Dressing easily its most representative lineup of the preseason, Washington came out with a lot of early jump. The Caps owned 7-0 and 12-2 leads in shots on net at various points of their first period as they held a significant territorial advantage for the early part of the frame.
The Caps fell behind 1-0 on a Dmitrij Jaskin power-play goal at 14:13 of the first period. Washington was 11 seconds shy of killing off a Nathan Walker cross-checking minor when Jaskin put back the rebound of a Magnus Paajarvi shot to lift the visitors into the lead.
Washington's power play had its first two chances of the game in the second, and the extra-man group generated five of the team's nine shots on net in those four minutes, but was unable to come up with the equalizer.
Early in the third, Washington's fourth line delivered the tying tally.
Caps center Zach Sill got to a puck in the left wing corner of the St. Louis end, and curled away from Blues' blueliner Jordan Schmaltz and toward the bottom of the circle. He shoveled a backhander toward the cage with some air underneath it, and Paul Carey out-jousted Jaskin in front to deflect the puck past goaltender Carter Hutton to make it a 1-1 game at 1:50.
"Great forecheck by Sills and Walks there," says Carey. "That's what you're trying to do all night, get it behind their [defense] and then just crash the net. Then good things happen."
Washington fired 14 shots at Hutton in the third - half of them on two power play chances - but only Carey was able to light the lamp.
Starting goalie Braden Holtby stopped 13 of 14 shots in 31:50 of work, and Philipp Grubauer was spotless in 33:05 of relief. He faced seven shots during that span, and earned the win when the Caps prevailed in the shutout.
At night's end, the Caps owned a 38-21 advantage in shots on net and a 65-40 bulge in shot attempts. Playing in his first NHL preseason game of the fall, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin teed up 17 shot attempts, getting 10 of those on net.
Washington has netted only six goals in its four preseason games, and four of those have been scored on the power play. But Caps coach Barry Trotz trusts the process. He believes his guys will eventually score goals with more regularity, if they're able to continue generating chances at the rate at which they did so against St. Louis on Monday, and if they keep playing well in their own end of the ice.
"I've always said to everyone here," begins Trotz, "if you have good order in your defensive game, then everything sort of piggybacks off of that. Because when you're spending time in your own end and have multiple shifts in there, there is no offensive flow.
"We want to be real strong [in our end] and kill things offensively of the opposition so that we can have the puck and hopefully create, and just not turn the puck over. Decisions at the blueline are really important for us. When we do that and we have puck possession, we have enough people that can make plays and shoot the puck. We have some pretty good talent there.
"If we manage our game in all those other areas, then it's going to come around in those areas that we should be really good at."
Varsity vs. Blues -Washington dressed its most representative lineup of the preseason on Monday night against the St. Louis Blues at Verizon Center, and the result was s 2-1 shootout victory for the Capitals.
The Caps went with their NHL netminding tandem, five of their top six defensemen and probably eight of their top dozen forwards for Monday night's game. Eight of the nine Capitals who participated in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey suited up for Monday's game and seven of them did so for the first time in the 2016 NHL preseason.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin was one of those players returning from his stint at the World Cup, and he teed up 17 shots in Monday's game, getting 10 of them on net. Ovechkin skated 22:09 on the night, including 6:48 of the eight minutes in which Washington enjoyed the manpower advantage.
"I thought Alex was good," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "He had lots of jump, he was fresh and he wants to play.
"In the first period and maybe the first half of the game I just rolled four lines and didn't care who was out against anybody. And then the last six minutes of the second period and the third period, I was more of a 'game on' [approach] and let's coach this the way we should. We got a look at some people and I was really happy."
Carey Fourth - The Capitals' fourth line of Nathan Walker, Zach Sill and Paul Carey manufactured the lone Washington goal of the night in the early minutes of the third period. Each of the trio skated mostly at Hershey last season, but all three players are seen as possible depth guys for the Caps as the 2016-17 season unfolds.
"I thought the Sill-Carey-Walker line, they were really good," says Trotz. "You want them to show well, and they did a real good job. They got us on the scoreboard and I thought they were probably as effective as any line for us, really. I wasn't scared to put them out against anybody."
Sill and Carey both showed well in brief fill-in stints with Washington last season, and Carey has put a strong foot forward this fall after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery late in the 2015-16 season.
"I feel great," says Carey. "It was certainly tough to make that decision to get surgery, but I came into this year hungry. It was a long offseason for me, and it's good to get back on the ice.
"I've just been using my speed, trying to get in and past their [defense], get the pucks in, protect the puck and make strong, smart plays."
Carey scored Washington's goal in Monday's game, deflecting Sill's backhander past St. Louis goaltender Carter Hutton. On Saturday night against the Islanders, Carey stepped up and filled in on Washington's top line after left wing Marcus Johansson left the game with a lower body injury early in the first period.
Did those top six minutes in Saturday's game help set up Carey's second straight strong outing on Monday?
"Yeah, absolutely," says Carey. "You hate to see that happen, but at the same time it's an opportunity for other guys to step up. I got a lot of ice time and got some confidence out there playing with different guys. It felt good."
Carey is one of 18 forwards remaining in camp after Tuesday's roster trimming, and he has - at the very least - put himself in position to be one of the first forwards recalled from AHL Hershey whenever the need might arise.
"I've seen him in two games," says Trotz of Carey. "He's had a really good camp. He's skating really well, he's producing and he's a very detailed player. He is coming back from an injured shoulder that [kept him from finishing] last year, and he's making a statement in camp for sure."
Dynamic Duo - Two of Washington's World Cup participants formed a defensive duo in Monday's game against the Blues. John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov formed a tandem, and although the two have been teammates in the District for a few years now, they've rarely played with one another as a tandem.
Monday's game was a strong outing for both of them, and Orlov even logged 2:37 worth of shorthanded ice time. In 82 games with Washington last season, Orlov averaged all of eight seconds per night in shorthanded ice time.
"I think we played real well tonight," says Carlson. "I think we did a good job of taking what was there and getting it to the next step in the breakout. He's a great player, great skater and great with the puck, so he's fun to play with."
"I thought they were good," echoes Trotz. "They both have some jump offensively and they can both get up [the ice]. I think they played pretty well together."
Standing Tall - Caps rookie Zach Sanford turned in another solid preseason performance on Monday, skating the left side of a line with Lars Eller and Andre Burakovsky. Sanford skated 18:15 on the night - sixth among Caps' forwards - and he played on both special teams. He showed good creativity and playmaking ability, and Sanford was also effective on the forecheck.
Despite being deployed with different linemates from game to game, Sanford seems to have fit in nicely with whichever skaters he is playing with on a given night.
"It's just watching how they play and learning how all the guys play," says Sanford. "A huge part is communication. I thought Lars and Burky and myself, we communicated real well today on the ice and on the bench and it definitely paid off."
With just over a week between now and the start of the season, the 21-year-old Sanford has put himself in a good position to nail down an opening night roster spot. A center by trade, Sanford was recently moved to the wing because of the Caps' depth up the middle. Sanford played on the wing quite a bit as a freshman at Boston College in 2014-15.
"I would say that I was thoroughly impressed with how he switched over to the wing," says Trotz. "His wall play, his poise with the puck on the wall. He made a number of Joel Ward-type plays off the wall. His puck poise in the small space along the wall, I thought it was exceptional for just moving him over there."
"I think it has gone pretty well so far," says Sanford. "The guys have made it pretty easy to play here, and the coaches, too. They won't let you off the hook for any little mistakes, and it just helps you get better every day. I think I feel a difference, even from now to the first day of camp."
By The Numbers - Ovechkin led the Caps in shots and shot attempts … Carlson's 26:01 workload was tops among all Washington defensemen … Eller had six shots on net and 10 shot attempts … Sill led the Caps with four hits.
