📸: Ted Starkey
On this holiday weekend, the Washington Capitals rose at the ungodly hour of 1 PM to visit the New York Islanders. It went precisely like you thought it wouldn’t: winning despite weak five-on-five play and because of the power play.
On an early game power play, Alex Ovechkin found Tom Wilson for a quick tap to make it 1-0. Same story in the second, with Wilson either the benefactor or beneficiary, not sure which, of a rare Ilya Sorokin misplay.
Bo Horvat won a duel for a rebound to make it 2-1 with six minutes left in the game. The waning minutes were packed with icing calls, but the Caps buckled down. Aliaksei Protas chased a would-be icing to earn the first of two empty-netters. The second belonged to Ovi.
Caps win!
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- We got another look at 18-year-old Matthew Schaeffer, currently the presumptive leader in the Calder Trophy race. Schaeffer is wonderful to watch, and I liked him even more when he mixed it up with Ryan Leonard, in the running for the Calder Trophy in our hearts at least. Leonard drew a penalty from Schaeffer, and the Caps converted on it thanks to Alex Ovechkin’s ability to absorb attention.
- The goal belonged to Tom Wilson, scorer of two today. Wilson is on a five-game point streak and has five goals in last 10 games.
- Far and away Washington’s best player: goalie Logan Thompson, who was making highlight-reel saves from the first puck drop. The Islanders were on his side of the ice a lot, and they generated chances to match. This win belongs to LT.
- Especially since the guy at the other end of the rink did this. Haha.
NHL.com
- Above is how this game was listed on the NHL’s site. If you’re out of the teams’ regions and didn’t have NHL Network, you were out of luck today. An extra bummer because it’s always fun to watch non-Caps fans melt down when Tom Wilson is playing well.
- I adore Aliaksei Protas‘ hustle to score that ENG, as if he, like us, was sick to death of icing calls.
- I know you always will, but tune in to Chris’ NFMTA tomorrow to see how brutal possession play was for the Caps. The Carlson-Sandin pairing hardly got out of their own zone.
#joebsuitofthenight of the early afternoon
— RMNB (@rmnb.bsky.social) 2025-11-30T18:03:19.323Z
That’s how the month ends for the Caps. Though special teams were a hard nut to crack early in November, the team eventually busted out to a 9-4-2 record. This intradivision win is great news for the team’s place in the standings, ever-rising.
Now the road trip continues with everyone’s favorite: the California trip with all the late-night games and the return of RMNB After Dark. See you then.
