#4 Oct. 14, 2019 vs. Colorado Avalanche
In just the third home game of the season Capitals fans will say hello to two old friends. Andre Burakovsky was traded to the Colorado Avalanche just days before free agency and he joins an Avalanche team poised to make a deep Western Conference playoff run.
Fans will also see Philipp Grubauer, who established himself in Washington as one of the top backup goaltenders in the NHL. During his final season in D.C., Grubauer went 15-10-3 in with a 2.35 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage, both career-bests. He beat out Braden Holtby for the starter’s job to begin the playoffs but Holtby regained his Vezina-winning form.
After winning the Stanley Cup, the Capitals traded Grubauer, along with Brooks Orpik to the Avalanche. While Orpik became the Avalanche legend that never played a game, Grubauer went from backup in the regular season to a starter in net by the time Game 1 of the playoffs begun this past spring thanks to a hot stretch of going 7-0-2 in his final nine starts.
Sound familiar? It was quite a turnaround of where he was a prior. Grubauer won the starting job for the Capitals with his “hot hand” but then lost it entering the third period of Game 2 of Washington’s first round series after allowing three straight goals in the second period, squandering a Capitals 3-1 lead against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Grubauer backstopped the Avalanche to a first round victory over the Calgary Flames in five games before falling to the San Jose Sharks in a seven-game second round joust. Grubauer had a 2.30 GAA in the spring and a .925 save percentage.
The Capitals won both games against the Avalanche in overtime last season with Evgeny Kuznetsov as the home hero at Capital One Arena on Feb. 7.