First Period
That the two teams would skate short shifts in an
up-and-down manner was hardly surprising as both teams were trying to get their
regular season legs. But less than seven
minutes in, Chris Wideman took a pass from Derick Brassard as he was entering
the offensive zone. Skating down the
wall to the edge of the right wing circle, Wideman flipped a shot at the
Washington net that eluded a maze of bodies and caught goalie Braden Holtby by
surprise, the puck sneaking under his left arm and over the goal line to give
the Senators the early lead.
Brett Connolly tied the game less than two minutes later on
what football fans might recognize as a “hook and ladder” play. Matt Niskanen did a fine job to keep a
clearing attempt from getting over his head, settled the puck, and sent it at
the Senator net, where Lars Eller was camped.
Eller, with his back to the goalie, bump passed the puck back out to
Brett Connolly, who leaned into a shot that beat goalie Craig Anderson cleanly,
tying the game at 1-1 at the 8:07 mark.
The Caps had another chance when facing an Ottawa power
play, Alex Chiasson getting in alone on a break on Anderson, but Anderson
dropped his right knee to foil an attempt at the five-hole, and the period
ended with the teams tied.
Second Period
The Caps blundered into giving up the first goal of the
middle frame when John Carlson could not move the puck out of his own end any
deeper than the center red line. Ottawa
went on the rewind, Mark Stone picking up the puck outside the penalty boxes
and flipped it to the middle to Derick Brassard. Gaining the offensive zone, Brassard skated
in, then left a semi-drop pass for Stone filling in behind, and Stone snapped
the puck past Holtby to make it 2-1, Ottawa, at the 6:52 mark.
Holtby kept the Caps in it late in the period when he foiled
a back-door feed to Johnny Oduya pinching in on the weak side. Holtby got his right pad to the post just in
time to stop the attempted redirect.
A goal by Evgeny Kuznetsov on the power play late in the
period was washed out, as T.J. Oshie was whistled for playing the puck with a
high stick before feeding Kuznetsov for the score.
Third Period
Derick Brassard gave the Senators a two-goal lead when the
Senators caught the Caps flustered in their own end. Matt Niskanen made an uncharacteristic
blunder, trying to clear the puck up the middle and out of the zone. Bobby Ryan picked off the attempt and circled
in toward the Caps net. He could not
control the puck well enough before he was too deep, but he did manage to sweep
the puck in front from below the goal line.
Brassard was there to bat the puck in, and it was 3-1, barely two
minutes into the period.
Then, fans were reminded that while Auston Matthews, Patrik
Laine, and Connor McDavid might be on the rise as the next generation of goal
scorers, there remains one Alex Ovechkin.
Two minutes after the Brassard goal, the Caps forced the Senators into a
turnover in their own end, the puck ending up on Evgeny Kuznetsov’s stick. From the edge of the paint to the left of
Anderson, Kuznetsov found Ovechkin in the left wing circle, and Ovechkin wasted
no time snapping the puck past Anderson on the far side to make it 3-2, 4:15
into the period.
Just over a minute later, Ovechkin tied the game by
finishing a play he started. He muffled
a clearing attempt by Zach Smith at the blue line, and Jakub Vrana picked up
the loose puck. He circled through the
left wing circle and fed Kuznetsov below the circle on the other side. With the
defense sliding to Kuznetsov, he fed Ovechkin coming down the slot, and
Ovechkin buried the puck to tie the game at the 5:38 mark.
After Mark Stone scored in the seventh minute to restore the
Ottawa lead, Ovechkin completed the hat trick.
It was a greasy goal of sorts, born out of some hard work along the
boards by all three forwards on the top line.
Vrana started it by stopping a shot around the end boards in the corner
to Anderson’s right. Kuznetsov jumped in
to try to spring the puck free, and it squirted out into the left wing faceoff
circle. There, Ovechkin used his body to
fend off Nate Thompson, and he managed to get off a snap shot that snuck
through Anderson to tie the game once more at the 10:48 mark.
Extra Time
Ottawa had the better of the opportunities in the five-minute
overtime, outshooting the Caps, 6-3, but neither team could convert, and the
game went to the Gimmick. Bobby Ryan and
Ovechkin exchanged scores, leaving things to the third round and the game on
the stick of Kuznetsov. Circling slowly
to his left, Kuznetsov reached the hash marks, then snapped a shot past the
stick of Anderson, and the Caps had their season opening win, 5-4.
Other stuff…
-- Opening Night sometimes means the mix of adrenaline and
the early stage of the season means shots aren’t placed as neatly as they might
be later in the season. The Caps had 19
shot attempts in the first period, but seven were blocked, and six others were
misses. That left six shots on goal.
-- Alex Ovechkin had no shot attempts in the first period
and skated less than six minutes. If
getting him off and running was to be hoped for, those first 20 minutes didn’t
do it. He was much more active in the
second period with six shot attempts, two on goal. Alas, no points. It was all prologue to a third period in
which he recorded a hat trick in the span of 6:33 of the period on three consecutive
shots.
-- Ovechkin recorded his 18th career hat trick,
most in the NHL since he came into the league in 2005-2006 (Eric Staal has
13).
-- Now, here is an Ovechkin hat trick fact to chew on. Those 18 hat tricks are the most in the NHL
since…get this, the 1993-1994 season.
Since then, he shares the top spot with Peter Bondra and Pavel Bure.
-- The Caps enjoyed a 43-28 edge in total shot attempts
through 40 minutes, yet trailed 2-1.
-- Jakub Vrana had three chances on his first shift of the
second period, all turned away by Anderson. Vrana had four shots on goal on that
first shift of the second period, but did not have another shot on goal over
the 4:50 he skated over the remainder of the period.
-- The top line was the top line. Ovechkin (3-0-3), Vrana (0-2-2), Evgeny Kuznetsov
(0-3-3) recorded 12 of the team’s 28 shots and had 20 of the team’s 62 shot
attempts.
-- No one took over the blue line slot opposite John Carlson
in training camp, and Brooks Orpik assumed the role more or less by
default. If only for the opener, there
were ominous signs. That pair was on the
ice for three of the Senators’ four goals, and both finished minus-3.
-- We noted in the prognosto that season openers have not been kind to Braden Holtby. Consider the trend a continuing one. While he was left out to dry a few times and
had to come up with some fine saves, especially in overtime, he did allow four
goals on 28 shots. Stopping the last 12
shots over the third period and overtime (five saves were on a Senator power
play) was a welcome sight, though.
- There was good and bad on special teams. The bad…five Ottawa power plays (the Caps
were 13-5-0 in games when they allowed five or more power play opportunities
last year, but five of the wins came in extra time), including one in overtime. The good news…the Caps shut them out.
In the end…
Sometimes, a team will win with balance, with a lot of
players finding their way onto the score sheet.
Other times, the top players will do the heavy lifting. And then there are the times when the star
comes through in a pinch. When the Caps
fell behind, 3-1, early in the third period, they looked a little like road
kill, given the suffocating style the Senators play and would likely deploy in
the last 18 minutes. But the top line
played like the top line, and Alex Ovechkin served notice that perhaps last
season’s 33 goals was an aberration.
Getting almost ten percent of last year’s total was a fine way to start
the season, and while there were kinks and hiccups in the Caps’ game – and even
Ovechkin’s early on – the captain came through when needed.
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