Washington’s capitals playoff chances were on the line Sunday night when the Capitals met the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second game of a home-and-home set, with a regulation loss enough to end their season. The Capitals entered at 41-30-9 and came in five points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.
Washington had beaten Pittsburgh 6-3 on Saturday, then had to do it again a day later against a team that was already locked into second place in its division. Sidney Crosby was in the lineup, and the game marked the 100th all-time meeting between Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, another layer to a matchup that suddenly carried far more weight for one side than the other.
The Capitals had won six of their previous eight games, a stretch that kept them alive with five days left in the regular season. Pittsburgh came in 41-23-16 and had gone 5-2-0 in its previous seven, which meant Washington was trying to solve a confident rival while also trying to keep the math from running out on it.
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That was the hard edge to Sunday’s schedule across the Eastern Conference. The top three teams in each division and the next two highest-place finishers in each conference reached the 2026 NHL postseason, and Washington was still chasing Boston for one of those last spots. The Bruins had already clinched a playoff berth, while the Canadiens and Islanders were also tied to elimination scenarios later Sunday depending on results in Montreal, Columbus and Pittsburgh.
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It left the Capitals with little room for error and even less time to recover if they slipped. One loss in regulation would have been enough to shut the door, turning a late-season push into another near miss before the calendar had even reached the final week.
