Capitals 3, Thrashers 1
Scoresheet - Wash Post - AJC
You could feel the nervous anticipation around the beltway. Caps fans turned there televisions to Comcast SportsNet to get the new Capital season started. The Caps started on the road against Division rivals Atlanta Thrashers. It was time to see what the boys could do.
The baby blues have a potent offense that looked a little lackluster in this game. Glen Hanlon's possession game was something to see as it seemed for the entire first period the Capitals had the puck deep in Atlanta's zone. Micheal Nylander scored on the power play in the first and two minutes later John Erskine scored a bomb from the blue line (set up by Ken Klee, wrong team Ken) and like that the Caps were up 2-0.
Viktor Kozlov added a goal in the third and the Caps hold off a late Thrasher surge to spoil the Atlanta's crowd home opener and opened the season impressively. Brent Johnson was good in net. Besides the goal that was shot at an extreme angle by rookie Bryan Little, Johnny was solid in net stopping 28 shots. In fact shots on goal was a lopsided 40-29 in favor of the Caps. Remember last season when that 40 was against the Capitals? I do, and it's nice to see the tables turn.
The new additions were immediatly felt with goals both by Nylander and Kozlov. Alex Ovechkin played one of the best games I have seen him play. Even though he only had an assist, Ovie was back playing defense and was dominating the play when he was on ice. He even got clipped up high on a follow through shot and got a little blood on the uniform (which beaded off - no more blood on the jerseys, say it ain't so).
The Caps played a dominating road game. This is an extremely different team from a year ago. The Capitals look confident and energized. Uncle Ted was right - the rebuild is over.
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