Caps Smother Avalanche, 3-0

Shutouts have become familiar for Caps goaltender Philipp Grubauer. Each of Grubauer's last three starts of the 2015-16 season resulted in a shutout, and so has his first starting assignment of 2016-17.

After being on the wrong end of the zeroes in his last three starts of last season, Grubauer stopped all 18 shots sent in his direction on Tuesday night, earning his first NHL shutout with a 3-0 whitewashing of the Colorado Avalanche. T.J. Oshie scored twice and Alex Ovechkin once; the Caps scored a goal in each period in support of Grubauer, and Washington ended an 0-for-9 power play blip to start the season.

Grubauer didn't have to work very hard. He stopped two shots from inside of 20 feet in the game's first minute, then he didn't see another shot for more than half a period. By night's end, those two shots in the game's first minute were the only two Colorado mustered from inside 20 all night long.

"Not too many [after] the first couple of minutes," says Grubauer. "What can I say? They did an amazing job, the whole team. Winning face-offs, puck possession, playing in [the Colorado] zone. I don't think we gave up too many scoring chances in the middle [of the ice]. Everybody was blocking shots. Great job by everybody."

In each of their first two games this season, Avalanche spotted their foes an early 2-0 lead before roaring back to earn victories in both games. All that chasing caught up with Colorado on Tuesday in D.C. Playing their second game in as many nights, the Avs didn't have the legs needed to comeback from another 2-0 hole against the Capitals.

Washington dominated the first 20 minutes of the game. The Caps owned a 20-5 advantage in shots on net and a 27-9 bulge in first-period shot attempts. The Avalanche's third defensive pairing of Fedor Tyutin and Patrick Wiercioch each had three shifts lasting over a minute in the first frame.

The Avalanche looked every bit like a team that had played the night before, right from the outset of the game.

"We're not using that as an excuse," says Avs forward Matt Duchene. "We didn't match their compete and their battle level. We knew they were going to come out like they did, and our first period was really terrible. Even after that, we didn't have much of a pushback. We weren't as patient or as confident as we should have been with the puck and we basically just chased the game all night."

The Capitals drew two first-period power plays, and they used the second of those man-advantage opportunities to draw first blood on the scoresheet. Just six seconds before Blake Comeau was to be released from the box for his cross-checking transgression, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin one-timed a blast past former teammate Semyon Varlamov. Ovechkin's goal - his first of the season and Washington's first power-play strike of the season - culminated a sequence of precision puck movement.

"Today we had a little better positioning," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom of the team's power play prowess against the Avalanche. "We moved it a little quicker and obviously we capitalized on the chances we got. That's what you need. Ovi started us off there with a good shot and we just kept it going. That was huge for our confidence on the power play."

Ovechkin's goal was also all the offense the Caps would need, and the first goal scored in support of Grubauer in 238 minutes and 14 seconds, dating back to last season.

The Avs showed a bit more life in the second, but Washington still held a significant advantage in territory, possession and chances. The Caps forechecked the Avs relentlessly, and when Colorado was able to clear its zone, it frequently found itself backing in to defend again almost immediately.

Just past the midpoint of the period, Jarome Iginla tried to spark his team in challenging Washington winger Tom Wilson to a bout. That decision led to another Capitals power play, as Iginla was assessed a minor for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct in addition to his five-minute sentence for fighting. It also took one of Colorado's best offensive weapons out of what was still a one-goal game at that point, thanks to some dazzling work from Varlamov.

A dozen seconds later, the Caps doubled their lead with a second power-play goal. Backstrom fed Oshie, and the latter beat Varlamov with a one-timer from the diamond that nestled just inside the far post.

MacKinnon shanked an open net shot in the second period, and Wiercioch hit the post early in the third after a clean Colorado face-off win. Grubauer gobbled up everything else, and Oshie put a coda on the scoring when he put back a rebound of an Ovechkin shot with 6:25 left in the game.

"We're not a team that is going to look for excuses," says Avs coach Jared Bednar, who suffered his first NHL loss in Tuesday's game. "We weren't good enough to start the game. We weren't hard enough; we weren't ready to skate. They were. We knew it was going to be a tough turnaround, but that can't happen. In my opinion, that type of period has to be unacceptable for this group."

When one coach is down, the other one is generally elated. Caps coach Barry Trotz was pleased with his team's performance and effort right from the start. Washington gave the weary Avs nothing to feel good about all night long.

"I think it's imperative that [when playing] a team that played the night before, you want to come at them," says Trotz. "You want to have a good first [period], so if you can get them on their heels a little bit and make them look up from a little bit of a hole all night, and I think it gets harder and harder as the night goes on.

"I thought we did a really good job. I liked our first period a lot. We generated a lot, we obviously got a power play goal, but I just thought we were skating. We had four lines going tonight. We just stayed with it, for the most part. There weren't too many hiccups on the way; it was a good effort by us."
The Right Side Of A Good Thing - When Alex Ovechkin bagged a power-play goal from his office at the left dot just past the midpoint of the first period of Tuesday's game against the Colorado Avalanche, it ended a long and strange drought for the Capitals.

And no, it had nothing to do with the team's power play.

Ovechkin's goal was the first scored in support of Caps goaltender Philipp Grubauer in a span of nearly four full games, a total of 237 minutes and 14 seconds of hockey. The Ovechkin tally allowed Grubauer to play with a lead for the first time in six starts, dating back to March 2 of last season.

Grubauer did the rest, stopping all 18 shots he faced to backstop the Capitals to a 3-0 victory over the Avalanche.

"The power play was working today," says Grubauer. "And we created a decent amount of chances in their net. The last couple of games we put a decent number of shots at their net. So if you're shooting, a couple pucks fly in once in a while. We've got to keep doing that to win those games.

Grubauer had a relatively easy night of it, going long stretches without seeing a shot to earn his first career NHL shutout over the Avs in his first starting assignment of the 2016-17 season.

"It doesn't matter if you get a lot of shots or not too many shots," says Grubauer. "You've always got to keep your focus high. But it's a little bit tougher to stay into the game and fell the puck, especially if you haven't played in a while. So that was an extra challenge today.

"It feels good. It took me a long time [to get that first shutout]. But next game is soon enough, so I'll put that behind me and move on. The team did an amazing job again."

Grubauer has done an amazing job too, in a difficult role and while drawing difficult assignments.

"Grubi got a lot of the junk mail, if you will," says Caps coach Barry Trotz of the backup goaltender's starting assignments last season. "He got a lot of the back-to-backs, he got the long-trip, hard-game, fly-two-and-a-half-hours-to-Florida-and-bus-another-35-minutes and all that. And [the opponent] is fresh. And we were throwing Grubi into those situations. He gets a lot of that."

He also didn't get a lot of offensive support in most of his starts last season. Grubauer benefited from two of Washington's season-high seven-goal outbursts last season, but the Caps scored a grand total of 26 goals for him in his other 15 starts of 2015-16, and they scored two or fewer goals in 12 of his 17 starting assignments.

"The guys are so happy for him," says Trotz, "because every day he battles and works with Mitch, and gets a thousand pucks a day shot at him and doesn't complain. The guys really wanted to make sure he got a shutout, and he deserved it. I thought he was real sharp. It was a real good team win for us.

Two For Tuesday - For the third consecutive game to start the season, a Caps forward netted a pair of goals in Tuesday's game. Following in the skate-steps of Andre Burakovsky and Daniel Winnik, T.J. Oshie tallied twice on Tuesday against Colorado.

It's the first time in seven seasons that Washington has had a player with two or more goals in each of its first three games of the season.

At the outset of the 2009-10 season, Ovechkin and Brooks Laich each scored twice in the opener against the Bruins in Boston, a 4-0 Washington win on Oct. 1, 2009. Alexander Semin netted a pair of goals in the Caps' home opener three nights later and Ovechkin and Semin each scored twice in Washington's third game of the season, a 6-5 overtime loss to the Flyers in Philadelphia on Oct. 6, 2009.

We Have Liftoff - Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov delivered a highlight reel hip check on Colorado forward Matt Duchene early in the first period of Tuesday's game, launching Duchene into the air and eliciting jaw drops and exclamations throughout the building.

Well executed hip checks are rare in the NHL these days, as the game has changed a good bit since the likes of Leo Boivin and Bobby Baun patrolled bluelines and regularly launched enemy skaters with a well-timed swivel of their hips.

"It was amazing that he was able to stay on his feet there," says Oshie in marveling at Orlov's check. "Typically in that situation when a guy goes down to a knee or gets a little low, it's dangerous. My reaction was that it was a good hit. You hope Duchene doesn't land funny there, which he didn't. So it was one of the cooler hits I've ever seen, that's for sure."

Connolly Debut -Forward Brett Connolly made his Capitals debut on Tuesday against Colorado after sitting out each of the first two games of the season as a healthy extra. The 24-year-old signed a one-year deal with Washington over the summer, and he skated the left side of a line with Lars Eller and Justin Williams on Tuesday.

"I thought I had a couple of chances," says Connolly. "It was good. It was good to get a couple of looks. It's good when you're getting chances, they'll go in [eventually]. I felt good out there tonight. It was good to play with Stick and Lars. Will is a veteran guy, and Lars too. I thought we complemented each other well and it was a good win."

Connolly finished the night with four shots on net, and a team-high four hits in 11:47 of ice time.

Special Delivery - Washington won the special teams battle in Tuesday's game, going 2-for-5 on the power play and killing off all three Colorado manpower advantage situations.

In games in which they scored at least one power-play goal and were also perfect on the penalty kill last season, Washington posted a perfect 17-0-0 record.

Washington has also earned more power plays than its opponent for three straight games, doing so for the first time since Feb. 16-20.

By The Numbers - John Carlson led the Capitals with 23:42 in ice time … Oshie led Washington with six shots on net and Ovechkin led the way with nine shot attempts … Brooks Orpik led the Caps with three blocked shots … Nicklas Backstrom won 13 of 17 face-offs (76%) and Jay Beagle won six of nine (67%).