Caps Blast Leafs in Home Opener

After an impressive win to open the season in Boston Thursday night, the Capitals showed no letdown for their home opener, as they crushed Toronto 6-4 with an impressive performance from the team's stars and new acquisitions before the Leafs made a game of it with three goals in the third period.

In front of a packed house decked out mostly in red, Alexander Semin scored a pair of goals, Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Laich added their third tallies of the season and Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison also added one apiece in just their second game with the Capitals.

Simeyon Varlamov was impressive as well in his first start of the season, as despite being outshot by the Leafs throughout the contest, the Caps turned several key saves into scoring chances on the other netminder, and Washington rolled over Toronto in front of a "Hockey Night in Canada" audience.

Unlike last year, the team downplayed the Southeast Division crown from the previous year, just displaying a highlight reel from last season and then dropping the banner from the rafters in front of an appreciative sellout crowd.

Ovechkin then did his part to pump up the home crowd on his first shift at Verizon Center this season, taking a feed from Nicklas Backstrom and beating starting netminder Vesa Toskala with just 1:17 gone for a 1-0 lead and his third goal of the season.

The Leafs narrowly tied it with 7:45 gone in the period, but after turning aside a shot by Tomas Kaberle shot on his stick side, he recovered quickly for a carom off the boards and stuck out his leg just in time to recover and stop a driving Mikhail Grabovski.

Washington then got its first power-play chance of the night as Mike Komisarek took down Brooks Laich with a diving play just :18 after Varlamov's sparkling save. The Caps took advantage with the extra-man as Knuble took a rebound of a Chris Clark shot and beat Toskala for a 2-0 lead and his first goal in a Washington sweater with just 9:12 gone in the contest.

After another tremendous Varlamov stop with just over six minutes left, the Caps took advantage again as Laich broke open down the wing and beat Toskala high for a 3-0 lead with 6:07 left for his third of the young season and giving Washington a big edge despite being outshot 8-7 at that point.

Toronto got a chance to get on the board late on a Boyd Gordon penalty, but the Caps got the only shot of the chance and skated off to a standing ovation and a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

With his team reeling, ex-Caps coach Ron Wilson took out Toskala and put in Jonas Gustavsson, Toronto's big European aquisition during the offseason, and he made a couple of tough stops in his first few minutes of NHL action, and then Lee Stempnak got the Leafs on the board with 4:23 gone in the second with a nifty move in the slot that brought Varlamov down and out before depositing it in the open side of the cage.

However, the Caps answered just 1:04 later as Semin did some nice work along the boards, fed John Erskine at the point and then got the puck back down low and deked Gustavsson for his first goal of the season and a 4-1 lead.

Brendan Morrison then got in the act for Washington, beating Komisarek for a breakaway off a long feed from Mike Green and then beating the rookie netminder for his first goal in a Capitals uniform with a shot off the crossbar.

Semin got his second of the night with just 3:58 left in the period, taking a cross-ice Ovechkin feed then moving in and seeing his deke go off Francios Beauchamin for a 6-1 lead and putting the Leafs to bed before the end of the second period.

Toronto put another one past Varlamov with 2:04 gone in the third, as Alexei Ponikarovsky picked up a rebound of a Jeff Finger shot to cut the lead to 6-2, then a fluky goal by Stempniak shaved the lead down to three just 3:14 later as he deflected down a point shot that eluded Varlamov as the Leafs threatened to make a game of it.

The Leafs then closed to within two when Nicklas Hagman crashed the net and buried a puck with just 2:03 left to make the deficit 6-4 for Toronto but they would get no closer.

Washington moves to 2-0-0 on the season, and will get a tough test in their next game when they head to Wachovia Center to battle the Flyers, who also are off to a good start themselves with a pair of impressive wins over the Hurricanes and Devils.

Philadelphia matches up well with Washington defensively, and the team will get its first look at Chris Pronger wearing the Flying P logo. The Flyers can frustrate a team like Washington by slowing down the attack, so it will be interesting to see how the Caps attack new Flyer netminer Ray Emery.

But on a night to showcase their Stanley Cup candidacy in front of their home fans and all across Canada, Washington didn't disappoint in putting on a display that certainly will serve notice that they should be on the short list of contenders.