On Wednesday night in Washington, the Caps celebrated their first Stanley Cup title with an emotional celebration and banner-raising ceremony, and then they went out and throttled the Boston Bruins - the league's fourth-best regular season team in 2017-18 - by a 7-0 count in Washington's opening contest of the 2018-19 season.
T.J. Oshie scored the only goal Braden Holtby (25 saves) would need for offensive support before the game was half a minute old, Evgeny Kuznetsov scored two of Washington's power-play goals, and three of the Caps' four lines chipped in with an even-strength goal to spur the spanking of the Bruins. The Caps were sharp in all three zones and outplayed the B's in every aspect of the game, face-offs notwithstanding.
Wednesday's win was the first NHL victory for Caps coach Todd Reirden in his first game as Washington's bench boss.
"I really liked our ability to break pucks out and I'll always say it's a six-man job," says Reirden. "If pucks get dumped to our goalie, they're part of our breakout protocol and I thought our board play was really good, and our support underneath really allowed us to put Boston on their heels right from the start."
Now, the Caps will finish off their first of a dozen sets of back-to-back games in the young season with their first game against a Metropolitan Division opponent in '18-19. Washington has a mostly favorable schedule this season, but the first half of October does present some challenges. Each of the Caps' first five foes is a playoff team from last spring, and - including Boston - each of the first three of those opponents won at least one playoff round last spring. And each of the Caps' next two games - against Pittsburgh and Vegas - are against teams Washington eliminated en route to its Cup title last spring.
Following this set of back-to-backs, the Caps have five days off before they face another set of back-to-backs in the middle of next week, hosting Vegas on Wednesday and visiting New Jersey on Thursday.
"It's going to be tough every game this year," says Caps defenseman Brooks Orpik. "Being the Stanley Cup champions, everybody is going to be gunning for you. It's definitely a little bit of a tough start here with the two sets of back-to-backs. Luckily, we've got like four or five days between the two sets.
"But it's a good opportunity to get off to a good start, and hopefully it goes our way. Just like any other season, you don't want to fall behind because in this league it's really tough to make up ground. And I think this year it will be even tougher for us."
Although Pittsburgh wasn't able to pull off the three-peat last season, the Penguins are still one of the more formidable teams in the league and in the Eastern Conference, and the Caps and Pens figure to duel it out with the likes of Columbus, New Jersey and Philadelphia for supremacy in the Metropolitan Division this season.
Aside from trading Conor Sheary to Buffalo, the Pens didn't lose any key players from last season's roster over the summer. The Pens inked ex-Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson to a five-year deal in July, and they brought back forty-something center Matt Cullen for another tour of duty in Pittsburgh as well.
The Penguins still boast one of the best groups of centers in the game, with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan and Cullen all available for duty in the middle of the ice.
