Caps Blast Bruins in Season Opener

The 2009 season finally got underway in front of a packed house at TD Bank Garden and the visitors from the nation's capital showed the home crowd how it's done. Despite a slow start by the Capitals, the boys definitely found their mojo by the end of the first period and Brooks Laich kicked off the scoring with a dashing move assisted by young guns Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

Ovie had an outstanding start, netting two lovely goals in addition to his Laich assist. And for all the talk of Mike Knuble adding more firepower from directly in front of the crease, tonight it was Brooks Laich who pounded in two goals from inside the blue paint. The Bruins' Patrice Bergeron scored the lone goal late in the third despite the efforts of Jose Theodore, who gave a solid opening night performance. On the other side of the ice, Tim Thomas seemed to be suffering from the Vezina hangover (if there's such a phenomenon), despite flashes of brilliance that earned him the coveted award.

The Bruins players started wearing their frustration on their sleeves late in the game and Big Z went to the sin bin for cross checking Ovechkin after Ovie made a perfectly clean (brutally wicked, but clean) hit. John Erskine and Shawn Thornton went a round and dropped the gloves when tempers started to overflow to commemorate the first fight of the Capitals season.

So with a final score of 4-1, the Capitals came out blazing in the season opener in a building that hasn't been so lucky in previous meetings. Yes, I know it's a long and tough season. But what a way to start, huh? So let's toast a great win and while we're at it, a salute to one of the classiest guys to ever play the game - the great Joe Sakic.

Brace yourself for a sea of red and plenty of excitment on Saturday as the Caps take on the "ulimate fight club" Toronto Maple Leafs in the home opener. HM won't be there for all the fun as I'm headed to Philadelphia for a kids tournament. This will be a weird weekend for me as it's the first tournament that my twins aren't going to together. I'll only have one boy - whatever will I do without all the pre-game chirping and adolescent pleasantries for four hours in the car?