POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Caps 5, Rangers 1
Unpacking a sea trunk's worth of tidbits, notes, quotes, milestones and outright oddities from Wednesday's opening night win
The first half of the game was rather tight, with only T.J. Oshie's early power-play goal separating the two Metropolitan Division rivals, but when the Rangers continued to display a lack of discipline, the Caps continued to make them pay for it. Washington scored a power-play goal in each period, and it even added Alex Ovechkin's first shorthanded goal in more than 12 years in the final frame.
Two goals in a span of 24 seconds midway through the second - including Hendrix Lapierre's first NHL goal in his debut - expanded the Washington lead, and the Caps never looked back. They gave the Rangers very little at 5-on-5 - especially after the first 10 minutes or so of the game - and were highly opportunistic on special teams.
"I think it's big for our confidence moving forward without [Nicklas Backstrom] out there," says Oshie of the Caps' power play outburst. "We scored in different ways and we scored with different guys on the ice.
"We know we're going to have good players out there no matter which 10 guys are out there. But to get some goals right off the hop, it just builds that confidence. You get that confidence and feeling good, every time you go out there you think you're going to score. So it's nice to pop a couple in game one."
It was an exhilarating night at Capital One Arena, and it was all the more so because of the presence of a fully packed barn for the first time in more than 19 months. The crowd seemed to enjoy the show as much as the players enjoyed playing in front of them again, and it was an affecting reminder of a slice of what many of us have missed for the last year and a half.
"First, it's just great to have the fans back," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "Last year, it was great that - mission accomplished - we got [the season] in, the League did an unbelievable job. But it misses that had Lapierre scored that first goal last year, it just wouldn't have had the same energy behind it. And that energy and the juice that can come into a building is 100 percent the fans.
"And so tonight was awesome. There were lots of reasons. I thought our guys played hard. You know, it's a Catch-22 - the players have to play hard for the fans to react, and the fans were just awesome. And the building rocked all night long and it just kept moving. It made it a really fun environment for a lot of different reasons."
Top 5 -After suffering a lower body injury last Friday in Washington's final preseason tune-up against the Flyers, Ovechkin missed a couple of practices and was a game-time decision for Wednesday's opener. The decision for him to play was a sound one; the Caps' captain put up a four-point night, assisting on Washington's first two goals and scoring the last two himself.
With those two goals, Ovechkin caught and passed Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne (731) for fifth place on the NHL's all-time goals list.
Asked after the game when he knew he would be able to play against the Rangers, Ovechkin quipped, "After the Philly game."
"Especially after the week he had, that's not a perfect week for him to get ready to have an opening night, and to continue just to help this team be successful," says Laviolette. "There were lots of question marks; there were still question marks [on game day] morning.
"He jumps into the game and is a major factor in the game. I've only been here a short time, and it seems like every night we're acknowledging him for something or he's passing somebody by, or he's doing something special. And tonight's a real big accomplishment to jump up the list like that."
In his franchise-record 17th opener, Ovechkin racked up four or more points for the 24th time in his NHL career. He reached 500 career power-play points (270 goals, 232 assists) to join Joe Thornton as the second active player with 500 or more extra-man points.
With 13 goals and 24 points in those 17 career opening night contests, Ovechkin is tops among active players in opening night scoring. Over the course of NHL history, his total of 13 opening night goals trails only Michel Goulet (14 goals in 13 games) and Dino Ciccarelli (14 goals in 16 games).
Ovechkin's shorthanded goal was his first since Jan. 3, 2009 when he scored a shorty in the second period of a home game against the Rangers, almost exactly a year before he was named the team captain. Going nearly 13 years between shorthanded goals fell just shy of an NHL record; Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Doug Harvey continues to hold that esoteric mark - he scored a shorthanded goal for Montreal on Jan. 22, 1949 and didn't take another ride with shorty until Feb. 11, 1962 when he was with the Rangers, a span of 13 years and 20 days.
Asked after the game about getting more shorthanded ice - he averaged just :03 worth of shorthanded ice time in the 916 games he played between shorthanded strikes - Ovechkin again proved that his one-liner game was in midseason form.
"I tell Arnie like the whole time, 'I'm ready,' joked the captain, referring to assistant coach Scott Arniel, the architect of the Caps' penalty-killing outfit.
Ovechkin's shorthanded ice time was a full five seconds in Wednesday's game.
Next up in Ovechkin's sights is Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull, who finished his career with 741 goals.
All That You Dream - With his parents, grandparents, siblings and girlfriend all in attendance, Lapierre made his NHL debut for Washington on Wednesday night against New York, doing so a year and a week after he was chosen in the first round (22nd overall) of the NHL Draft. Lapierre made his debut a memorable one when he took a dazzling backhand-between-the-legs feed from Oshie and beat Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev midway through the middle period.
As he took the shot, Lapierre lost his footing and careened into the back wall, where Oshie rushed to pick him up and envelop him in a celebratory embrace.
"I actually didn't see it," recounts Lapierre of his first NHL goal. "I shot, and I thought it went right in the [goalie's] chest and I was on the ground. And then I just heard [the fans' reaction]. So I didn't really see my first goal, but I kind of heard it. But after I saw the replay, it was good. And the celebration with guys too, I think everyone was pretty excited."
Lapierre grew up idolizing Ovechkin, but the Quebec teenager could never have dreamed of scoring his first NHL goal in the same game in which the Great Eight leapfrogged over Dionne and into the all-time top five.
"You see a lot of things on TV and you grow up watching him play," says Lapierre of Ovechkin. "But to see that in real life and to see the ways he finds to score goals, it's pretty impressive. You know, he was a game-time decision, he comes in and scores two goals. He's the greatest scorer of all time for a reason.
"To share the ice with him and to learn from him, and to see how he acts in the room, it's pretty special and for me it's a good opportunity to learn. But the way the fans reacted when he scored and his celebration and the fire in his eyes, you know he wants that goal. It's pretty good to watch him."
Lapierre became the seventh teenager in Capitals' history to score a goal in his NHL debut. Lapierre (19 years, 246 days) and Ovechkin (36 years, 27 days) scoring in the same game marked the second-longest age gap among teammates who scored in the same game in franchise history (Nov. 18, 1997, vs. Colorado: Dale Hunter, 37 years, 110 days; Jan Bulis, 19 years, 245 days).
On the night, Lapierre logged 10:14 in ice time, recorded a couple of shots on net, and took a hi-sticking minor on his first shift of the game. He finished without a win in five face-off attempts, but he's been working on improving his work on the dot at practices.
"I think he was really excited," says Laviolette. "Osh certainly was really excited, because he yanked him up off the ice pretty quick. Our bench was really excited, the fans were incredibly excited, and they were awesome all night.
"But it was one of those moments. That's sports though; it just creates certain moments, whether it's a big win or a first goal. Sports can do that, and it's something that he'll remember forever."
Lead Me On - Laviolette also achieved a noteworthy milestone in Washington's opening night win, recording his 674th career NHL win to move into the top spot all time among American-born coaches. He surpassed John Tortorella, who is at 673.
"Well first, he's a great coach and he's won a lot of games," says Laviolette of Tortorella, a fellow native of Massachusetts. "I always just think about it as I'm thankful to have gotten a job a long time ago from [then-Isles GM] Mike Milbury and have been able to coach for so many years.
"Right now, I'm working with an incredible staff, incredible coaches, and incredible players. And that goes to all the organizations prior to this, too. I've just worked with really good people - a guy like [assistant coach] Kevin McCarthy, who's been with me for a very long time. Everybody chips in towards that and towards the wins. It's not one guy winning; it's a team that's winning. And so I think about that and I think about all the people that I've connected with throughout my coaching career. I'm thankful more than anything else."
With a 674-440-25-128 career record, Laviolette has coached 116 fewer games than Tortorella. Laviiolette ranks 12th on the all-time coaching wins list and is sixth among active coaches. He is now 26 wins shy of becoming the 10th bench boss in history to reach the 700-victory plateau.
Come On And Save Me - Vanecek made five of his saves in the first three and a half minutes of the game, including four on the power play. The Caps were slightly wobbly early in Wednesday's game, but once Oshie scored on the power play at 4:39 of the first, they settled in nicely the rest of the way.
"Their goalie made three or four great saves in the first to keep it scoreless," said Rangers coach Gerard Gallant. "That definitely hurt us, not scoring early."
"Early on we had a lot of Grade A looks, I think we had chances," said Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Adam Fox, who was denied on a strong Vanecek stop in the game's first half-minute. "Their goalie made some big saves there."
By The Numbers - For a period of 29 minutes and 6 seconds of Wednesday's game - from late in the first to early in the third period - the Caps limited the Rangers to six shots on net, the closest of which came from 41 feet away … Justin Schultz registered six shots on net to lead the Caps, with all of them coming in the second period. That was more shots than any Washington player managed in any single period last season. Ovechkin had five shots in a frame in a game in 2020-21 … Evgeny Kuznetsov had three assists and led all Washington skaters with 21:22 in ice time … Ovechkin was on the ice for 6:07 of Washington's total of 6:18 in power play time in the game … The Caps blocked 15 shots on the night, with Dmitry Orlov's three leading the team … Nic Dowd won seven of 10 face-offs in the game (70 percent).
