POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Caps 6, Habs 3

Six Blade Knife - For the second time in as many home games, the Caps opened up a six-pack attack on their guests, cruising to a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. The contest was the Caps' first on home ice in 10 days, since they put a 6-1 trouncing on the Penguins here back on November 14. Both games featured goals from six different Washington skaters.

In Wednesday's win over the Habs, the Capitals mounted a four-line attack in which nine of their 18 skaters collected points, headed by Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, who finished with three assists. Washington defenseman contributed two goals and three assists to the offensive cause.
The game was the Caps' first after a successful (2-1-1) West Coast trip, and they dominated Montreal early in the contest. The Caps rolled up a lopsided 30-6 advantage in shot attempts at 5-on-5 in the first, and they held the Habs without an even-strength shot on net for more than a 12 minutes at one point in the first.
Meanwhile, the Caps got first-period markers from Nic Dowd, John Carlson and Mike Sgarbossa to roll out to an early 3-0 lead. Washington's forecheck was stifling and tenacious, and its defensemen routinely denied the Habs entry at the Washington line, making for a frustrating first for the visitors.
"I think that's probably us at our best, when we have all four lines playing," says Caps center Nic Dowd. "I think what has to be realized is that we definitely have top-end skill that can make high-end plays that a lot of guys can't make. So we have that. But honestly, our top guys are great when [Ovechkin] and those guys are shooting and shooting and then they're collecting rebounds, because then they're able to make high-end plays because their team is out of structure.
"And I think that's what went well throughout our lineup, is that we threw so many shots at the net, and then we were getting the puck back in the [offensive] zone. And that's tough. When guys shoot the puck and it takes bounces and I'm playing in the [defensive] zone, you don't know where it's going. And you're trying to box your guy out and they're beating you to pucks and they're recovering pucks, and they're shooting again and again, not only is that so tiring, but then you just have a high chance of weird stuff happening."
Sgarbossa's goal - his first in the NHL since Jan. 23, 2017 when he was with Florida - was a prime example of what Dowd was describing. Sgarbossa and linemates Beck Malenstyn and Brett Leason were putting some forechecking heat on the Habs, and Canadiens center Cedric Paquette finally corralled the puck and attempted to loft it out of the zone on his backhand. But it hit Sgarbossa in the chest and bounded back toward the net, where it went off a Montreal defender and into the net.
Sgarbossa and Malenstyn were recalled from AHL Hershey earlier in the day, and both players were seeing their first NHL action of the season. The line was effective right from its first shift of the night, and it finished the contest with some highly lopsided possession numbers.

"They were really good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "They were smart, they worked really hard, and I thought that they complemented each other really well. I think they had played with each other in the past down in Hershey.
"Beck provided some physicality, Sgarbs did a really good job in the middle of the ice and Leason has been solid for us. They did a good job."
Caps goaltender Ilya Samsonov improved to 7-0-1 on the season, but he saw his shutout streak ended at 170 minutes and 13 seconds. Samsonov did become the first goaltender in franchise history to record a point in each of his first eight decisions of the season.
Wednesday's game marks the fourth time this season the Caps have scored as many as six goals in a game, tied with Colorado for the most in the NHL.
Start Me Up - For the third straight game, the Capitals got the scoring started on their first shot on net of the night, with Dowd scoring at 3:34 of the first. That's the exact time at which Washington scored first in its previous game - on Sunday in Seattle - with Tom Wilson scoring the game's first goal in that one. And this past Saturday in San Jose, Conor Sheary started the scoring for the Caps at 2:17 of the first period.
The Caps are 10-2-2 this season when they score the game's first goal.
Take A Look At These Hands - Ovechkin's three-assist game was his sixth multi-assist game of the season, and he now has 18 helpers in 20 games, tied for third in the NHL. He had a total of four multi-assist games in the last two seasons, spanning 113 games.
This season's performance marks the most helpers Ovechkin has amassed through 20 games in his career, topping his 17 assists at the same juncture of the 2008-09 campaign.
Wednesday's three-assist game was Ovechkin's first since Feb. 15, 2018 when he had a goal and three helpers against the Wild in Minnesota, one of four games he had with three assists during Washington's run to the Stanley Cup championship that season.
Ovechkin has had one four-assist game in his career, and that was on Jan. 15, 2010 when he had a goal and four assists in a 6-1 win over Toronto in the District.
With the three-point outburst against the Habs, Ovechkin pulled into a tie for 27th place on the NHL's all-time scoring list with Guy Lafleur (1,353).

This One Goes To Eleven - With the 685th victory of his NHL career on Wednesday, Laviolette passed Pat Quinn (684) and moved into sole possession of 11th place on the NHL's all-time wins list.
Next up on that list is Dick Irvin (692) who currently occupies 10th place. There are a lot of moving targets ahead of Laviolette on the list; five of the coaches ahead of him have coached or are coaching in the NHL this season.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears hosted the Providence Bruins at Giant Center on Wednesday night, and the home team treated its fans to a come-from-behind thriller in a 4-3 overtime victory.
The Bears were down 2-0 and past the midpoint of the second period when Joe Snively's unassisted shorthanded goal cut the Providence lead in half. Snively's seventh goal of the season came at 11:19 of the second.
Early in the third, Hershey pulled even on Garrett Pilon's sixth goal of the season, a power-play goal at the 29-second mark. Snively and Matt Moulson supplied the assists on Pilon's tying tally.
Less than a minute later, the Bears pulled ahead on Shane Gersich's second goal of the season. Mason Morelli and Moulson picked up helpers on Gersich's go-ahead goal at 1:22.
Providence squared the score at 3-3 with just over two minutes left, forcing overtime. Morelli was the hero in the extra session, netting his first of the season to win it for Hershey at 2:05 with help from Michal Kempny and Kody Clark.
Zach Fucale stopped 22 shots in the Hershey nets to improve to 4-1-2 on the season.
The 8-5-2-1 Bears currently occupy third place in the AHL's Atlantic Division. They'll be back in action on Friday night when they visit Rochester.
By The Numbers - Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with 23:49 in ice time and with five shots on net … Garnet Hathaway led Washington with a dozen shot attempts … Dowd led the Caps with five hits … Nick Jensen and John Carlson led the Caps with two blocked shots each … Connor McMichael won six of nine face-offs (67 percent).