Washington Capitals make a statement with season opening win over NY Rangers

The puck dropped on a new season at Capital One Arena. The glow sticks were out in full force as every Washington Capitals player and coach was introduced one by one. When the game started all eyes were on Tom Wilson of the Caps and a couple of new faces the New York Rangers brought in from the offseason. In the end though, the cooler heads prevailed in a 5-1 win.

There were no line brawls to start the game but Trevor van Riemsdyk and Sammy Blais did drop the gloves 1:52 so it didn’t take long to get the bad blood flowing. The Caps would later go to the power play after Patrik Nemeth was called for slashing against Nic Dowd.

The Caps couldn’t have gotten off to a better start on their first power play of the season. Evgeny Kuznetsov found Alex Ovechkin in the office. Ovechkin, instead of shooting, passed it to T.J. Oshie for the slam dunk right by the net at 4:39. 1-0 was the score after 1 with the Rangers leading in shots 9-6.

At 12:38 in the second the Caps scored again on the power play. Justin Schultz scored right from the point way downtown with Kuznetsov and Ovechkin providing the assists. 24 seconds later on an odd man rush after a pass from Conor Sheary, Oshie fed a slick backdoor pass in between his legs to 19 year old rookie Hendrix Lapierre. Lapierre finished it for his first career NHL goal and it brought the house down.

The Caps led 3-0 after two and led in shots 15-5. In the third period Ovechkin took over with two goals. Neither one came at five on five. One was a power play and the other shorthanded. The first one came at 2:37 on the power play which was the third PPG on the night for the boys in red. Overall the Caps went three for six on the man advantage.

Ovechkin’s power play goal came from the office but off a rebound. Anthony Mantha and John Carlson had the assists. Chris Kreider got the Rangers on the board with a power play goal ending Vitek Vanecek‘s shutout bid. Other than that, he had a heck of a game and deserved the starting spot. Vanecek made 23 saves for a .958 save percentage.

Ovechkin would answer right back at 12:01 with a shorthanded goal. It came on the breakaway with a backhander assisted by Kuznetsov and van Riemsdyk and it was historic. It was Ovechkin’s 732nd goal of his career passing Marcel Dionne for fifth place on the NHL’s all time goal scoring list.

5-1 would be the final and a heck of a way to start the season. The Caps will be back in action Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.