Washington and Pittsburgh opened a weekend home-and-home on Saturday in the final weekend of the 2025-26 NHL regular season, a meeting that carried one of the league’s oldest rivalries back onto center stage. It was the teams’ first clash since Nov. 6, when the Penguins won 5-3, and likely the 100th time Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby have faced each other across 21-season careers.
Crosby sat out for Pittsburgh as the club managed upper body and lower body issues, while the Capitals used the same lineup that beat the Maple Leafs 4-0 in Toronto on Wednesday night. That win kept Washington’s playoff hopes alive into the final three games, but the path was still narrow: the Capitals needed to win out and get help from outside sources to reach the postseason, starting with Saturday and a Sunday rematch against Pittsburgh before a Tuesday finale in Columbus against the Blue Jackets.
The matchup landed in a very different place for the two teams. Pittsburgh had already clinched a playoff berth and was returning to the Stanley Cup playoffs after a three-year absence, a turnaround built under first-year coach Dan Muse. With three games remaining, the Penguins had jumped from 80 points last season to 98, and the difference showed in the room around them: Dan Muse has gotten a team with veteran pieces performing at a high level and enough structure to finish the regular season firmly in the field.
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Capitals coach Spencer Carbery did not pretend his club had control over the full picture. Asked whether Washington could simply bank its own two points and worry about the rest later, he said he wished he could say yes. He said there is a lot of belief in the group, pointing to a handful of players who were around for the season’s earlier stretches, and added that the coaching staff understands the team’s job on Saturday even if the broader playoff math remains outside its control.
Carbery also took a moment to acknowledge what Pittsburgh has become over the course of the season. He called the Penguins a tremendous team and said both special-teams units were in the top 10, which has helped them a lot. He singled out Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson as veterans who are having really, really good years, adding that players like that sometimes look as if they might slow down with age before making a late push and finding a little of the fountain of youth again.
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The weekend set is the final regular-season meeting between two longtime Metropolitan Division rivals, and for Washington the timing could not be tighter. Saturday began the last push, Sunday gives the Capitals another chance at the same opponent, and Tuesday in Columbus is the last stop before the standings settle for good.
What Washington can still earn from those games depends on more than Washington alone. What it cannot afford is anything less than perfection.
