Caps Take on Tampa Bay
The two-time defending Cup champs come into D.C. on Saturday night
Fresh from an uplifting 5-1 opening night win over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night, the Caps continue their three-game season opening homestand on Saturday. The middle match of the three brings the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning into the District.
In its opening night victory over the Rangers, Washington got contributions from up and down its lineup. Nine different players found the scoresheet, the Caps erupted for four special teams goals, and the defense protected the house with purpose. Vitek Vanecek was excellent in net as well, stopping 23 of 24 shots in his first career opening night assignment.
Alex Ovechkin scored a pair of goals to push past Marcel Dionne and into fifth place on the NHL's all-time goals list, 19-year-old Hendrix Lapierre scored his first NHL goal in his first game in the League, and coach Peter Laviolette won his 674th career game to move into the top post in League history among American-born coaches.
"It's so cool when your teammates can accomplish things individually, and you can tell this group is just so happy for them," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. "And those are no easy feats, scoring your first goal in your first game. Ovi and Lavi have obviously been around a long time and have done a lot of great things, and Ovi is always so modest. He always gives credit to the people around him, but it's really all him. He's such a great player and it's been so special to watch him achieve all he has."
The Caps' 2021-22 roster is a fairly even mix of core players from the 2018 Cup championship team, players aged 25 or younger, and complementary players who've been imported from other organizations. That blend hit all the right notes in the season opener.
"We're a dangerous team that can play a number of different games," says Wilson. "You've got a good power play that can capitalize and you've got a bunch of different lines that can contribute.
"You can't have 23 veteran guys; you need a little bit of everything to make up the dynamic of a room. Looking back on experiences, when a group really meshes it's when you have a little bit of young, a little bit of old and a little bit of in between. That's when a team can really hit its stride. It's been a lot of fun having young guys around and just you can see the joy from guys like [T.J. Oshie] when [Lapierre] scores, and that's what it's all about. It's fun when that goes on."
Washington also turned in a stifling defensive performance in Wednesday's opener against the Rangers, a team whose top six and whose speed posed problems at times for the Caps in recent seasons. The Caps thoroughly throttled the New York attack in the opener, limiting the Blueshirts to six shots on net in all situations - all of them from at least 40 feet away - over a stretch of 29-plus minutes in the middle of the contest.
"How we played team-specifically against them, I thought that we did well," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "A lot of teams like to do it, but Philly, New York and Chicago - back in the day - used to all do it really good, where they would send one guy and stretch the zone, and then hit underneath speed coming. That was some of their most dangerous stuff that they do. And I thought we did an amazing job of turning them back, frustrating them and making it hard for them.
"Every skilled player wants to get into the zone with possession and get [scoring] opportunities, and we did a good job through the neutral zone. That was probably the biggest reason for our success, and then execution in the [defensive] zone as well; if we did turn the back over it was along the walls, and they still had to make plays to beat us. We didn't turn too many pucks over in the neutral zone that led to 2-on-1s or 3-on-2s or anything like that and that's kind of our key to playing good defense."
Peter Laviolette | October 15
Now, they'll see how that key fits against an even more formidable foe.
Saturday brings an entirely new challenge for the Caps, who will face a team outside of the seven-opponent bubble they've been dwelling in through all of last season, all of this preseason, and Wednesday's opener. The confidence they gained from Wednesday's performance should aid them as they face deep, diverse and high-octane attacks in the final two games of the homestand, on Saturday against the Bolts and on Tuesday against the Colorado Avalanche.
"It's difficult to own 60 minutes of a 60-minute game," says Laviolette. "The objective is to own 60 percent of the 60 minutes, and to play better than the opponent and capitalize.
"I think that there was some confidence leaving training camp, and then from there, there's definitely a confidence from game one, and lot of things after the first period when we gave up a couple of point blank chances right in front of our net. I thought we really did a good job defensively. I thought offensively we started to push, especially in the second period. Specialty teams were real good.
"There's a lot of things to like from it and pull from it, and it can give you confidence going into game two. But I do think that we are definitely taking on a high-end opponent [Saturday] and we're going to need to be sharp."
The Lightning raised its second straight Cup banner on Tuesday night in Tampa, taking a 6-2 loss to the Penguins on opening night. Both Tampa Bay goals in that game came late in the third period with netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled for an extra attacker.
Two nights later in Detroit, the Lightning supplied the opposition for the Red Wings' home opener. Down 6-3 late in the third period, the Bolts mustered a rally that included two more goals with the extra attacker. Tampa Bay tied the game with three goals in less than four minutes late in the third, and left town with a 7-6 victory on Ondrej Palat's overtime game-winner.
Saturday's game finishes off a two-game road trip for the Bolts. Washington and Tampa Bay will tangle again at Amalie Arena on Nov. 1.
