![\"Ivan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/file-ivan-miroshnichenko-aland-9418.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8: Alan Dobbins\/RMNB\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8: Alan Dobbins\/RMNB\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Washington Capitals played their final road game of the 2025 preseason against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. The Caps, still playing with a very mixed roster, matched up with what will likely be Columbus\u2019s Opening Night lineup.<\/p>\n
Connor McMichael David Gucciardi got on the board first, lifting a wrister through traffic from the blueline. Andrew Cristall doubled the team\u2019s lead with another power-play tally, sifting a puck through Jet Greaves. Boone Jenner banked a power-play goal off Thompson to get Columbus back in the game.<\/p>\n
Ilya Protas put the Capitals back up two, but Zach Werenski notched a quick response goal just 46 seconds later. Tom Wilson restored the two-goal lead again, poking home a loose puck in front of the Blue Jackets net. Mathieu Olivier cut the lead to one again with a third-period strike.<\/p>\n
Observations<\/p>\n
David Gucciardi, a Capitals seventh-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, has really shot up the team\u2019s prospect rankings over the past year. Although they\u2019re crediting his goal to Connor McMichael, I\u2019m personally keeping it with him because I didn\u2019t see McMichael touch the puck. The 22-year-old blueliner has good size and moves his feet really well. I don\u2019t think many would have predicted his recent rise, and he looks slated, at this point, to one day play NHL games. Great example for late draft picks. The Capitals will take Wednesday off and then return to MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Thursday for a morning skate ahead of a home preseason game against the Boston Bruins. The Caps have two remaining preseason games, both at Capital One Arena, before opening their regular season at home against the Bruins on October 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcf8: Alan Dobbins\/RMNB The Washington Capitals played their final road game of the 2025 preseason against the Columbus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-193749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWho else would make their preseason debut and immediately record a Gordie Howe hat trick<\/a> other than Tom Wilson? Willy looked great in his first outing this fall, recording \u201cthe primary assist on Gucciardi\u2019s goal,\u201d poking home his own marker in the second frame, and then standing up for Ivan Miroshnichenko with Erik Gudbranson \u2014 a very tough customer in his own right. Future captain material on display before the games even count.
\nSheldon Rempal and Henrik Rybinski stood out to me in good ways in this one. Rempal had some real juice to his game and got to good areas of the ice despite not being the biggest player in the world. Would have liked to see him bury one of his chances. Rybinski didn\u2019t play a ton, but was just super solid whenever he did jump over the boards. He got a recall last year but never played a game. I would not be surprised if another team takes a chance on him with a claim off waivers.
\nAnother good play on the forecheck by Ivan Miroshnichenko rewarded him with the primary assist on Wilson\u2019s goal. Miro has done a really good job at the little things in the offensive zone that I would imagine Spencer Carbery loves seeing. Good to see him get back up after the Gudbranson hit. He\u2019s making things happen.
\nIlya Protas scored his first pro goal on a 2-on-1 rush where his attempted pass to Bogdan Trineyev clicked off a defender\u2019s stick and past Greaves. I think Little Pro is going to need a full year of AHL hockey, but should be ready as soon as next year for a full-time NHL run. His skating just needs to get a tick stronger, and I think that will happen with another year of hard work on a young Hershey Bears team.
\nAnother goal for Andrew Cristall, which can\u2019t be overlooked. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s been at his best at five-on-five in the preseason, but the kid just has an unteachable, innate ability to rack up points. He\u2019s probably Hershey-bound for the year, which I don\u2019t think is a bad thing.
\nLogan Thompson made some ridiculous stops in the first half of this game. I didn\u2019t love seeing that Werenski goal go in, but he had a good game overall. I\u2019m sure Thompson will have some extra fire in net to start the year as he looks to make the Team Canada execs look dumb.
\nThe last half of the telecast\u2019s third period was played through constant beeping and flashes of green, as if the entirety of Nationwide Arena was trying to enter the Matrix.<\/p>\n