{"id":869295,"date":"2026-10-03T11:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869295\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T11:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:04:14","slug":"lord-take-me-downtown-im-just-looking-for-some-tuch-caps-beat-canes-in-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869295\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord, take me downtown, I\u2019m just looking for some Tuch: Caps beat Canes in season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, well, well. The Washington Capitals<\/a> of 2026-27 are here, and they\u2019re good. They sprinted to a three-goal lead in the first period, but they let the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> stay in the game with unfortunate penalties.<\/p>\n

Alex Tuch<\/a> scored his first as a Cap after Pierre-Luc Dubois<\/a> outworked Canes goalie Brandon Bussi<\/a> behind his own net. Cole Hutson<\/a> outlasted Mark Jankowski<\/a> to make it 2-0, assisted by both Protae, then Tuch got his second goal of the game a few minutes later.<\/p>\n

Jakob Chychrun<\/a>\u2018s seeing-eye puck made its fall debut to help the Caps convert their first power play. Alas, it couldn\u2019t last forever: Sebastian Aho<\/a> got a power-play goal after a nice bounce following Tom Wilson<\/a>\u2018s block. That goal changed everythi \u2013 oh nevermind, Ryan Leonard<\/a> scored eight seconds later, a one-touch from Dylan Strome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Halfway into the third period, Logan Stankoven<\/a> \u2013 and if you know the joke, please share it in the comments \u2013 beat Thompson with a nasty outside shot.<\/p>\n

Caps beat Canes 5-2!<\/p>\n

Bullets bullets bullets. Okay, you\u2019ve got this, Peter. You\u2019ve done this hundreds of times. Thousands. Just write about the game. Have fun. If you do it right, no one will notice that you\u2019re a fraud. Pursue the power of positive thought. Make sure to delete this before posting.
\nAlex Tuch had two goals in his first period as a Washington Capital. He could have completed the hat trick shorthanded, but the puck rolled on him. We will be with this fella for a long time. This was the perfect first chapter.<\/p>\n

After watching that goal, you gotta think Tulsky got his calculator out and re-ran the numbers on Connor Hellebuyck<\/a>. (I still think Bussi is better, as of now).
\nThe Caps committed six (non-offsetting) penalties, so very many more than Carolina\u2019s lone slashing call. LT and PK put the KO on 83.3333333 percent of those shorthanded situations, but that\u2019s still a goofy amount of penalties in game one.
\nCole Hutson got busted for two of those penalties: an interference and a hold. I was going to say that his most notable trait was relative lack of hugeness, but his penalties overshadowed it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\"RMNB\"<\/p>\n

From the Umbrella Corporation out-of-town scoreboard, could you imagine a worse start for the Red Wings<\/a>? \u201cSell the team\u201d at the home opener!
\nI didn\u2019t know what to expect from them, but I really liked the fourth line of Jenner, Sourdif, and Beauvillier. They got Washington-typical deployments (i.e. no faceoffs in the offensive zone)
\nIf you read my cord-cutting story<\/a> or updated how-to-watch guide<\/a>, then you may wish to know that the gear icon overlay on the Monumental app is already gone.<\/p>\n

Time for another great year with my two best friends in my most demented parasocial fixation#joebsuitofthenight<\/p>\n

\u2014 Good Skeet Pete (@peterhassett.net)<\/a> 2026-10-02T22:58:58.761Z<\/a><\/p>\n

Star of the night, no doubt, was goalie Logan Thompson<\/a>, who was impossible to catch out of position. I have to doff my cap, however, to the meat shield erected in front of him. Matt Roy<\/a> and Marty Fehervary combined for double-digit blocked shots. Their sacrifice and that of the other eleven skaters who stepped in front of shots mattered a lot as the Canes started controlling the puck better late in the game.<\/p>\n

I would have been delighted to watch an 8-0 thigh-slapping, slapstick, season-opening blowout, but watching the Caps cope with the redoubling Canes through gutsy play is encouraging in its own different way. We are just 1.19 percent into this season, but we\u2019ve already seen this new roster play \u2013 and score and win \u2013 in different ways. Don\u2019t get me wrong though \u2013 bury them in pucks is still plan A.<\/p>\n

Talk to you tomorrow night in Tampa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, well, well. The Washington Capitals of 2026-27 are here, and they\u2019re good. They sprinted to a three-goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-869295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}