The Washington Capitals lost to the Dallas Stars last night 6-4 in a game where the Caps gave up the first four goals of the game before goalie Logan Thompson was pulled. The Caps fought back, scoring five of their own but fell short of a comeback. The Stars Jason Robertson had a natural hat trick, scoring three unanswered goals to put the Stars up 4-0 just a little more than five minutes into the second period. While the Capitals didn’t wilt and fought until the final horn, the loss displays a worrying trend in the Capitals recent play.
The Capitals are giving up too many goals
The Caps are giving up an average of 3.43 goals per game, which ranks them 25th out of 32 teams. While the Caps played well and, according to head coach Spencer Carbery, “we did exactly what we wanted to do. Even when they score first, I think we're still fine. And then it just gets away from us a little bit with some of the bounces.”
Washington did limit Dallas to just 22 shots in the game, but six of those still made it past Capitals netminders. That has happened too much so far this season.
Need other players to start scoring
The Caps are big and fast with some dangerous scorers on the roster. Still, they are only scoring 3.50 goals per game, which ranks 16th in the league. The Caps have 5 come-from-behind wins already this season, the same amount they had during the entire 2025-26 season. That shows that they don’t give up once they fall behind (like last night), but they keep having to claw their way back into the game. The Caps need players like Alex Ovechkin, Aliaksei Protas, and Ilya Protas to get hot to bump up the scoring pace. The Caps are only two standings points out of the wild card chase with three games in hand, so there is time for the team put it together.
Logan Thompson gets pulled
Logan Thompson was great last year on his way to finishing fourth in voting for the Vezina Trophy. He got pulled last night after Jason Roberston scored his thrid goal of the game at 5:34 of the second period. Thompson is sporting a 3.22 goals against average and a .877 save percentage in ten games, far below Thompson’s numbers from last year (2.44 GAA, .912 save percentage.) It’s not all Thompson’s fault. Despite the inconsistent play, Thompson and the Capitals have a winning record, they still have yet to put it all together.
Power play goes 2 for 3
The Caps did score on two of three powerplays last night, a great sign that the power play is improving. It didn’t result in a win, but shaking off a 4-0 deficit and almost tying the game in the third period shows has to give that group more confidence.
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