Capitals rout Bruins in NHL season opener

Alex Ovechkin and the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals opened their title defense with a 7-0 thrashing of the visiting Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.

After watching the franchise's first Stanley Cup banner ascend to the rafters, T.J. Oshie, a former Warroad High School star, opened the scoring just 24 seconds in, and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the first of his two goals 1½ minutes later.

Those goals were the two fastest by a defending champion in a season opener in NHL history.

"We scored right away," Ovechkin said. "After that, they were kind of in shock. We showed we're not going to give a team easy ways to beat us."

By midway through the second period, the Capitals chased goalie Tuukka Rask with five goals on 19 shots and ignited chants of "Back-to-back! Back-to-back!" from the crowd.

That's the chant Oshie started after the victory parade in June.

"I said it because I believe it," Oshie said. "We got a lot of guys in here that not too long ago were raising the Stanley Cup above our head. Not a lot's changed."

The emotional banner ceremony featured montages from the Capitals' playoff run and ensuing celebrations and the fans roared when Ovechkin carried the freshly engraved Cup onto the ice and skated a lap with it.

In Todd Reirden's first game as coach, the Capitals beat the Bruins for the 13th consecutive time and set a franchise record for goals in a season opener. Rask fell to 1-11-5 in his career against the Capitals.

"I'm out there to give us a chance," Rask said. "It didn't happen today. Three soft goals, you've got to look in the mirror and go fix it."

Toronto 3, Montreal 2 (OT): Auston Matthews' second goal of the game at 1:01 into the extra period gave the host Maple Leafs the victory. John Tavares had the other goal for Toronto. Frederik Andersen stopped 34 shots for the win. Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Shaw scored for Montreal, and Carey Price made 23 saves. Tavares, who signed a $77 million, seven-year deal July 1 after nine seasons with the New York Islanders, moved past Matthew Peca and roofed a shot over Price with 1:53 left in the second period.

Anaheim 5, San Jose 2: John Gibson made 31 saves, and Brandon Montour scored the tiebreaking goal with 11:58 to play as the visiting Ducks spoiled defenseman Erik Karlsson's Sharks debut. Rickard Rakell added a goal and two assists, Max Comtois scored on his opening shift in the NHL in the first game for the Ducks who got swept in the first round by San Jose last spring.