Holtby’s 26 saves lift Capitals to 4-1 win over Blackhawks

T.J.Oshie, John Carlson, Matt Niskanen and Alexander Ovechkin scored for the Capitals.

The Washington Capitals were challenged by their head coach Barry Trotz after an ugly 5-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday. He said he overslept after accidentally setting his alarm for 8:30 p.m. instead of 8:30 a.m. Caps would take that 1-0 lead into the first intermission, having outshot the Hawks 9-5. Minnesota’s best start came in 2006-07, when they won their first six games.

Said Holtby: “Obviously, that’s usually a strength of ours – not giving up odd-man rushes, so that’s what we’ll have to figure out, how to minimize that”. The Capitals heard that message loud and clear as they beat the reigning Stanley Cup champions 4-1 in a dominating performance. But the Capitals came out flat in the second period and momentum appeared to be swinging to Chicago in the second period. “Not sharp around the net”. At the same time, it’s the Blackhawks. The Caps played a nice clean game and managed to stay out of the penalty box. The Caps fired 24 shots on goal with Darling stopping 20. After Svedberg scored, the Capitals took over. “I think once we win a few more puck battles and races to the puck, that’s going to help us out a lot”.

Ovechkin sealed the victory at 14:18, scoring from the left side of the net after a back-and-forth with teammate Evgeny Kuznetsov.

The Capitals were obviously delighted to have their franchise scoring leader back on the ice, but they still had to do without center Niklas Backstrom, who has yet to play this season while recovering from hip surgery.

But the changes didn’t seem to make much of a difference early on in Thursday’s game against the Capitals, who hold a 1-0 lead after the first period.

For Chicago – which has only 10 goals in five games – coming close counts for something.

The Blackhawks owned a decisive 17-7 shots-on-goal advantage in the second period but fell further behind. Svedberg answered less than a minute later, ending Holtby’s bid for his 21st career shutout. It wasn’t as dismal a game as Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers, where the Blackhawks looked listless from start to (just about) finish.

With a four-game home stand to open the season, it was imperative Washington snag as many points as possible to put itself in a good position before heading out on a three-city Canadian road trip.

Scott Darling will start in goal for the Blackhawks as they play in the second game of their back-to-back against the Washington Capitals at the Verzion Center. The 2012 third-round pick played almost nine minutes in his National Hockey League debut but did not register a point.