POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 3, Avs 2 (OT)

Rocky Mountain High - All wins in the NHL are worth two points, but that doesn't mean all wins are created equal. Wins can be stolen, and wins can be gifted, but the most satisfying victories are those that are hard earned, the ones that require overcoming some adversity, that are achieved with many hands involved.

The Capitals limped into Denver on Thursday and they limped out of Denver on Saturday morning. And in between, they snared a couple of points with a 3-2 overtime win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night at Pepsi Center.
Nicklas Backstrom scored on a Washington power play just 22 seconds into overtime, allowing the Caps to come away with two points under adverse circumstances.
Friday's win was accomplished without the services of four key Caps performers, No. 1 netminder Braden Holtby, top six forwards Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie and defenseman Brooks Orpik. Aside from Orpik, the other three players were at peak health when the Caps departed the District for this trip on Monday afternoon. Orpik has been absent from the lineup since the beginning of the month.

Washington won the road trip opener against Minnesota on Tuesday, getting Tom Wilson back in the lineup for the first time this season. But Tuesday's good fortune morphed into Wednesday's misfortune; Holtby suffered an upper body injury while working with goaltender coach Scott Murray before the game and Kuznetsov and Oshie were lost during Wednesday's game in Winnipeg, a 3-1 loss to the Jets.
The Caps turned in a strong defensive performance in limiting the league's most potent attack to two goals, and they were disciplined in facing only two shorthanded situations in the game, the fewest they've faced in seven games. Perhaps not coincidentally, they also did not surrender a power-play goal for the first time in seven games.
"I talked to [Caps coach Todd Reirden] a little bit after the Winnipeg game," says Wilson. "We learned a lot about our team in that game. We didn't win, but we were out there grinding and we had a little bit of adversity. We had that last year a little bit, and it helps you grow as a team.
"This road trip is tough, it's maybe one of the toughest ones of the year. There are some pretty good hockey teams out here. We just stuck with it tonight and got rewarded a little bit better than in Winnipeg. But I'm proud of the guys. We were shorthanded and everyone stepped up. We talked about guys stepping up before the game, and we got it done. Who knows the timeline on those [injured] guys? That's part of playing in this league and being a good team, is stepping up when guys go down."

What A Difference A Year Makes -On Nov. 16, 2017, the Caps came into Denver to face the Avalanche on the heels of an ugly 6-3 loss to the Predators in Nashville two nights earlier. Washington fell behind early, yielding a goal to Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog just 17 seconds into the game, and it lost another ugly one, 6-2 to that Avs that night. Landeskog notched a hat trick in that game; he and linemates Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen combined to score five of the Avalanche's six goals that night.
Friday's visit came on the one-year anniversary of last year's debacle in Denver, and it started almost as ominously when the Caps fell down early again on Carl Soderberg's goal just 68 seconds after opening puck drop. Washington needed big stops from Copley on Landeskog from the slot and on a MacKinnon breakaway in the first half of the first, and Caps defenseman Madison Bowey made a great play to break up a two-on-one rush, the type of play on which the Avs typically feast.
Getting through the first 10 minutes without any further damage was crucial, and the Caps settled in nicely thereafter, managing pucks well and playing a detailed game while waiting for their own scoring opportunities to develop. When those opportunities did develop, Devante Smith-Pelly, Alex Ovechkin and finally, Backstrom, were able to supply the needed finish.
As Reirden noted on Friday morning, getting defenseman Michal Kempny back from a one-game absence because of illness proved to be important. Kempny logged 20:39 against the Avs, his second highest workload in 16 games this season. He led all Caps skaters with 19:24 worth of even strength ice time, and his ability to bounce back from illness while playing at altitude enabled the Caps to apportion their minutes more favorably in a tough road match-up, and to neutralize Colorado's dynamic top trio, which includes the league's top two scorers in Rantanen and MacKinnon.
Each member of the Avs' top unit logged at least 21 minutes on Friday, and they combined for nine shots on net, Landeskog leading the way with six. The Caps held Rantanen without a shot on net, and limited the Avs entire team to just 49 shot attempts on the night. Washington blocked 18 of those tries.
"This stretch of games," says Caps goalie Pheonix Copley, "the guys have been unbelievable at blocking shots, keeping their chances to the outside and letting me see the puck. A lot of credit to them; it's been great."
Mix in 24 saves from Copley - including a handful of excellent early stops while Washington was still wobbly and late ones when the Avs were pushing - and the Caps had the recipe for a much better outcome than a year earlier whne they were in the Mile High City.

Net Gain -At this time last month, the Capitals didn't really know what they had in Copley. The first-year NHL netminder entered the 2018-19 season with just two career appearances, only one of them a start, and none of them since 2016-17.
Washington went with Braden Holtby in both ends of a set of back-to-back games to start the season, and Copley finally made his Caps debut on Oct. 11 at New Jersey, the second of another back-to-back set. Copley did his part that night, making some tremendous saves early to give his team a chance to get on track. That never happened that night, but Copley was the Caps' best player in a 6-0 loss.
Copley followed up with a good relief effort against Florida just over a week later, and he earned his first NHL victory In Calgary on Oct. 27. Filling in for Holtby this week and starting three games in four nights, Copley has hit his stride. In his last five starts, he is 4-1-0 with a 2.17 GAA and a .921 save pct., and he has earned three of Washington's four road wins on the season.
"That's the most comfortable he has looked, in my opinion," says Reirden of Copley's Friday night performance in Denver. "His rebound control was better, [and he was] better playing the playing the puck outside the crease when he had the opportunities to do it.
"I just thought he was a real calming influence on our team today and it's so important to have your goalie do that. He gives up the goal there at the end, and it's a tough one, but he was just solid - no panic, nothing - to push us into overtime and obviously we were able to convert there on the power play."
Power Forward -In 78 games with the Caps last season, Wilson logged a grand total of 5:24 worth of power play. That's only about a minute more than he registered with the extra man on Friday.
Playing in his third game of the season - and his third game in four nights, the third of those at altitude - Wilson skated 4:19 on the power play and 1:35 of his typical shorthanded duty. By night's end, Wilson skated a single-game career high of 24:24, obliterating his previous personal best of 21:06 in a March 20 game against the Dallas Stars.
Wilson's Friday night ice time total was tops on the team, including defensemen. It wasn't just the quantity of Wilson's minutes; it was the quality. His Friday night performance was a bright, shining example why the Caps signed him to a six-year contract extension worth more than $30 million last summer.
"That's a tough start," says Reirden, "three [games] in four [nights], and then add in the altitude and the minutes that we're counting on him playing because they're not easy minutes obviously, having to chase around that top line tonight from Colorado is no easy task. So I'm just really happy with the fact that we got him back a little earlier than was originally set up for, so that's been a good bounce for our team."
Logging many of those minutes against Colorado's top trio, Wilson skated nearly half (10:08 of 20:22) of the third period and overtime.
"It's easy when you go over the boards," says Wilson. "You want to play, and you want to grind it out with the guys. You want to get a win. It's always fun to play lots. It's definitely a thing - altitude is definitely a thing, it's not a myth. So it's good to get in here, get it over with and move on to Montreal."
Wilson was integral in the manufacture of Washington's second and third goals, not only in setting up both with secondary assists that were simultaneously creative and bullish, but in literally creating space for his linemates. On both goals, Wilson became entangled with an Avs skater. As the play moved up ice on the Caps' second goal, the resulting space gave Ovechkin enough time and space to move to an optimal launch pad of his own choosing, from which to fire his wrist rocket.
On the power play in overtime, Wilson bulled the puck into Colorado ice along the right wing wall, outbattled a defender for possession, and nudged it back to Backstrom as he and his check went to the ice, leaving Washington with a virtual three-on-two down low, and giving Backstrom a leisurely look at the net and an opportunity to shoot from a spot from which he rarely misses.
"When you're playing with good players, you just try and keep it simple, win your battles and they'll do the rest," says Wilson. "That's exactly what happened with both of those plays.
"At the end there, I thought about throwing it across the ice a couple of times, but I'm not that comfortable out there yet. So I just kind of ragged it down the wall, and waited. Nicky got open for me and made it easy. I just threw it over to him, and it was in the back of the net.
"Those guys are awesome. They do it every night for us; they're our superstars. They go out there and they demand wins. It's pretty fun to be part of a group with a lot of guys like that."
It was the fourth power-play point (one goal, three assists) of Wilson's 394-game NHL career, and his first in nearly a year, since Dec. 4, 2017.
Put simply, Wilson was one of the most - if not the most - impactful players on the ice for either team in Friday's game.
"He brings so much energy to this group and he is everywhere out there," says Backstrom. "That's what you need. He's playing PK, he is playing power play; he is doing everything. He is a valuable guy in this group, so we're happy to have him back."
Eight For Nineteen -Backstrom's game-winning overtime goal was the eighth of his NHL career, tying him with Mike Green for second on the franchise's all-time list. Ovechkin tops that list with 22, the most of any player in NHL history.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears hosted the Cleveland Monsters at Giant Center on Friday night, and the home team opened up a six-pack on the Monsters, skating away with a 6-1 victory.
Hershey scored four times on its first nine shots on net of the game, chasing Cleveland starter Brad Thiessen early in the second period. The Bears also snuffed out all nine Monsters power play opportunities on the night.
Mike Sgarbossa got the Bears started with his fourth goal of the season at 4:55 of the first, Colby Williams and Jusso Ikonen assisting. The Monsters tied it up six minutes later, but the Bears struck twice late in the first to take a two-goal lead to the room after 20.
Nathan Walker netted his second of the season at 17:14 of the first to make it a 2-1 game, Aaron Ness and Parker Milner assisting. On a Bears power play at 18:53, Riley Barber scored his sixth of the season with help from Walker and Garrett Pilon.
At 2:23 of the middle frame, Jayson Megna netted his third of the season, Liam O'Brien and Derek Hulak assisting. That goal sent Thiessen to the bench and made it a 4-1 game.
Shane Gersich finished up the scoring for Hershey, scoring a pair of power-play goals in the third period. The first of those tallies came at 3:59 with help from O'Brien and Connor Hobbs. Gersich closed out the scoring at 16:08, Ness and Barber assisting.
Milner made 30 stops to improve to 2-0-0 on the season.
The 8-8-0-1 Bears are now at hockey .500 on the season after starting off 2018-19 with five straight setbacks. Hershey and Cleveland have a rematch at Giant Center on Saturday night.
Down a level, the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays were also at home on Friday night, hosting the Florida Everblades at North Charleston Coliseum. The Stingrays needed two goaltenders to complete the shutout; Adam Morrison made 16 saves and Gordon Defiel stopped 13 to make Joey Leach's second-period goal stand up as the game-winner.
The 7-6-0 Stingrays remain at home; they'll host the Wheeling Nailers on Saturday night.
By The Numbers - Ovechkin led the Caps with seven shots on net and 14 shot attempts … Nic Dowd led the Caps with four hits … John Carlson led the Caps with five blocked shots.