Just over three months from now, the Capitals will open up their 50th anniversary season at Capital One Arena, with the New Jersey Devils (originally the Kansas City Scouts, the Caps’ NHL expansion sibling in 1974-75) providing the opposition when the Caps open the 2024-25 season on Sat., Oct. 12 here in the District.
The opening night tilt against New Jersey kicks off a season-opening three-game homestand; Vegas and Dallas will follow New Jersey into town this October. The Caps will conclude the 82-game slate on April 17, 2025 in Pittsburgh, so they’ll play their 82 games over a span of 198 days, with a gap of a dozen days in the middle of February to accommodate the Four Nations Face-Off, which will take place Feb. 12-20, 2025 in Boston and Montreal.
Here is a closer look at the Capitals’ 2024-25 schedule:
- The two Metropolitan teams the Caps face only three times in ’24-25 are the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders. Washington will visit the Rangers only once this season (on March 5), and it will host the Islanders once (on Nov. 29, a Black Friday matinee).
- The Caps will continue their tradition of hosting a home game on Black Friday and on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 9 vs. Utah), but they will not host a home game on Thanksgiving Eve as they’ve done frequently over the years. The Caps will be playing the Lightning in Tampa on Thanksgiving Eve this season.
- Washington hosts Boston in a New Years’ Eve matinee match on Dec. 31.
- The Caps have a pair of back-to-back, home-and-home sets this season, both with Metropolitan Division foes. They’ll visit Philadelphia on Oct. 22, and they’ll host the Flyers in D.C. the following night. The Caps will face the Blue Jackets in Columbus on April 12 and they’ll host the Jackets a night later in the District.
- For the second time in as many seasons, the Caps will open the campaign with four nights off before getting into action on Oct. 12 vs. New Jersey. They will have five multi-day breaks between games in the season’s first month, with just one set of back-to-backs, so they’ll have a fair amount of practice days in the season’s first three weeks.
- Things get thicker in November, with four sets of back-to-backs and just three multi-day breaks between games. Each of Washington’s first five road trips of the season is likely to be a one-game excursion; the Caps’ first multi-game journey is in mid-November when they play three games in four nights in Colorado, Vegas and Utah from Nov. 15-18.
- The Caps will be finished with their four-game season’s series with the Devils by the end of November. All four meetings between the Caps and Devils are on Saturday nights in October and November.
- Washington will have an extra day off for the NHL’s annual December holiday break; the Caps will have four days off for the holiday, but they’ll pay for the privilege with back-to-backs both before and after the break. The Capitals also have another four-day break between games earlier in December, that gap is preceded by a set of back-to-backs on the front end.
- Five of Washington’s 13 sets of back-to-backs are entirely on the road, with four of those coming before the flip of the calendar. Five sets of back-to-backs start at home and end on the road; three sets start on the road and finish at home.
- Nine of Washington’s 13 sets of back-to-back games this season come before the flip of the calendar, with four sets each in November and December.
- Between the start of the season and the end of January, the Caps will have two Saturday nights off, one at home and one on the road. From the beginning of February to the end of the season, they’ll have five Saturday nights free.
- Sixteen of Washington’s 41 road games are likely to be one-game journeys. Seven road trips are two games in duration, with three of those seven coming in the final 24 days of the season. The remainder of the Caps’ road schedule comes in a pair of three-game journeys – one in mid-November and the mid-March California trip – plus the season-high five-game trip at the end of January.
- The Caps’ longest homestand of the season is a five-game run from Feb. 23-March 3. Washington also has four three-game homestands, and five homestands of two games. The other 14 home games are singles, and from late November until just ahead of Christmas, the Caps will not have a “homestand” longer than one game, so they must travel for a dozen consecutive games. That rugged patch of schedule does include three two-day gaps between games and a four-day gap as well, but there are also three sets of back-to-backs packed into that stretch.
- Washington will play a total of 17 afternoon games (with start times prior to 6 p.m. local time) this season, with 11 of them at home and six on the road.
Games by Month:
October (9): six home, three road
November (15): seven home, eight road
December (13): five home, eight road
January (14): six home, eight road
February (8): six home, two road
March (14): eight home, six road
April (9): three home, six road
Games by Day:
Sunday (10): six home, four road
Monday (6): one home, five road
Tuesday (16): eight home, eight road
Wednesday (8): five home, three road
Thursday (14): six home, eight road
Friday (8): six home, two road
Saturday (20): nine home, 11 road
