Washington lost to Tampa in the NHL championship game. Capitals leader Alexander Ovechkin was left without any points. He was upset by Lightning star goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevsky, who celebrated a big anniversary.
Right off the bat
Never before in the history of the National Hockey League regular season, when each NHL club played at least 80 games per season, have the Washington Capitals started the regular season with two consecutive back-to-back road games. Only in the 2020/21 season, the capital started in the championship with two consecutive meetings in Buffalo against the local Sabers, but that season was shortened due to the pandemic, and for the same reason the matches took place in empty stands. In the new season 2026/27, Washington faced such an experience for the first time.
Moreover, the start of the championship for the Capitals, by the will of the calendar, turns out to be very strong. Just yesterday, Spencer Carbery's team visited Raleigh and took on the reigning Stanley Cup holders, the Carolina Hurricanes, emerging victorious (5:2), and today Alexander Ovechkin and company fought in Florida against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who this season will make another attempt to gain the status of the strongest team in the league. Taking into account the fact that the Capitals continue to expect meetings with high-status rivals who claim the highest achievements, we can say that the capital is entering the new season without any swing.
© AP Photo / Karl B DeBlakerAlexander Ovechkin
© AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker
Alexander Ovechkin
In yesterday's game with Carolina, Washington showed its best side. Already at the beginning of the second period, Carbery's men were confidently ahead (4:0), and the third period, which they started with a score of 5:1, had the opportunity to spend in economy mode in order to save their energy for the match in Tampa. This was relevant given that the Caps spent a lot of time playing shorthanded. Not least of all, this nuance (and along with it the improved depth of the roster, which Washington strengthened in the offseason) influenced the fact that the 41-year-old Ovechkin spent less than 13 minutes on the court. But during this time, Alexander Mikhailovich managed to score an assist and get closer to another record.
Vasilevsky is a superstar!
The match in Tampa began with a special moment for Ovechkin and all Washington fans. The captain of the capital took part in the symbolic face-off ceremony, and along with him on behalf of the Lightning was John Carlson, a former Capitals defenseman who won the Stanley Cup with the club and set more than one record, forever cementing his name in the history of the club.
The match was marked by another powerful achievement for Andrei Vasilevsky, as soon as the puck was played in the center of the ice during the opening face-off. The Russian goalie from Tampa today played his 600th career match in the NHL championships. 590 of them as the Lightning's starting goalkeeper. Vasilevsky, with 600 matches in the regular season of the league, went down in history as:
the fifth Russian goalkeeper to reach this mark. Previously, this achievement was achieved by current Toronto Maple Leafs goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky (808 matches), Nikolai Khabibulin (799), Evgeniy Nabokov (697) and Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders (621);
fourth active NHL goaltender;
56th goalie in league history.
© AP Photo / Jason BehnkenAndrey Vasilevsky
© AP Photo/Jason Behnken
Andrey Vasilevsky
For Vasilevsky, today’s game with Washington, which literally crushed Carolina a day earlier with an active start, began very calmly. Tampa took the initiative into its own hands from the very first minutes and created constant pressure on the capital's goal. Already in the third minute, the Lightning opened the scoring, making only their second shot on target: Brandon Hagel took advantage of the moment when all five visiting field players were crowded into one space, and passed from the left side to the right half-flank, where Charles-Edouard D'Astous found himself completely alone, not seeing any obstacles in front of him for an accurate shot. Charlie Lindgren had no chance to save his team.
Throughout the first period, the Tampa players did not slow down and regularly created a threat to the Washington goal. After the first 20 minutes of the match, they had a 14-5 advantage in shots on target, and the total number of shot attempts exceeded 20. A few minutes before the break, the Lightning celebrated their second goal when Conor Geekie capped off a quick and effective combination created by Jake Guentzel and Brandon Hagel with an irresistible shot. The Capitals simply could not keep up with the opponents, who acted very quickly and aggressively.
© AP Photo / Jason BehnkenAlexander Ovechkin
© AP Photo/Jason Behnken
Alexander Ovechkin
After the break, Washington came out more charged and active. In the first half of the second period, the balance of forces on the court changed in direct proportion, and the Capitals gave Vasilevsky no rest. For some time, the guests outnumbered the Lightning in the number of shots on target per period, and they finally achieved what they wanted. Towards the middle of the period, Carbery's men carried out a great attack with quick diagonal passes, and one of these passes, by Jacob Chickran, from the left side at the blue line to the far post found Justin Sourdif, who corrected the puck into the goal.
However, the Lightning did not allow the Capitals to turn the game around and build on their success. The Lightning took possession of the puck in time and moved the game away from Vasilevsky's goal, and also slowed down the pace of the capital with the help of skirmishes and brawls. So, in the second half of the second period, Emil Lilleberg and Vincent Dearnay organized a fight between themselves, a little later, a hand-to-hand duel almost happened between Pontus Holmberg and Jacob Chikran, and in the debut of the third period, between Zemgus Girgensons and the main hooligan of Washington, Tom Wilson.
© AP Photo / Jason BehnkenAlexander Ovechkin
© AP Photo/Jason Behnken
Alexander Ovechkin
All this was to the advantage of John Cooper's wards. Even in the third period, they did not allow the capital to organize a successful assault on Vasilevsky’s gate. Although the Russian goalkeeper in Tampa had a number of dangerous moments.
Alexander Ovechkin created an excellent chance to score in the middle of the period at the very end of the power play: the Washington captain, having received the puck in the right throw-in circle, did not shoot and held the puck, after which he powerfully crossed into the area, where Wilson was rolling. No one stopped the Caps forward from putting his stick up and sending the puck, it seemed, into the goal, but Vasilevsky did not allow the goal to happen. The Lightning goalkeeper played well in the episode and deflected the shot with his right pad. After this moment, Ovechkin, who returned to the bench, was perplexed for several minutes and did not understand how such an episode did not end with a goal.
© AP Photo / Jason BehnkenAndrey Vasilevsky
© AP Photo/Jason Behnken
Andrey Vasilevsky
The visitors created a lot of activity at the Tampa goal in the very last minutes, when they switched to a six-field game, but the Lightning defenders eagerly went under the shots and caught pucks on themselves, and Jake Guentzel completely consolidated the success of the lightning, hitting the empty Caps goal and adding an assist to Nikita Kucherov, who was silent throughout the game, into the scoresheet. Everything happened with lightning speed: Carlson blocked Ovechkin’s shot and immediately passed it to Kucherov, who then brought Güntzel to an empty net.
