Norris scores twice in season debut, Senators ease past Capitals

OTTAWA -- Josh Norris scored twice in his season debut following shoulder surgery, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Washington Capitals, 6-1 at Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday.

“It's been a long road and some long days and we're finally here now,” Norris said. “I think it's kind of one of those moments. It's weird, like, I think God's pretty amazing, and I don't want to get, like, too philosophical here, but yeah, it's just a great night and happy we won.”

Norris, who hadn’t played since Jan. 21, missed all of preseason after “tweaking something” in his shoulder a week before training camp.

“I did hear the fans kind of give me a nice little ovation,” Norris said. “I thought that was really cool.”

Claude Giroux, Vladimir Tarasenko and Jake Sanderson each had a goal and an assist, and Tim Stützle had three assists for the Senators (3-1-0). Drake Batherson had two assists, and Anton Forsberg made 23 saves for Ottawa, which has won three straight.

“I didn’t love our start, and we’ve had really good starts,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “I thought it was sloppy, both sides. I just thought there were a lot of turnovers, but I thought it was a real mature start to the second period. We put it in, and we did what we had to do to take the game over.”

John Carlson scored, and Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves for the Capitals (1-2-0), who have scored four goals in three games this season.

“It’s a tough loss,” Washington forward Evgeny Kuznetsov said. “I feel like [every] mistake we made, it’s in the back of our net. When you play against this type of team, they probably feed energy off their good plays and goals, so we didn’t do a great job eliminating those chances.”

Tarasenko gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 4:28 of the first period when he took a centering pass from Ridly Greig and chipped the puck over Kuemper’s glove in tight.

Norris made it 2-0 at 12:29, tapping in a cross-crease pass from Batherson on the power play.

“It's been a really long time since I've played, so I kind of just blacked out there for a second,” Norris said of his first goal since he last played on Jan. 21.

Carlson cut it to 2-1 at 18:54 when he gathered a loose puck in the slot and scored with a curl-and-drag wrist shot into the top left corner. Alex Ovechkin had the assist.

“In the first period, I liked our game a lot,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “I thought it was probably our best 20 minutes of the season thus far. We’re down 2-1, but I didn’t think that was an issue from a score standpoint, being able to come back in the game.

“And then the second period, sort of a microcosm of how the year is going for this group right now, every mistake we make is ending up in the back of the net.”

Norris put the Senators ahead 3-1 at 1:47 of the second period after one-timing a pass from Batherson in the middle of the slot.

“It’s hard to say that you’d see that in his first game back, but he’s such an athlete,” Smith said of Norris. “Josh is as good as anyone at anything out there. So, for his first game back, you wouldn’t think that, but he’s been putting in a lot of time and clearly he’s in shape, and give the development guys credit.”

Artem Zub extended it to 4-1 at 4:47 when he one-timed a pass from Jake Sanderson at the point.

Zub left the game at 4:23 of the third period and did not return after taking an Ovechkin shot to the face.

Giroux pushed it to 5-1 at 15:47 of the second, tucking the puck in at the side of the net off a seam pass from Thomas Chabot.

“We’re leaving our [defensemen] out to dry a little bit with the puck in our own zone,” Washington forward Dylan Strome said. “And maybe the forwards aren’t doing a great job of coming back and helping them out. I think we’re leaving [Kuemper] out there to dry. We haven’t gotten a lot of shots in all three games. … We’re 1-2-0, and could easily be 0-3-0.”

Sanderson skated in from the point and scored with a wrist shot blocker side on Kuemper at 11:48 of the third for the 6-1 final.

NOTES: Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom was minus-1 in 13:09 of ice time in his 1,100th NHL game. … Ottawa’s 19 goals this season is the most in franchise history through four games. … Tarasenko became the first player in Senators history to record multiple points in each of his first three home games with the club. … Ovechkin was held without a shot on goal in back-to-back games for the first time in his NHL career (1,350 games).