First Period
Wayne Gretzky once said, “you miss 100 percent of the shots
you don’t take.” It might explain Alex
Ovechkin going after a loose puck above the left wing circle, spinning, and
slapping the bouncing puck over the glove of what appeared to be an utterly
shocked goalie Carey Price 20 seconds into the contest to set the stage.
Less than half a minute later, the Caps had a 2-0 lead when
T.J. Oshie recorded his first goal of the season off a Montreal turnover. Jordie Benn circled out of the corner in the
defensive end and tried to move the puck up ice, but Andre Burakovsky
intercepted the feed. Burakovsky fed Oshie
moving through the left wing circle, and Oshie left it for Nicklas
Backstrom. The shot from Backstrom was
stopped by Price, but not covered, and Oshie swooped in to swat the puck behind
Price from the goal line to Price’s right just 46 seconds into the period.
Before the game was three minutes old, the Caps had a 3-0
lead when, on a power play, Ovechkin declared his office open for
business. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas
Backstrom played catch on the right side of the power play formation until
Kuznetsov found a lane through the middle of the ice to Ovechkin in the left
wing circle. Ovechkin one-timed the puck
past a twirling Price to make it 3-0 at the 2:51 mark.
Neither the Caps nor Ovechkin were done with the first period
yet, though. With under two minutes in
the period, the Caps worked the puck around the perimeter, Evgeny Kuznetsov to
Aaron Ness, and back to Kuznetsov circling to the top of the left wing
circle. Kuznetsov’s blast from the top
of the circle was redirected by Ovechkin past Price at the 18:10 mark to take a 4-0 lead to the first
intermission.
Second Period
Montreal came out with a new goalie – Al Montoya in relief
of Price – and a new attitude, pressuring the Caps from the start. It made for a period dominated by Braden
Holtby in the Caps’ goal. It paid off
when Brendan Gallagher got loose at the top of the paint and converted a feed
from below the goal line by Paul Byron to get the Canadiens on the board 4:50 into
the period.
Ovechkin would restore the four-goal margin late in the
period. Circling through the right wing
circle, Ovechkin fed Kuznetsov, who moved to the middle to create space. It was enough to feed Ovechkin heading to the
net from Price’s left. As he reached the
top of the paint, Ovechkin pulled the puck to his backhand and slid it toward
Montoya. It hit two Canadiens’ skates
before it slithered across the line just before Oshie could tap it in. Then, late in the period, Nathan Walker made
history again. He made it 79 seconds into the game when he stepped onto the ice as the first
Australian to play in an NHL game. And at
the 18:05 mark of the second period, he made some more. Jay Beagle won a draw in the offensive zone
to the left of goalie Al Montoya. Devante
Smith-Pelly settled the puck at the top of the right wing circle and
fired. The puck hit Walker on the way
through and eluded Montoya to give Walker his first NHL goal and the first “Australian”
goal in NHL history.
Third Period
No scoring in this period, but by this time, who cared?
Other stuff…
- For some players, hat tricks are thought of in terms of
games. Alex Ovechkin recorded hat tricks
in consecutive periods, following up his three-goal third period against Ottawa
on Thursday with a three-goal first period on Saturday.
-- Ovechkin might have made it a career-high five-goal night
in the last minute, but on an odd-man rush, he passed up a shot to feed Evgeny
Kuznetsov, who fed Jakub Vrana, who whiffed on the opportunity. As it was, it was Ovechkin’s fourth career
four-goal game.
-- Ovechkin has seven goals in two games. In the last thirty years, it is the most
goals in the first two games of an NHL season.
Three players opened the season with five goals: Mike Gartner in 1988,
Wendel Clark in 1992, and Brendan Shanahan in 1994.
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had four assists, the second four-assist
game of his career. He had four helpers
in a 6-3 win over the Blue Jackets in Columbus on January 19, 2016. It was the fourth four-point game of his
career.
-- Eleven skaters had points for the Caps, 14 skaters
finished as “plus” players. Only Brett
Connolly was on the minus side of the ledger (minus-1).
-- The Caps enjoyed a whopping 41-26 edge in faceoffs. Jay Beagle (11-for-14) and Lars Eller
(12-for-19) were especially dominant.
-- Nathan Walker, all 5’9”, 186 pound of him, led the Caps
in hits with four.
-- Ovechkin had more than a third of the Caps’ total shots
on goal (eight of 23).
-- With 38 saves on 39 shots, Braden Holtby improved his
record against Montreal to 11-1-2, 1.57, .944, with two shutouts.
In the end…
It would be hard to script a home opener better than
that. Maybe raising a Stanley Cup
banner, but a four-goal game from the Captain, a sterling effort from the star
goalie, and an unprecedented debut isn’t bad.
Two games in, and Alex Ovechkin has more than a third (six) of all the
even strength goals he scored last season (16), and in doing it he has not forgotten
the address of his office. His hat trick
goal was perhaps the most telling. And
he took advantage of an old teammate in doing it. With the Caps working the puck around the
perimeter, Ovechkin is working his way across the high slot, fighting for
position with a Canadien defenseman – former Cap Karl Alzner. He worked his way into position to free his
stick to get enough of the Evgeny Kuznetsov shot to elude Carey Price. If this is now in Ovechkin’s repertoire, it
could be a big season for the captain and the Caps.
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