{"id":719768,"date":"2026-06-22T19:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/719768\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T19:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:53:13","slug":"capitals-preseason-schedule-highlighted-by-return-to-hershey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/719768\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals\u2019 preseason schedule highlighted by return to Hershey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals<\/a>\u2018 preseason schedule is out. And this year\u2019s slate of games comes in a pack of four, instead of the normal six, due to the NHL\u2019s regular-season schedule swelling to 84 games. The Capitals\u2019 opponents will be the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> and Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The most notable exhibition game is on September 21, featuring a return to Hershey.<\/p>\n

Washington Capitals\u2019 2026 preseason schedule<\/p>\n

Date
\nOpponent
\nLocation
\nTime<\/p>\n

Sun., Sept. 20
\nat Boston
\nTD Garden
\n5 pm<\/p>\n

Mon., Sept. 21
\nvs. Philadelphia
\nGiant Center (Hershey, PA)
\n7 pm<\/p>\n

Fri., Sept. 25
\nvs. Boston
\nCapital One Arena
\n7 pm<\/p>\n

Sat., Sept. 26
\nat Philadelphia
\nXfinity Mobile Arena
\n5 pm<\/p>\n

All Times Eastern<\/p>\n

The preseason game at Giant Center will mark the second-straight year the Capitals have suited up in Hershey \u2014 and the fourth time in franchise history. Both of the recent games have come as Capital One Arena has been closed over the summer undergoing renovations<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to welcome the Washington Capitals back to Giant Center for a second consecutive year,\u201d Bryan Helmer, the Bears vice president of hockey operations, said in a statement. \u201cLast year\u2019s event was a great success that highlighted our incredibly strong partnership with Washington, and we\u2019re excited to have this marquee showcase returning to Chocolatetown. Opening the hockey season with NHL action in Hershey is special, and we know the best fans in the American Hockey League will be ready to provide another phenomenal atmosphere this September.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals added in a press release that season ticket members will receive additional details about the Hershey preseason game in the future, along with a presale opportunity from the Bears.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Capitals defeated the Flyers 5-1 at Giant Center<\/a>. The Capitals got goals from Andrew Cristall, Ivan Miroshnichenko<\/a>, Sonny Milano<\/a> (2), and Connor McMichael<\/a>. McMichael notably did the ROAR celebration after scoring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Connor McMichael breaks out classic Hershey Bears ROAR celebration after scoring preseason goal at Giant Center: \u2018For old times\u2019 sake. I\u2019m glad I got a chance to do it.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin was supposed to play in the exhibition and skate on a line with the Strome brothers<\/a>, but was unable to due to an injury he suffered early in training camp.<\/p>\n

Marketing for this year\u2019s game features players who have played for both the Capitals and Bears, including Aliaksei Protas<\/a>, Ilya Protas<\/a>, Hendrix Lapierre<\/a>, Ivan Miroshnichenko, and Connor McMichael. Two of the players, Lapierre and McMichael, are restricted free agents and are not signed for next season (yet).<\/p>\n

Capitals promotion video of preseason game in Hershey<\/p>\n

The Capitals\u2019 roster in 2025-26 featured 14 players who had previously played for the Bears, including Lapierre, Ethen Frank<\/a>, Dylan McIlrath<\/a>, Ivan Miroshnichenko<\/a>, and Bogdan Trineyev<\/a>, all of whom were members of the Bears\u2019 back-to-back Calder Cup championship teams in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n

The Capitals were 5-1-0 during the 2025 preseason. Their all-time preseason record is 187-138-33-1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals\u2018 preseason schedule is out. And this year\u2019s slate of games comes in a pack of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-719768","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\/719768","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=719768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}