Saints Extend Superdome Agreement Until 2035

The Washington Capitals finished last season atop the Eastern Conference, but they don’t believe they’re done having to prove themselves just yet.

After wrapping up their 5-1 preseason with a victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, the Caps have their sights set on replicating the success they found in 2024-25. That roster vastly outperformed expectations to put up a 51-22-9 record and contest for the Presidents’ Trophy. Now, they want to prove it wasn’t just luck.

“It feels like the league is maybe writing us off again, saying last year was a fluke,” said goaltender Logan Thompson. “I think a lot of guys are hungry to keep proving the league wrong and that we’re a legitimate contender.”

The Capitals’ strong season was fueled in large part by a slew of players recording career-best seasons. Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson, and Aliaksei Protas all scored at least 30 goals — the latter two for the first time — Pierre-Luc Dubois emerged from a tumultuous exit from the LA Kings to become a pivotal weapon in Washington, and Logan Thompson established himself as a number-one goaltender, to name a few.

With so many things going right for the 2024-25 Capitals, regression could be a strong possibility, but the team isn’t buying into outside predictions predicting just that.

“It doesn’t really change anything that we do, but we’re human beings, so people read things and hear things,” head coach Spencer Carbery said Saturday night. “It’s on us as a group, whether it’s outside people that think we’re a non-playoff team, or that certain players can’t replicate the seasons that they’ve had last year, and that’s unsustainable, or whatever it is, the shooting (percentage), this and that. That stuff is fine, and people are entitled to their opinion. It’s on us to do the things necessary to replicate a lot of the things that we did last year.”

Much of that optimism stems from the relatively unchanged roster — unlike the massive turnover during the 2024 offseason, the Caps return this fall with largely the same group — but Washington also has faith in its new additions. This year’s training camp has seen a tight competition for roster spots, with more than a handful of players making their case that they have what it takes to play NHL games.

“I think what impressed me right off the bat is just how much depth we have and how many of these young guys can play,” Thompson said. “We have a lot of guys that we can put into this lineup that are going to make this team competitive.”

The Capitals will finalize their Opening Night roster on Monday before officially starting the year against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. They’ll enter the season with high expectations and a chip on their shoulder, and they’re not shying away from the chance to turn doubters into believers again.

“Whether people think we’re going to do it or not do it, we’ve got a bunch of guys that are self-motivated young men,” said Carbery, “that every day when they wake up — and myself, our staff included, support staff included — is we’re going to try to be better than we were the previous day, and we’re going to get after it as hard as we possibly can.”