Colorado falls back on old habits, shutout 3-0 by Washington

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME RUNDOWN

One night after handing the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins their first loss of the season, the Colorado Avalanche continued their unforgiving opening roadtrip by visiting the Washington Capitals, last year’s President’s Trophy winners.

Matt Duchene would generate a nice opportunity for the Avalanche right off the hop, but that was all the offense to speak of for a tired Avalanche team that could have been chased out of the building in a first period that featured a 20-5 shot advantage for the Washington Capitals.

The Capitals were quick to jump all over the Avalanche and would have earned their first goal early if not for a goal line skate save by defenseman Francois Beauchemin. Dmitry Orlov would change the tenor of the game when he lit Matt Duchene up with an enormous hipcheck, flipping the Avalanche forward through the air and making highlight reels across the sports world.

The already shaky Avalanche lost control of the game in the minutes that followed, chasing the Capitals all over the ice and bleeding shot attempts. While Semyon Varlamov played a very sharp period, he was unable to stop Alex Ovechkin on the Capital’s second power play, and the future Hall of Famer buried the opening goal with his patented shot from the faceoff dot.

The second period saw the Avalanche find their legs and slow the bleeding on the shot counter, but they were unable to close the gap on the scoreboard. Halfway through the period Jarome Iginla picked a fight with Capitals agitator Tom Wilson and was assessed an extra 2:00 and 10:00 game misconduct for instigating the fight. The Avalanche’s porous penalty kill surrendered their second goal of the night on a tic-tac-toe play that T.J. Oshie buried past a hopeless Varlamov.

The Avalanche played a much better second period, trailing the Capitals just 9-7 on the shot counter. Nathan MacKinnon nearly cut the Capitals’ lead to one when Erik Johnson fed him the puck on the back door but MacKinnon missed the net high and wide.

The bad blood between Iginla and Wilson boiled over for a number of players. At the end of the second period captains Gabriel Landeskog and Alex Ovechkin threw some glove punches along the Avalanche bench and midway through the third, Rene Bourque was sent off for crosschecking John Carlson. The Avalanche continued to keep things close in the third period and Nathan MacKinnon had an excellent chance in the slot after a jaw-dropping deke through the Capitals defense, but there was no comeback to be had. T.J. Oshie put the game away, burying an Alexander Ovechkin rebound with 6:30 left in the game.

THREE STARS

1. Philip Grubauer – 18 saves and a shutout
2. T.J. Oshie – 2 goals, 6 SOG
3. Alexander Ovechkin – 1 goal, 1 assist, 5 SOG

PLAY OF THE GAME

Dmitry Orlov’s hit on Matt Duchene will surely be at the top of highlight reels all night.

Orlov hit on Duchene pic.twitter.com/EdgrVTEQWc

— Stephanie (@myregularface) October 18, 2016

TURNING POINT

Jarome Iginla picked a fight with Tom Wilson to try and spark some energy from his club but was assessed an instigator penalty on the play. On the ensuing power play the Capitals dismantled the Avalanche power play with an All-Star passing sequence and T.J. Oshie buried the puck, halting any momentum from the Avalanche and putting the game out of reach.

BY THE NUMBERS

Nathan MacKinnon led the team in shots on goal again with four of the team’s 18 opportunities. The Avalanche were outshot 40-18, but Semyon Varlamov made 37 saves.

WHAT’S NEXT

Colorado has a CBA mandated day off tomorrow before visiting the Tampa Bay Lighting Thursday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 5 p.m. MST.