The Blue Jackets will play their final game of the 2025-26 season tonight, hosting the Washington Capitals at Nationwide Arena. In a game that could have had big meaning, the luster is pretty much gone. It's only pride on the line between these two teams this evening.
Both teams were eliminated from playoff contention with Philadelphia's shootout win over Carolina last night. The Jackets will come up just short, despite playing as the hottest team in the NHL for more than two months.
Meanwhile, the Capitals were unable to carry over their magic from last season. In what could be the final year of Alexander Ovechkin's Hall of Fame career, they will miss the playoffs for the second time in four years.
The Opponent
The Capitals are trying to retool on the fly, but things might be getting a lot tougher for them. The game's all-time greatest goal scorer has a decision to make, and it feels like once he's gone, this team will enter a new era. We hope that's the case, honestly.
Alex Ovechkin has owned the Blue Jackets for more than 20 years. He scored his first two NHL goals against them in his first game, and if he does hang them up after this year, he will probably finish with his last goal against them as well. You can feel that coming.
Washington is 42-30-9 (93 points), just one spot ahead of the Blue Jackets in the standings. Ovechkin leads the way in goals (32) and points (63), just two ahead of Tom Wilson in both categories. Defenseman Jakob Chychrun leads the NHL in goals from the blue line (25), and is third on the team with 59 points.
The Capitals have clung onto success through Ovechkin's golden years because of a much improved system that has them playing better defensively. They sit roughly in the middle of the pack in goals scored (259, 14th) and against (237, 9th).
In goal, they feature Logan Thompson. He's 31-21-6, with a 2.44GAA, .912% save percentage, and 4 shutouts.
The Good Guys
Despite reaching their apparent target goal, the Jackets will miss the playoffs this season. Last year, 92 points would have gotten them into the wild card spot in the East. This year, it would have taken at least 97.
That's frustrating, but lets be honest here: they didn't deserve it. They could not hold onto any leads this season, no matter how big. They weren't consistent enough in their game, and it's going to mean another wasted season of hockey in Central Ohio.
Three wins would have made all of the difference here. For a team that blew countless multi-goal leads, it's not too hard to see where the season fell apart. Their run of success from mid-January through mid-March was too little, too late.
Tonight, they'll run it back with the same lineup from Sunday, except Jake Christiansen will replace Egor Zamula on the third defense pairing. Jet Greaves gets this final start of the season, his 6th in a row.
Jet Greaves working the home net and expected to start the season finale. Jake Christiansen working with Erik Gudbranson on the third pair. No changes to forwards. No LDBB. #CBJ
— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) April 14, 2026
Three Keys to Success
1. Get to the middle. The Jackets are at their best when they have traffic and create havoc in front of the net. That's especially important against a team like Washington, who is good at locking things down.
2. Keep an eye on #8. You know the Capitals are going to try to feed Alex Ovechkin the puck tonight. Keeping him contained would be a good step towards winning this game.
3. Pride matters. Look, the season is over after tonight. But there's no reason to leave on a sour note. The Jackets have lost 5 straight at home, it would be nice to see them put an end to that streak.
This is the fourth and (obviously) final matchup between these two teams this season. Washington has swept the series 3-0-0 so far, out-scoring the Blue Jackets 12-2 in the process. Let's hope the Jackets can take the last one.
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