Dec. 31 vs. New York Rangers at Capital One Arena
Time: 12:30 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
New York Rangers (19-17-5)
Washington Capitals (20-14-5)
The Caps close out calendar 2025 with a matinee match against the New York Rangers on Wednesday. The game is also the front end of a set of midweek afternoon back-to-backs; the Caps will travel north of the border immediately after Wednesday’s game and they’ll face the Senators in Ottawa on Thursday afternoon, a game that kicks off the 2026 portion of the schedule and brings them to the exact midpoint of the 2025-26 campaign.
Coming out of the NHL’s annual three-day holiday break, the Caps faced the specter of four games in five and a half days, with each of the contests coming against the four teams immediately behind them in the jam-packed Eastern Conference standings. They started that stretch with an uplifting 4-3 overtime win over the Devils in New Jersey on Saturday, ending a five-game losing streak of games decided beyond the 60th minute this season, and winning for just the second time in a span of eight games.
For the second time in as many overtime wins for Washington this season, Jakob Chychrun supplied the game-winning goal in overtime.
Two nights later in Florida against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, the Caps carved out a 3-2 lead for themselves early in the third period, but they weren’t able to nail it down. Brad Marchand tied the game one second after the expiration of a Florida power play in the front half of the final frame, and Aaron Ekblad pumped home the game-winner with 6:48 left in the third in a 5-3 loss.
“I thought overall, it was a good game, back and forth, a fun game to play in,” says Caps goaltender Logan Thompson. “But it feels like they generated off our mistakes. I think a lot of their goals came from behind the goal line. And so, it’s frustrating, especially giving up one late there in the third. They worked hard, they battled and it’s – again – a fun game, and [we’ll] learn from it, and just move forward.”
Washington won its first two games in the month of December to extend its winning streak to six games at the time, but it has been unable to string together victories since. Wednesday’s game with New York will determine whether the Caps finish the month above or below or at what passes for .500 hockey in the modern NHL; they enter the game with the Rangers at 5-5-3 in the final month of 2025.
Some of the Caps’ recent woes stem from the tightness of everything in the League these days – the checking, the chances, the lack of time and space, and the sardine can nature of the standings. When the Caps are at their best, they’re generating lengthy offensive zone shifts, getting pucks from low to high and pounding them toward the net from the point.
And typically, when the results are going in the Caps’ favor, they’re adding to leads and putting distance between themselves and their opponent on the scoreboard. But in their last 10 games (3-5-2), the Caps have managed to forge leads of greater than one goal only in the two of the games, both of which were shutout wins. In one of those games – a 2-0 victory over Columbus on Dec. 7 – the multi-goal lead was achieved via an empty net goal in the game’s penultimate minute.
Since returning home from California on Dec. 6, the Caps have held a scoreboard lead for just 151 minutes and 17 seconds of the 613 minutes and 42 seconds of hockey they’ve played across that span. Chasing opponents and games on the scoreboard is grueling and taxing and particularly so when playing a condensed schedule that squeezes recovery time, as every team in the League is doing this season to accommodate the NHL’s participation in the Olympics.
Monday in Florida, the Panthers’ forecheck made it difficult for the Caps to do much threatening in the offensive zone at 5-on-5; it was a challenge for the Caps just to get there. Some of Washington’s best looks of the night came while it was shorthanded; and one of its goals came on the power play and another was scored during a 6-on-5 delayed penalty situation.
Wednesday’s game against the Rangers and Thursday’s game in Ottawa bring the Caps to the midpoint of the season, and the end of their hurried stretch of four games out of the holiday hiatus.
New York has also had a middling month of December; it enters the final game of the final month of the year with a 6-5-3 mark. The Rangers have been blanked eight times already this season, suffering three shutout losses in October – including one to the Caps and Charlie Lindgren in New York on Oct. 12 – two in November and three in December. Six of the eight whitewashes have come on home ice, a dubious single-season franchise record achieved before the midpoint of their 100th season in the circuit.
The Rangers had been shutout five times in the same season on home ice four times previously, most recently in 2014-15.
When the Rangers last visited the District just over a week ago on Dec. 23, they handed the Caps a 7-3 setback, scoring five unanswered goals in less than 10 minutes in the third period, and matching their highest single-game offensive output of the season. Prior to that game, the Caps had been a perfect 16-0-0 in games in which they held a lead entering the third period.
Since that win over Washington last week, the Rangers have been blanked on the road by the Islanders 2-0 on Saturday, and they dropped a 3-2 overtime decision on Monday night to the Hurricanes in Carolina.
The Rangers are the NHL’s second-worst team on home ice (5-10-3), and their average of just 1.89 goals per game at home this season is the lowest in the League by far. But New York’s road record of 14-7-2 results in a .652 points pct., which is sixth best in the League.
Wednesday’s game finishes a run of five straight road games for the Blueshirts, who are 1-2-1 on that stretch thus far.
