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The Montreal Canadiens turned their season around before it was even a week old.
Yanic Perreault had two goals and an assist, and Donald Audette also had three points as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Washington Capitals 5-1 in their home opener Tuesday night.
Audette, Andreas Dackell and Stephane Quintal also scored for Montreal, which has won two straight while outscoring opponents 9-1 since a season-opening 5-2 loss in Ottawa on Thursday.
``It's been night and day,'' goalie Jose Theodore said. ``The first game it seemed that Ottawa was a great team. They are a good team, but I don't think we played like we did the last two games against them. We learned from that game and that's why we were able to bounce back in Toronto and build a little momentum coming into tonight's game.'' NFL Tickets
Fresh from his 18th career shutout Saturday in Toronto, Theodore stopped 16 shots for the Canadiens, who were founded in 1909 -- eight years before the NHL was formed. They are 53-19-15 in home openers since the NHL began in 1917.
``This was a big thing for me growing up and it's just an honor to be here playing in it,'' said Montreal rookie Michael Ryder, who set up Perreault's first goal.
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Robert Lang scored for Washington, which played without suspended forward Mike
Grier.
``I don't know if Mike Grier can score four goals,'' Capitals coach Bruce Cassidy said. ``We weren't very good from the bottom of our lineup to the top. Goaltender, defense, forwards, I mean, let's face it, even the coaches -- another too many men on the ice (penalty).'' NFL Tickets
Grier served a one-game penalty imposed by the NHL earlier in the day for elbowing the Maple Leafs' Robert Reichel as the Capitals began a six-game road trip Monday with a 2-2 tie in Toronto.
``Obviously you don't want to miss a game but I had to,'' Grier said. ``It's tough to watch but something to learn from, I think.''
Alexander Semin, chosen 13th overall in last year's draft, assisted on Lang's goal in his NHL debut as he joined fellow 19-year-old players Boyd Gordon and Steve Eminger in Washington's lineup.
The Capitals -- without defensemen Brendan Witt and John Gruden for a second straight game because of injuries -- are 0-2-1 since a 6-1 victory over the New York Islanders in their opener Thursday. NFL Tickets
Dackell opened
the scoring 6:00 in with his first of the season. After taking Joe Juneau's
pass from the right corner, Dackell fanned on his first attempt from the circle
before recovering to fire a wrist shot over goalie Sebastien Charpentier's left
shoulder and just inside the crossbar.
Perreault scored a power-play goal at 16:05, taking a pass from Ryder behind
the net and beating Charpentier from the slot to put Montreal up 2-0.
Washington made it a one-goal game again just 40 seconds later after Canadiens defenseman Stephane Quintal flubbed a pass along the boards. Semin passed to Lang, who beat Theodore at 16:45 for his second goal of the season.
Perreault got his second goal of the game just 19 seconds into the second period to restore Montreal's two-goal lead.
``We got a lot of chances to score because we played well defensively,'' Perreault said. ``We wanted to get a strong start -- that's what we did tonight and after that we played really well.''
Quintal made it 4-1 when he got credit for the Canadiens fourth goal after his centering pass from the right corner went in off defenseman Josef Boumedienne.
Audette, who assisted on both of Perreault's goals, increased the lead to four at 14:53 as he took a pass from Perreault and put a shot from the leftside through Charpentier's legs.