Welcome back, friends! After a fairytale summer, the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals turned back into pumpkins during a pregame banner-raising ceremony as their season began with a home opener against the Boston Bruins. The magic didn’t stay gone long.
A long wait following a short summer ended just 24 seconds after puck drop when TJ Oshie scored on Tuukka Rask’s short side from out wide. A little over a minute later, Evgeny Kuznetsov added a power-play goal, and that’s when I figured something was up. The second period saw the Caps erupt for four goals: Ovechkin, Dowd, Kuznetsov (again), and Carlson. Rask was chased from net with Halak stepping in. Eller made it a full touchdown and extra point halfway into the third period with a clean breakaway goal. Holtby recorded the shutout to kick off the season right.
Caps win 7-0!
Is it too soon for Bailamos? Never.
- It was an evening of power plays and power-play goals. The Caps notched four goals while a man up, which should pad those PP% stats for a while. Meanwhile, seeing Brad Marchand trip a good boy like Andre 195 feet from his own net just makes me feel like hockey is back, ya know?
- With his assist on Oshie’s opening goal, Nicklas Backstrom has reached 800 career points, and per the RMNB bylaws, we are obligated to comment on all big round number milestones. It was a crackerjack pass though.
- Backstrom’s line had a tough job, taking the lion’s share of defensive-zone faceoffs and nearly none in the offensive zone. I wonder if this will be how Todd Reirden, first-time NHL head coach, will use most defensively responsible line.
- Alex Ovechkin to his eternal shame failed to score a goal until the second period. It should be some consolation that it was his 608th career goal, which ties him with Dino Ciccarelli for 18th all time.
- I just want to call out the wall-to-wall excellence that was the pre-game banner raising sequence. The video package was moving, the singalong was rousing, and everybody seemed to feel the emotion. These are good days; thanks for sharing them.
The Capitals team photo in front of the championship banner pic.twitter.com/pHHF1z09cl
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 3, 2018
- Nic Dowd recorded his first goal as a Cap. It was a very strong outing for a surprisingly swift fourth line, who got quite a bit of pep out of Dowd and his winger Nathan Walker, who had a couple good looks himself — including one monster one-timer that backup goalie Jaroslav Halak saved miraculously.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov’s two-goal night was delightful, but I want to point out the owner of the secondary assist on his second goal: Braden Holtby, who went without a single apple all last season. I’m gonna donate 69 dollars to RAINN for every Holtby assist this season, so let’s see some more.
- I don’t quite know what was wrong with the Bruins, but they were certainly flat. Maybe Patrice Bergeron isn’t back to 100 percent yet, maybe they miss Torey Krug, maybe Tuukka Rask is getting over a case of the ol’ north and south. Dunno, but this — yeesh.
is this good pic.twitter.com/8MOnHi5Ity
— b. (@youripides) October 4, 2018
- Not on the ice: Tom Wilson, suspended for twenty games and fined more than a million dollars so he could put a dangerous hit on a non-dangerous player in a completely meaningless preseason game. Wilson deserves his punishment, and his history (approximately 71 suspensions and questionable hits since last year’s preseason) has earned him the force multiplier in games. He’ll appeal for sure, and maybe some games will be shaved off, but the real question is this: Is Wilson capable of playing smarter? Only he can prove it.
- In the meantime, the Caps seem to have a lot of exciting options among their forwards. Brett Connolly did fine on the top line, but we saw chances from Jakub Vrana (who nearly scored before Oshie’s opener) and solid play-driving from Andre Burakovsky. With Jaskin and Walker in the depth, all of a sudden the 2018-19 Caps have some exciting dynamism.
- There were two fights. Madison Bowey fought Sean Kuraly in the second period, and Brad Marchand made Lars Eller bleed his perfect Danish blood in the third. The Marchand-Eller thing wasn’t a fight so much as a mugging. I did not like it. Also the “perfect Danish blood” line above feels weird.
- Braden Holtby didn’t get a single shutout last regular season. He begins 2018-19 with a comfortable 24-save outing.
@russianmachine Suit of the night! pic.twitter.com/b4plSwMZFs
— ZurkDL (@ZurkDL) October 3, 2018
Thanks to Zurk for the Joe B suit of the night!
Friends, I’m so glad hockey is back. It’s good for the soul to hear the sounds of skates on ice and sticks on pucks and dudes on dudes.
Wait. Lemme try again.
The Caps are back, and I’ll be darned if they don’t look like a finely tuned scoring machine that never breaks. Let’s test that theory Thursday night as the Caps head up to Pittsburgh.
