POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 5, Stars 0

Trading Places - Coming into Friday night's game in Dallas against the Stars, the Capitals were in need of some goals and a victory. For the first time in nearly 10 months, they entered the game saddled with a modest two-game regulation losing streak, and they had scored a total of one goal in those two games.

On the opposite bench, the Stars were back home to open up a six-game homestand, fresh from a wildly successful four-game road trip in which they swept two sets of back-to-back games and poured 18 pucks into opposing nets. With a pregame ceremony to honor Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Sergei Zubov and to raise his No. 56 sweater to the rafters, the Stars had a sellout crowd on hand for some Friday night hockey.
When Stars forward Joe Pavelski fired the fired shot of the game past Washington goalie Vitek Vanecek just 42 seconds into the first period, it had to have felt familiar to the Caps, who hadn't held a scoreboard lead at any point in three-plus games. But the Caps issued a coach's challenge on the Pavelski goal, alleging the Stars were offside on the play. Sure enough, video review showed the same, and the Caps had a fresh start.
They made the most of it, rolling to a 5-0 win over the Stars.
Less than a minute later, Stars center Roope Hintz went to the box for tripping in the offensive zone. Washington's scuffling power play made the Stars pay 10 seconds later when Tom Wilson scored to give the Caps a 1-0 lead at 1:29, a jarring turn of events - and a two-goal swing - in a span of 47 seconds.
Another Caps power-play goal from John Carlson pushed the lead to 2-0 before the midpoint of the first, and Washington was off and running. It would add three more goals at even strength while stifling the Stars' attack.
Hours before Friday's game, Stars coach Rick Bowness was asked what the successful road trip had done for his team's confidence.
"Well, the goals are going in, and anytime you're scoring goals, your team gets a huge boost," he replied.
Minutes later, Caps coach Peter Laviolette was asked about his own team's ongoing scoring woes.
"I believe that it will come," said Laviolette. "You've got to stay with it. And if you know it works and you know the players have a history of doing things, then eventually it will [turn around]."
Following Friday night's game, the script was flipped.
"No excuses," says Bowness, echoing two words Laviolette uses frequently as well. "We just didn't have anything tonight. It is as simple as that. We couldn't make a pass, couldn't handle the puck, bad decisions all over the ice and we got frustrated and tried to do too much individually. None of those things work."
And naturally, the postgame weather report was sunnier on the Washington side.
"I've said this a bunch of times; I believe that we're going to score," Laviolette reiterates. "What we need to control is the defense part of it, and so tonight I thought that we were really good. Vitek made big saves when we needed him to make big saves, and offensively we were able to capitalize. It was nice to get the goals early and get into the game that way - especially on the power play - and just gain a little bit of confidence from that."
Vanecek's whitewash of the Stars is the first ever recorded by a Washington goaltender in Dallas. Each of the Caps' previous two shutouts over the Stars franchise came when the team was still based in Minnesota and known as the North Stars. Clint Malarchuk pitched a 3-0 shutout over the North Stars in Minnesota on Feb. 20, 1988 and Pat Riggin did so - also in Minnesota - on. Feb. 13, 1984.
Victory Road -Vanecek was strong in the crease for the Caps continuing a recent trend for him. But the defense in front of him was virtually airtight as well. The Caps routinely denied time and space to the Stars, the had good sticks and were continually frustrating Dallas by jamming up passing lanes sacrificing the body to block shots.
Nine Capitals combined to block 19 shots on Friday night, with Carlson and the indefatigable Garnet Hathaway leading the way with four each and both Dmitry Orlov and Matt Irwin chipping in with three each.
That made Vanecek's night easier, but he was also sharp throughout the contest. During a first-period Dallas power play, Vanecek racked up six of his 29 stops on the night. Early in the second, he made arguably his best save of the night, a glove-hand snare of a Tyler Seguin shot from the slot during another man advantage for the Stars.
Vanecek is quietly making a case for himself as the No. 1 netminder moving forward.
The Caps are 45 games into the season now, and he has started 22 games to 20 for Ilya Samsonov and three for Zach Fucale. Vanecek has logged roughly 50 more minutes than Samsonov to this point.
Although Samsonov's record (13-5-3) is better than Vanecek's (10-6-5), the latter's qualitative numbers (2.35 GAA, .916 save pct.) are better than the former's (2.79 GAA, .903 save pct.).
Recent performance also favors Vanecek. Despite a stint in COVID-19 protocol during this stretch, Vanecek is 6-3-1 since the start of December, with two shutouts, a 2.16 GAA and a .926 save pct. in 11 appearances (10 starts). He has allowed two or fewer goals in six of those 10 starts.
Over the same time frame, Samsonov is 4-4-2 with a 3.10 GAA and an .887 save pct. in 10 appearances and starts. He has allowed two or fewer goals against in two of those 10 starts.
All Things Change - Another game, another player into COVID-19 protocol and another resulting lineup change. For the last two months, this has been a familiar refrain for the Caps and the other 31 members of the NHL's Original 32.
On Friday afternoon, the Caps placed defenseman Michal Kempny into the COVID-19 protocol. Already missing Nick Jensen, Washington's backline personnel took another hit, hours ahead of game time. But as has been the case frequently this season, someone stepped in and stepped up, and on this night it was Irwin.
Irwin drew in on short notice and delivered nearly 17 minutes worth of steady, dependable play from the back end, putting a couple of pucks on net, laying a couple of hits and finishing the night at plus-2. The Caps are 8-4-1 with Irwin in the lineup this season.
In what was an elective shuffle, Laviolette also switched up the wings on the Lars Eller line. On Wednesday night against San Jose, rookies Aliaksei Protas and Brett Leason were flanking Eller. For Friday's game against the Stars, Laviolette put a different pair of rookies - Connor McMichael and Joe Snively - with Eller, and to good effect.
McMichael and Snively combined to set up Trevor van Riemsdyk's first goal of the season in the first period, and Eller made a boss play to hook up McMichael with a virtually empty net in the second period.
Dark Night - The Caps were happy to see longtime Washington netminder Braden Holtby on Friday. Now in his first season with the Stars after spending last season with Vancouver, Holtby is thriving in Dallas. He notched his 500th career NHL game earlier this season and is now two wins shy of becoming the 39th goaltender in League history to reach the 300-win plateau.
Many hugs, handshakes, laughs, stories and memories were shared between Holtby and his former teammates following Friday's morning skate and after the game that night, but on the ice, the Caps showed their beloved ex-teammate no mercy.
Holtby entered Friday's contest with a three-game winning streak, but the Caps dented him for five goals on 27 shots in 40 minutes of work, before Jake Oettinger came on in relief to start the third period.
"I hate to see that he had a tough night," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom, echoing the sentiments of most teammates and Caps staffers on this occasion. "But we all know what he has done for our organization, for our club, and for our fans. He is a good friend of a lot of guys on the team. I think everyone loves him."
In Your Honor - Zubov was a fixture in Dallas for more than a decade and a half, and a key cog on the 1999 Stanley Cup championship Stars squad. During the process of preparing for the momentous occasion and conducting some interviews with the Russian blueliner, it came to light that Zubov has a modest stick collection with a bit of a hole in it.
Q: Your stick is now being sold at an online auction for a lot of money. Whose stick would you be willing to buy yourself?
A: I have a home collection of about 20-25 sticks. I have one from Brett Hull, Teemu Selanne, Joe Sakic, Brian Leetch, Mike Modano. Old sticks, all made of titanium. Actually, Selanne's stick is from very early in his NHL career. The one thing I should've done many years ago was get a stick from a rookie named Alex Ovechkin. That's the one my collection is still missing.
The two Russian greats faced off against one another twice early in Ovechkin's career, and before he walked out of American Airlines Center after Friday's win over the Stars, the Caps' captain left one of his sticks especially for Zubov on the occasion of his sweater being hoisted to the rafters.
By The Numbers -Washington's five-goal outburst marks its most goals scored against Dallas in the last 18 meetings between the two teams, dating back to a 6-5 overtime win here on Oct. 25, 2008 ...Orlov led the Caps with 22:52 in ice time … Ovechkin, Wilson, Daniel Sprong, Nic Dowd and Carl Hagelin led the Caps with three shots on net each … Sprong led the team with seven shots on net … Martin Fehervary led the Capitals with three hits.