Caps Double Up Blues in K.C., 4-2

Playing in Kansas City for the first time in more than 40 years, the Washington Capitals ran their preseason record to 3-1-1 with their third straight victory, a convincing 4-2 triumph over the St. Louis Blues at Sprint Center on Wednesday night.

T. J. Oshie and Christian Thomas scored twice each to account for all of Washington's scoring, and Jay Beagle and Daniel Winnik fueled that attack with three assists each.

"It's starting to come together," says Beagle. "It's starting to feel good out there. It takes a few preseason games to get into timing and everything, to kind of get the summer out of you. It was a solid game by everyone, and that's a good team over there. To play the way that we did was good. Now we've just got to keep that rolling."

Ex-Blues winger Oshie started the scoring early in the contest, biting the hand that once fed him. Shortly after coming onto the ice on a line change, Evgeny Kuznetsov gained control of the puck in the St. Louis zone and he put the puck on a tee for Oshie, who drove it home with a one-timer from the high slot at 2:48 of the first frame.

A shift or two later, Oshie nearly netted his second of the game on an end-to-end rush play that started with good defensive zone play from the tandem of Brooks Orpik and John Carlson. St. Louis netminder Jake Allen denied Oshie's backhand try from the top of the paint, but the Washington winger induced a hooking call on Blues pivot Paul Stastny to put the Caps on the game' first power play at 7:16.

St. Louis successfully snuffed the Caps' power play - Stanislav Galiev's shot off the near post from the left circle was the biggest threat - and the Blues drew even a minute later when Vladimir Tarasenko took a feed from Jori Lehtera in the right wing corner and ripped a one-timer past Caps goalie Philipp Grubauer from the right dot at 10:19.

Late in the first period, Washington's fourth line turned in a terrific offensive zone shift, resulting in the go-ahead goal. Winnik and Beagle cycled and worked the wall on the right side of the ice, and then Winnik skated the puck up the wall toward the blueline. He suddenly snapped a perfect pass to Thomas down low on the left side, and then Thomas fired a one-timer past Allen to give the Caps a lead they would not surrender at 16:34 of the first.

The Caps owned an 8-5 advantage in shots on goal for the first 20 minutes, and a 2-1 lead, but Washington coach Barry Trotz knew his guys could be better.

"I thought the first period, we were just a little loose with the puck," says Trotz. "And I thought we were just breaking out slowly and all those things. I think we cleaned that up in the second and we had some more speed to our game, puck possession, zone time and all that."

Washington roared out of the gates in the second, outshooting the Blues 11-1 in the first half of the frame and pushing their lead to 3-1 on a pretty goal from Oshie at 7:38. After a neutral-zone regroup, the Caps gained the Blues' zone, and Winnik pushed the puck to Beagle, who carried behind the St. Louis cage. As he dipped below the goal line, Beagle took a page out of Kuznetsov's book, dropping a blind pass to a trailing Oshie, who had an easy lay-up for his second goal of the game.

"Eyes closed, I didn't even know where the puck was," deadpans Beagle. "All of a sudden, it's on Osh's tape and it's in the net."

In the second period, Washington outshot St. Louis 13-5.

The Caps had a couple of early power play opportunities in the third, and although they moved the puck around well for the most part, they weren't able to add to their lead.

Washington did open up a 4-1 lead just ahead of the midpoint of the period when Thomas converted another excellent Winnik feed at 9:18, this time beating Allen on a one-timer from the slot to culminate a solid cycling shift in the St. Louis end.

"It's huge," says Thomas of his two-goal night. "I'm competing for a spot here, I'm trying to give them every chance to not send me down, and I'm trying to make a statement with this little time we have. Hopefully, I can play well enough and earn a spot on this team."

The Caps were trying to get Thomas the hat trick in the game's final minute when the Blues broke out on a two-on-one rush, and Dmitrij Jaskin got the puck back from Magnus Paajarvi and closed out the scoring with 25.4 seconds left in the game.

"Obviously I thought Beagle's line was really good tonight," says Trotz. "Daniel Winnik, Beags and Christian Thomas were really good tonight. I thought Kuzy's line and all our lines were pretty good tonight. A real good effort by the guys, and we'll go to Carolina."

The Caps take on the Hurricanes in Carolina on Friday in their penultimate game of the preseason.

Washington finished Wednesday's game with a 30-19 advantage in shots on goal. A crowd of 11,781 showed up at the Sprint Center to watch the Caps and the Blues.
Forty Years After The Fact - Way back on Feb. 7, 1976, the Washington Capitals stopped off in western Missouri to take on the Kansas City Scouts in the sixth game of a season long seven-game road trip. Having gone 1-3-1 on the trip to that point, and with a 3-23-2 road record on the season and a 4-62-2 road record to that point in the franchise's brief existence, the Caps had to be licking their chops just a bit at the prospect of facing the Scouts. Earlier in the season, Washington earned a 6-2 road win in Kansas City, and they were facing a struggling Scouts squad that had yet to win in calendar 1976.

Washington went through three head coaches in its first season, and the Scouts were on their third bench boss of their sophomore season in the NHL, hockey lifer Eddie Bush. Bush took over the coaching reins from Bep Guidolin in mid-January after the latter stepped down and after Scouts GM Sid Abel went 0-3 as the team's interim coach.

When the Caps got to town, Bush was still looking for his first NHL win. After losing his first two games, Bush had piloted the Scouts to a pair of ties and was 0-2-2 when the Caps hit town. Those two ties halted a 14-game Kansas City losing streak that spanned the Guidolin, Abel and Bush coaching administrations.

Bush had to be happy to see his troops administer a 5-1 beating to the Capitals that night, but alas, poor Eddie couldn't have known it would be his last win and his only win as an NHL head coach (1-23-8). He couldn't have known it would be the last game the Scouts would ever win in their brief two-season existence in Kansas City; they would move west to Denver in 1976-77 to continue their life as the Colorado Rockies.

On Wednesday night, the Capitals returned to Kansas City for the first time since that ignominious loss at the hands of the Scouts more than 40 years ago, this time to face the St. Louis Blues at the gleaming Sprint Center. This visit went much better for the Capitals, who skated off with a 4-2 victory, their third in a row.

T. J. Oshie and Christian Thomas scored twice each, and Daniel Winnik and Jay Beagle each had three assists. Philipp Grubauer started and went the distance in goal, making 17 saves to earn the win.

"It was pretty good," says Grubauer. "I felt pretty good. The guys made it pretty easy for me; they kept it to the outside. I don't think they had too many chances from the slot. It felt pretty good. I've been playing since August 20, so I think everybody who went to the World Cup is kind of anxious to get it going here and start the season. It's been a really long time on the ice, but the guys looked good today."

Stingy With Shots, Goals Against -The Blues had only 10 shots on net through the game's first 40 minutes, notching five in each of the first two periods before putting nine shots on Grubauer in the third.

"In our zone, after the first period we managed the puck pretty good," says Grubauer. "We played good as a team, we played compact and we didn't make too many mistakes. The only shots they had were on our mistakes. We cut that out a little bit and we had a really good game. Defense wins you hockey games and creates chances in the offensive zone."

The second St. Louis goal came on a two-on-one rush in the game's final minute while Washington was vying to get Thomas a hat trick. Aside from a 5-2 loss to the Canadiens in Montreal, a game in which precious few Caps regulars were in the lineup, Washington has permitted just six goals against in its other four preseason games.

Thomas Makes Case in KC - Thomas was a second-round draft choice (40th overall) of the New York Rangers in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. After appearing in just one game for the Blueshirts, he was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens on July 2, 2013.

Thomas got into 25 games spread over three seasons with the Habs before being dealt to Arizona in the middle of last season and skating in one game with the Coyotes. He has one goal and three points in 27 career NHL games.

Washington inked the 24-year-old right wing as an unrestricted free agent over the summer, and most figured he'd provide some secondary scoring for Hershey this season. A prolific scorer during his OHL career with Oshawa, Thomas netted 19 goals in his first AHL season but hasn't been able to match that total since. But last season, he totaled 10 goals and 21 points in just 34 AHL games, an indication his offensive abilities may be coming to the fore at that level.

Now, as one of 18 forwards remaining on the Washington roster, he is - along with Paul Carey and Brad Malone - one of a trio of forwards whose careers began in other organizations who are now making a push for a spot on the Caps' opening night roster. Thomas and linemates Beagle and Winnik were involved in the scoring of three of Washington's four goals in Wednesday's win over the Blues.

"He started a little bit slowly," says Caps coach Barry Trotz of Thomas' camp performance. "He practiced really well the other day, and we decided to give him another shot. He was probably the best guy in practice the other day, especially at forward. We said, 'Hey, let's give him another shot and put him in.' And that line was really good, they were buzzing and they were very effective."

In his first camp with the Caps, being seen with fresh sets of management eyes could be a plus for Thomas.

"It's awesome," says Thomas. "I was battling there in Montreal. I was always that last guy that was getting cut and coming up throughout the season to get a good chance to play. Hopefully this year I can make a statement and earn a spot and stay here the whole year."