After about a 75 year break, the Washington Capitals were back in action Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens. Unfortunately, they seem to have left any semblance of defense back in western Canada as they fell to the Habs 6-4.

The Habs out-shot the Caps 44 to 31 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 64 to 46.

• Although they came up with two Caps goals, the first line got absolutely demolished in every way otherwise. As Peter would put it, Jordie Benn and Jeff Petry ate their lunch, drank their milkshake, and left them at the table with the whole bill. Evgeny Kuznetsov at five-on-five had a minus-16 shot attempt differential, minus-9 scoring chance differential, and a minus-5 high danger chance differential.
• Nicklas Backstrom played in his 826th career game as a Capital, passing Michal Pivonka for sole possession of 6th place in franchise history. Next up is Dale Hunter at 872 games, which Backy should surpass this season barring injury disaster.
• Alex Ovechkin has 10 goals in his first 11 games this season. Ho-hum, right?
• The Caps have yet to piece together two straight victories this season.
• That heat map is ugly and so is the record that Montreal set against the Caps last night.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Canadiens

Headline Photo: Francois Lacasse