POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Caps 6, Sabres 4

Two For Thursday - Washington roared out to a swift start in Thursday night's season opener over the Sabres in Buffalo, setting the pace and tone early and scoring the game's first goal before the first television timeout of the first period. It wasn't always as smooth and pretty the rest of the way, but the Caps scored twice in each frame, they never trailed, and at night's end, they came away with two points in the first of 56 four-point games against East Division rivals.

Big Boys - The Caps' top forward trio of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie sparked the team early in the season opener, with one or more of that trio involved in each of Washington's first three goals.
On the one-year anniversary of signing his five-year contract extension, Backstrom scored the game's first goal with help from both linemates. Oshie potted the second one on the power play, tucking home a rebound of an Ovechkin wrist shot.
The third one was a beauty. With defenseman John Carlson deep in the attack zone and Buffalo carrying the puck through neutral ice, the ever-alert Backstrom was the first guy back in Washington ice in a defensive posture. When Taylor Hall's pass for Jack Eichel failed to connect at the Caps' line, Backstrom bumped it to Oshie who sprung Carlson back into Buffalo territory on a short-ice breakaway. Carlson scored to make it a 3-1 game just ahead of the midpoint of the middle frame.

"I liked everything about it," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of his top line's performance. "Offensively, they were controlling the play a little bit. They went head-to-head with [Buffalo's] top line, which is not easy to do. When you're controlling the puck and you're playing against other teams' top players - and that line's a handful that they were playing against - defensively I thought they did a good job, and offensively they were able to contribute as well. We were okay with that match-up, and it seemed to work out."
Net Positive -In his first game as Washington's No. 1 netminder, sophomore Ilya Samsonov stopped 22 of 26 shots to notch his first victory of the season. Although he wasn't tested frequently - especially early in the game - he did make some important stops along the way.
Late in the first with the Caps leading 2-1, Samsonov shrugged off a high, hard shot from Eichel to prevent the Sabres from drawing even. He made a big save during a Washington power play when the Caps got sloppy in their own end, denying Curtis Lazar. Ovechkin then blocked Riley Sheahan's bid on the rebound.
In the third, Samsonov beat Hall to the back door on a Buffalo power play.
"I thought that he was really strong in net," says Laviolette of his young netminder. "A couple of the goals, they were those back-door, tap-in type goals that had a pass going through the slot. It makes it much more difficult for a goaltender to handle. For me, those are challenging for a goaltender to come up with that save. If they do, it's one of those highlight-reel saves.

"There were a lot of saves that he made inside the game that were big saves. They've got a dynamic team offensively, so I thought that he had to be called upon a few times to make some real good efforts, and I thought he did that. Overall, I thought that he had a strong performance."
Stepping Up - Washington's blueline accounted for two goals and four points in the season opener, and the workload of the Caps' six defensemen was kept between roughly 16-24 minutes, which should keep them all relatively fresh for Friday's rematch.
"I was really happily surprised with how we played, with the new staff and the new systems," says Caps defenseman Nick Jensen, who collected an assist on Garnet Hathaway's late empty-netter. "One would think it would take a little bit of time to adjust - especially with the shortened training camp and everything, and no exhibition games - but I thought we executed at a really great level, and played with a lot of attention to detail with our with our new systems. And I think that that led to a lot of offense for us and allowed us to put six goals in the net. I thought it was a really good effort by everyone."
Paired with Zdeno Chara in the former Bruin's first game as a Capital, Jensen skated 20:17 on the night and Chara logged 20:16.
What's it like playing with a surefire, future Hockey Hall of Famer?
"I mean, besides the fact that his legacy is so amazing and I have to get past that point first," says Jensen, "it's no wonder how he's been in this league so long. He is a really easy guy to play with, and he talks a lot. He always makes the right plays and he's always there for you, so it makes it really easy to play defense when you're playing with a guy like that."
Rust Never Sleeps - Buffalo was one of the seven NHL teams that did not participate in last summer's Stanley Cup playoff tournament in the bubble cities of Edmonton and Toronto, so Thursday's season opener represented the first game against an NHL foe in more than 10 months for most of the Sabres. Buffalo bench boss Ralph Krueger wasn't surprised by his team showing some early rust on Thursday, he saw it around the league the night before.
"I watched a lot of games [Wednesday] too," says Krueger. "We expected rust, and there was rust. And we expected an adjustment to the physicality and the speed.
"There were some breakdowns on [Washington's] part, too. It wasn't just us; they gave us chances. Even in the first period, we had six or seven pretty good chances. It just seems like it might be that way for the next few games. But we need to simplify with the puck, and we need to make sure that we are more compact defensively. We were a little hesitant. Our defensive game needs to take away the gaps and we need to attack quicker. I thought we were a little bit soft defensively as a group. We kind of fell back and we need to get back on our toes [Friday]."

New Kid In Town -Buffalo's rebuilt forward corps is going to give some teams fits this season and for years to come, as the roster is starting to fill in around Eichel, one of the most talented players in the league. With eight draft choices in the top 10 of the last eight NHL Drafts, the Sabres have collected six forwards, including Dylan Cozens. Cozens was chosen with the seventh overall pick in 2019, and he reported to Buffalo immediately after Team Canada lost the gold medal game to Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championship earlier this month.
Cozens made his NHL debut against the Caps on Thursday, skating on a line with Tobias Rieder and ex-Cap Cody Eakin. The 19-year-old native of Whitehorse, Yukon became just the third NHL player ever to ascend to the League from Yukon. The first two - Bryon Baltimore and Peter Sturgeon - each had NHL careers that spanned fewer than 10 games.
In his NHL debut, Cozens logged 12:09 in ice time and picked up his first NHL point with a helper on Rieder's first goal of the season, late in the second period.
"They had a really good shift there," says Krueger. "I thought that was an example of how we needed to play. They got on it, they had two or three retrievals, both Eakin and Cozens participated before Rieder actually showed that jam on the character goal. That's something we're definitely going to take with [us]. It was one of the better shifts of the night, and it's the kind of hockey that we need to play to have success against teams like Washington."
With his next point, Cozens will become the highest scoring player from Yukon. Sturgeon collected a lone assist in his six-game tour of NHL duty with the Colorado Rockies some four decades ago.
"Dylan played a very good first game, very calm," says Krueger. "He never looked overwhelmed. I saw even in a situation in the third period he got hit by [Zdeno] Chara, and no problem, he bounced right back at it. It was definitely an excellent debut from Dylan Cozens, coming from junior hockey to the pace that was played here today. We're really pleased with his game."

"Obviously there is a lot of excitement playing your first NHL game," says Cozens. "It's something you dream about since you are a kid. Obviously I was very excited, but there was some nerves. After I got that first shift out of the way, I got my legs under myself. I think that's when I started to settle down, was after that first shift."
Gord's Gold - When a bout of fisticuffs broke out between a pair of blueliners in the third period, it filled out the Gordie Howe hat trick for one of them and left the other just an assist shy of the same feat.
Dillon dropped the mitts and fought Buffalo's Jake McCabe at 15:27 of the third, giving the latter a Gordie Howe hat trick. McCabe earned the second assist on Rieder's goal and notched his first goal of the season just 20 seconds into the third.
Just past the midpoint of the second, Dillon floated a point shot through traffic for his first goal as a Capital, and his first since Dec. 12, 2019 when he was still skating for San Jose. All he lacked was an assist for a Gordie Howe hat trick of his own, but Dillon just missed out on collecting the helper he needed. From the Washington blueline, he started the scoring play that resulted in Backstrom's tally in the first period, hitting Oshie with a nice rinkwide pass. But Oshie and Ovechkin were credited with the assists on the Caps' first goal of the season.

By The Numbers - Carlson led the Caps with 23:43 in ice time … Lars Eller paced the Caps with 3:05 in shorthanded duty … Carlson led the Caps with six shots on net and Ovechkin led the way with eight shot attempts … Carlson and Ovechkin had three hits each to lead Washington … Dillon blocked a team high four shots … Eller won 11 of 16 draws (69 percent).