Taking a deeper look into Caps' 82-game schedule for upcoming season
For the fifth straight season, the Washington Capitals will start their 82-game regular season schedule here in the District. The Caps open their 2025-26 slate on Wed. Oct. 8 against the Boston Bruins, the third time in the last eight seasons they’ve kicked off the campaign at home against Boston; they also did so in 2018-19 and 2022-23. The Caps haven’t opened on the road since the pandemic-abbreviated 2020-21 season when they opened with a four-game road trip, two games in Buffalo followed by a pair in Pittsburgh.
Three nights after this season’s opener against the Bruins, the Caps break the seal on the road portion of their schedule with a weekend set of back-to-backs against the Islanders (Oct. 11) and the Rangers (Oct. 12).
The NHL’s 2025-26 schedule features a lengthy February pause of just under three weeks to accommodate player participation in the 2026 Olympic Games in Milano and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Washington hosts Nashville on Feb. 5 and won’t play again until Philadelphia visits on Feb. 25.
Setting aside that 19-day break in February, the Caps will play the first 41 games of the season in a span of 86 days – reaching the midway mark of the campaign on New Year’s Day in Ottawa – and they will play the second 41 games in a span of 84 days.
Lengthy homestands are abundant for the Caps this season; they’ll have three homestands of four games in duration, their longest homestays of 2025-26. Washington will also have a quartet of three-game homestands, one of which is sandwiched around the February pause. Two dozen of the Caps’ home games come in those seven homestands, and they also have three homestays of two games in length and 11 single home games.
A six-game road trip to Western Canada – plus Colorado, Seattle and Detroit – in the back half of January eats up the biggest chunk of Washington’s road slate this season. The journey begins on Jan. 19 in Denver and concludes on Jan. 29 in Motown. In addition to their season-long six-game trip in January, the Caps could be looking at two four-game trips and a pair of three-game journeys as well, depending on how they choose to handle the travel for those stretches.
Other noteworthy nuggets from the first look at the Caps’ 2025-26 schedule:
By the day:
Sunday (9): Four at home, five on the road
Monday (7): Five at home, two on the road
Tuesday (14): Six at home, eight on the road
Wednesday (12): Eight at home, four on the road
Thursday (12): Four at home, eight on the road
Friday (9): Five at home, four on the road
Saturday (19): Nine at home, 10 on the road
By the month:
October (11): Seven at home, four on the road
November (15): Eight at home, seven on the road
December (14): Six at home, eight on the road
January (16): Seven at home, nine on the road
February (6): Four at home, two on the road
March (13): Seven at home, six on the road
April (7): Two at home, five on the road
Hockey News