The Washington Capitals are on a franchise-record nine-game road winning streak. The team is finding different ways to win, whether having early leads or coming back from behind.
According to Caps goaltender Logan Thompson, who has been in the net for 11 wins so far this season, the energy in the dressing room has been positive.
“It’s awesome,” Thompson said during an on-air interview Thursday with WTOP anchors Michelle Basch and John Aaron. “The guys are rolling. Everything’s going really good for the team.”
The Capitals entered the 2024-25 campaign with a lot of question marks, but Thompson said the team’s hot start (19-6-2 and at the top of the Metropolitan Division) has been “a lot of fun.”
They’re winning despite Captain Alex Ovechkin missing time as he recovers from a broken left fibula. Before the injury, the Caps’ star player was closing in on Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goals record.
Due to Ovechkin’s absence, Thompson said the team developed a “next-man-up” mentality, with players such as Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson picking up the slack.
“We have a lot of depth this year and we believe in each other,” Thompson told WTOP, adding that Ovechkin is “a huge part of our team, and he’s the best goal scorer in the world. I think everyone else has just had to, you know, work that much harder until he comes back. … That’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Thompson, who won a Stanley Cup title with the Vegas Knights in 2023, believes the team has the ingredients to make a championship run this year, just like the Capitals did in 2018.
“I really do believe in this group. I think we have the depth, we have the work ethic and we have that team chemistry that I think really can do something special this year,” he said.
The Capitals look to extend their team-record road winning streak when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night. The Caps beat them 7-2 in a previous match. But, Thompson said, this won’t be an easy game.
“They’re a hardworking team,” he said. “They’re a hungry team. They want to keep pushing and getting better. … It seems like we’re getting every team’s best now, and it’s going to be a hard game.”