – [Alexander] Semin – was incredible at just shooting it from anywhere. But Lenny, too. It’s fun to watch, and it’s tough to defend. It’s not hard to read that a guy is going to toe drag and shoot it, but where they get to with the puck is the big thing. And if he keeps doing that, there are going to be some good things happening for him.”

In nine late-season games with Washington in 2024-25, Leonard averaged 14:11 in ice time, but that figure dipped to 10:09 in his eight Stanley Cup playoff appearances last spring. Limited to less than 11 minutes in two of his first four games this season, Leonard is now earning power play time – he scored his first career power-play goal Sunday vs. the Canucks – and he has skated upwards of 14 minutes in each of the Caps’ last two games.

“Every game he’s doing three or four, five or six really good things,” says Carbery. “Whether it’s carrying a puck through the neutral zone, whether it’s shooting the puck in the net, whether it’s attacking 1-on-1 and ringing one off the bar. Those are unique not to his skill set, but just of how good of a hockey player he is at this moment; he can do things that other guys can’t.

“And the other little things inside of his game – his coverage, reads, his puck decisions, his wall play – he’s just slowly getting better, and that’s all we’re looking to do. We know it’s going to be a process. We know he’s going to have tough touches at certain points and missed coverage during games, and that’s part of developing in the National Hockey League as a young player.

“We’re just looking for progress, right? Just a few less failed wall plays, a few less missed coverages, and sooner or later, in game 40 or 50, or game 70, you’ll start to get to a point – or maybe it’ll take a couple years – to be that fully, fully polished NHL player. And then you combine that with the skill set that he has and to be able to make a few more of those plays, and he’s going to be a good player.”

The Caps faced Columbus twice during the preseason with Washington taking both games in one-goal decisions, 4-3 at Columbus on Sept. 30 and 2-1 in the District on Oct. 4. Late last season – on April 12 at Columbus and April 13 in the District – the Jackets swept a home-and-home set of back-to-backs as part of a valiant push to make the postseason that fell just short.

The Jackets finished last season with six consecutive victories, outscoring the opposition by a combined 28-6 in the process.

With plenty of up-and-coming skilled players and a few established veterans at key positions, the Jackets are expected to contend for a postseason berth again this season. Columbus has split its first six games of the season (3-3-0) but it has shown the ability to break out and punch home a raft of goals – netting seven against Minnesota and five against Dallas in the early going – while also taking care of business in its own end of the ice.

Along with the New York Rangers (eight goals against at 5-on-5 in eight games) and the Capitals (seven goals against at 5-on-5 in seven games), Columbus is one of three NHL clubs to allow just a goal a game at 5-on-5 to this early point of the season. The Jackets have yielded half a dozen goals against at 5-on-5 in as many games.