POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Golden Knights 1, Caps 0

All Of This And Nothing - There's an old saying in hockey, and it goes something like this: "If you get a lengthy 5-on-3 power play and you don't score, you usually don't win."

We've got another one here that we like to call The Jay Beagle Postulate: "If your fourth line scores the game's first goal, you've got a good chance to win."
The first of those sayings went against Washington in Monday night's game vs. the Vegas Golden Knights, and the second went against the Capitals. And sure enough, at night's end it was Vegas that came away with the two points.
Vegas goalie Robin Lehner was excellent in stopping all 34 shots he faced, and Golden Knights' fourth line winger Michael Amadio netted what turned out to be the game's only goal at 5:29, a put back of a point shot from Brett Howden.
Less than a minute after the Amadio goal, the Caps had a chance to tie the game and perhaps even take a lead when they had a two-man advantage of 1:57 in duration. But Lehner stopped all three Washington shots during that span, three more missed the mark and another was blocked.
"We don't win tonight unless our goalie is really good," says Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer. "We needed that from Lehnnie; we wanted to have a good start to this road trip. Obviously if you drop the first one the next three all look tougher, which is hard to look tougher than they actually are. But it was nice to start with a win, and he was our best player tonight."
In the final seconds of the 5-on-3, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin caught Lehner up high with a shot, breaking his mask.
"Ovechkin kind of broke my helmet, so I had to change it," says Lehner. "They have a good power play. They move the puck. and they have some good shooters. I thought we played well and our [penalty kill] was really good today.
"It was probably the hardest shot I've taken to the head. He broke my cage, so it was a little scary. You felt the cage kind of bent into the cheekbone a little bit, but I was lucky it wasn't a little harder."
Lehner's shutout was his first of the season, and the second of his career against the Capitals. It gave Vegas a victory to start a daunting four-game road trip for the Golden Knights, who will play the second of back-to-backs on Tuesday in Carolina.
"It's nice when you get a shutout for sure, but it's just nice to start the road trip with a win," says Lehner. "It's a big road trip, and it's two big points for us."
Making his fourth straight start and his fifth in Washington's last six games, Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek was also excellent. He stopped 28 of 29 shots in Monday's loss and has now fashioned a .929 save pct. over his last five starts (3-2-0).
"It wasn't too bad," says Vanecek of his recent run of starts. "I tried to focus on every game, and the guys helped me a lot. Today it was just tough to score the goal, but that will come. I feel pretty good."
For whatever reason, the Caps tend to provide Ilya Samsonov with more offensive support than they do Vanecek. Among all goaltenders with 10 or more appearances this season, Samsonov's average offensive support of 3.58 goals per game ranks sixth in the League, while Vanecek's 2.81 mark ranks 33rd.
"I think Washington has really hung their hat on the identity of defending really well," says DeBoer. "Their metrics defensively are really good, and then they get timely goals. Against them, we wanted to get out in front and get the first goal and play with the lead. So that was a big goal and a depth goal for us at the right time. There wasn't a lot of room out there tonight, especially early in that game."
Whitewashington - Lehner's previous shutout over the Caps came on April 6, 2019 - also in Washington - while he was with the New York Islanders. That game was the regular season finale of the 2018-19 season, and it was also Lehner's most recent start against the Capitals prior to Monday night's appearance.
Dating back to the final few minutes of a 5-1 loss to the Caps on Feb. 24, 2018 when he was a member of the Buffalo Sabres, Lehner has not allowed a goal in his last 121 minutes and 24 seconds of play at Capital One Arena, stopping 63 straight shots in the process.
Prior to Monday's game, the last goalie to win a 1-0 shutout decision over the Caps in Washington was Boston's Tuukka Rask on Feb. 3, 2019.
By The Numbers - Ovechkin led the Capitals with 24:44 in ice time, including the entirety of Washington's power play time for the night (8:03) … Evgeny Kuznetsov led the Caps with five shots and nine shot attempts … Ovechkin and Lars Eller led the Caps with half a dozen hits each … Trevor van Riemsdyk led the Caps with three blocked shots … Nic Dowd won nine of 12 draws (75 percent).