The Washington Capitals visit the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday to finish the 2025-26 regular season, but the size of the game will not be known until Monday night in Philadelphia. Washington can do little more than wait on the Flyers-Hurricanes result before taking the ice in Columbus.
The Flyers currently hold the Eastern Conference’s only remaining playoff berth, and their final two games carry the weight of the race. If Philadelphia gets one point against Carolina on Monday, Columbus is eliminated. If the Flyers collect two points, Washington is out too. That leaves the Capitals with a simple job line from Dylan Strome: watch the scoreboard, then try to get two points in Columbus.
Strome said Washington will “obviously scoreboard watch” Monday and see what happens, then head into Columbus and try to take the points that remain. He added that the team can only focus on getting a good result from Philadelphia first and then handling its own business on Tuesday. The Capitals are doing that after a weekend sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins in a home-and-home set, a stretch that lifted them to a three-game winning streak.
Logan Thompson was central to both wins. He faced 12 shots in Washington’s 6-3 victory on Saturday, then blanked Pittsburgh 3-0 on 24 shots on Sunday. The shutout gave Washington its third straight win, but it also left the Capitals chasing something that has eluded them since Dec. 5: four in a row. Their last four-game run was cut off in Anaheim after a six-game winning streak had been halted there.
The weekend results came against a Pittsburgh team that rested several regulars in both games, and Strome acknowledged that detail while still crediting the Capitals for doing what was required. He said Washington knew the Penguins were a strong team and noted that some of the tougher games are the ones in which different players get chances and step up. He added that Pittsburgh gave a good effort Sunday, controlled much of the third period, but Washington held firm, Thompson was excellent, and the skaters blocked shots and made key plays to finish the sweep.
That leaves Tuesday as the final checkpoint for both clubs, with Columbus and Washington meeting head to head and nothing else left on either schedule after it. The Flyers will be playing back-to-back games early in the week, first against Carolina and then Montreal, and the Capitals’ postseason fate will be tied to how Philadelphia handles that brief stretch. For Washington, the path is narrow and immediate: wait for Monday night, then see whether Columbus is still alive for Tuesday’s finale or whether the Blue Jackets are already out of the race.
