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‘That Winning Feeling’: What Capitals Said About First Win Of Season

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Washington Capitals

WASHINGTON — Grinning his classic missing-tooth smile, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin walked out of the locker room and down the hall, nodding at the media and team members around him. Then, once he was out of sight and around the corner, the Great 8 shouted out a shout of euphoria and relief.

“YES!” he yelled, his cheer channeling the thoughts of his teammates as it echoed off the walls of Capital One Arena.

After dropping back-to-back games to open the 2022-23 campaign, the Capitals captured their first victory of the season in a tight, well-earned 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

“I think just for the team to kind of feeling that winning feeling, it’s big going forward,” Darcy Kuemper said after capturing his first victory in D.C. “It’s good for morale and confidence with the upcoming schedule.”

Prior to Saturday’s tilt, Washington saw a shakeup through the lineup as head coach Peter Laviolette changed the combinations in hopes of igniting a spark. Not only did the first three forward lines change, with Dylan Strome replacing Evgeny Kuznetsov as the top center, but the power play changed as well as Strome took over the half wall while Marcus Johansson replaced Kuznetsov there as well.

“After two games like that, it’s a way to tell the guys, ‘Hey, it’s time to get going,'” T.J. Oshie, who had a goal and assist in the victory, said. “We have a certain standard that we need to play up to, live up to here, and we weren’t doing that in the first two games. We need to keep pushing that standard as the season goes and roll those things over. Definitely when the lines get mixed around… you come to the rink a little more focused than maybe you would otherwise.”

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Washington also unveiled a new tradition after the win. Last season, the team gave out an axe and shield to the offensive and defensive players of the game in honor of “Vikings.” This yea,r the team is handing out a giant rope to the player of the game, and also having them do a grip strength test. The slogan for the 2022-23 campaign appears to be “I won’t let go,” perhaps referencing the team all pulling on the same rope toward a win. The Capitals also appears to be capping it off with polaroid photos of the rope winners.

Head coach Peter Laviolette was also satisfied with Washington’s performance, and thought he saw more contributions and urgency. He also want to see the offense continue to break out, and believes this was a good first step for the Capitals.

“Yeah i mean it was more competitive… it wasn’t wide-open hockey, it was a lot of the grind that went on for 60 minutes,” Laviolette said. “So we stuck to it and battled back from being down 1-0, so it was good.”