Offensively, the Washington Capitals played all of their biggest hits on opening night. Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Jakob Vrana, and John Carlson all scored. Alex Ovechkin added two assists and the Caps escaped from the Key Bank Center with a 6-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
It was also the first win for new head coach Peter Laviolette, who was hired to replace Todd Reirden in the offseason.
“I was really excited to get the opportunity to be here,” Laviolette said after the game. “I’m just happy with the way guys worked in training camp and starting on the road like this, it was a good win.”
The offense was in high gear from the start. Nicklas Backstrom opened the scoring less than six minutes into the first period, getting an assist from Ovechkin and Oshie. The Caps would stretch the lead to 4-1 in the second period on a goal by defenseman Brenden Dillion.
“Just from the first day of training camp our message from us on the back end was just to get more pucks on net,” Dillion said.
The game was far from perfect, especially on the blue line. Buffalo scored on a power play in the first period. A goal late in the third after pulling goalie Carter Hutton cut the Caps lead to 5-4 before Garnett Hathaway put the game away with an empty netter at 18:57 in the final period.
“I thought we started out really well,” said John Carlson when asked about the defensive performance. “Throughout the game, there was a little too much downtime for us but I think for most of it, then it’s probably the best we’ve executed yet,” he said.
The two teams will play again Friday night as the NHL attempts to complete a 56 game regular season because of Covid-19.
The Capitals may be without Nic Dowd, who could miss the game because of a hit on Eric Staal. Staal went to the locker room to be evaluated for a concussion. The league will review the play and decide if Dowd should miss time.
Because of their salary cap situation, the Caps may have problems replacing him temporarily, leaving the team with just three centers.
For now, players and coaches will be satisfied with getting a win on the road to start the season.
“Buffalo is a good team,” Laviolette said. “You know, they made some nice additions to their roster so I think for our guys to come out to play well and take control of the game I was really happy about that.”