Well, well, well. The 2026-27 Washington Capitals are here and they’re good. They raced to a three-goal lead in the first period, but let the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes stay in the game with unfortunate penalties. Alex Tuch scored his first international goal after Pierre-Luc Dubois beat Canes goalkeeper Brandon Bussi behind his own goal. Cole Hutson beat Mark Jankowski to make it 2-0, assisted by both Protaes, and then Tuch scored his second goal of the game a few minutes later. Jakob Chychrun’s eye puck made its debut in the fall to help the Caps convert their first power play. Unfortunately, it couldn’t last forever: Sebastian Aho scored a power-play goal after a nice rebound off a block by Tom Wilson. That goal changed everything. Oh, never mind, Ryan Leonard scored eight seconds later, off a tip-in from Dylan Strome. Midway through the third period, Logan Stankoven (and if you know the joke, share it in the comments) beat Thompson with a nasty outside shot. Caps beat Canes 5-2! Bullets bullets bullets. Well, there you go, Peter. You’ve done it hundreds of times. Thousands. Just write about the game. Enjoy. If you do it right, no one will notice that you are a fraud. Pursue the power of positive thinking. Make sure you delete this before posting. Alex Tuch scored two goals in his first stint as a Washington Capital. He could have completed the shorthanded hat trick, but the puck fell on him. We’ll be with this guy for a long time. This was the perfect first chapter. After seeing that goal, you have to think Tulsky pulled out his calculator and recalculated Connor Hellebuyck’s numbers. (I still think Bussi is better, as of now). The Caps committed six (non-compensatory) penalties, many more than Carolina’s single court penalty. LT and PK KO’d 83.3333333 percent of those shorthanded situations, but that’s still a ridiculous amount of penalties in the first game. Cole Hutson was arrested for two of those penalties: an interference and a hold. I was going to say his most notable feature was his relative lack of enormity, but his penalties overshadowed that. Based on Umbrella Corporation’s out-of-town score, could you imagine a worse start for the Red Wings? “Selling the team” in the first home game! I didn’t know what to expect from them, but I really liked the fourth line from Jenner, Sourdif and Beauvillier. They got typical Washington deployments (i.e. no offensive zone clashes). If you read my cord-cutting story or my updated guide on how to watch, you might want to know that the gear icon overlay in the Monumental app is now gone. Time for another great year with my two best friends in my most insane parasocial fixation #joebsuitofthenight — Good Skeet Pete (@peterhassett.net) 2026-10-02T22:58:58.761Z The star of the night, without a doubt, was goalie Logan Thompson, who was impossible to catch out of position. However, I have to take my cap off at the meat shield erected in front of him. Matt Roy and Marty Fehervary combined to block double-digit shots. His sacrifice and that of the other eleven skaters who stepped up to the shots were very important as the Canes began to control the puck better late in the game. I would have loved to see an 8-0 drubbing to open the season, slapstick, and thigh-beating, but watching the Caps deal with the Canes doubling down through gritty play is encouraging in its own way. We’re only 1.19 percent into this season, but we’ve already seen this new squad play (and score and win) in different ways. But don’t get me wrong: burying them in disks is still plan A. We’ll talk to you tomorrow night in Tampa.
