- Alex Tuch scored twice in the first period of his first game with Washington
- The Capitals knocked off the defending champion Hurricanes 5-2 in Raleigh
- Read below for video of both Tuch goals and the team history he matched
Alex Tuch didn’t need long to make an impression in Washington.
The 30-year-old scored twice in the first period of his Capitals debut Friday, and Washington handed the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes a 5-2 loss at Lenovo Center.
His first came 6:33 into the game. Pierre-Luc Dubois stripped Brandon Bussi behind the Carolina net and fed Tuch in front for the 1-0 goal, with Alex Ovechkin grabbing the second assist.
Watch Tuch’s first goal as a Capital:
Cole Hutson made it 2-0 at 11:33. Less than three minutes later, Tuch struck again when a Tom Wilson shot from above the left circle squeezed through Bussi and he was there to tap it home at 14:23.
Check out the second one:
That made Tuch just the fourth player in Capitals history to score multiple goals in his team debut. Brian Bellows, Ovechkin and Mikhail Grabovski are the other three.
Washington landed him in a June 24 sign-and-trade with the Sabres, who got David Kampf and a third-round pick back. Tuch’s deal runs eight years at $84 million, a $10.5 million cap hit. It was the headline move of a summer where the Capitals won the offseason.
Even the Capitals’ social team was feeling it:
Jakob Chychrun scored on the power play early in the second and added an assist. Sebastian Aho got Carolina on the board at 16:50 of the middle frame, but Ryan Leonard answered eight seconds later off a Dylan Strome feed. Logan Stankoven added one for the Canes midway through the third.
Logan Thompson made 31 saves. Ovechkin, now 41 and starting his 22nd NHL season, opened his year with that helper on Tuch’s first goal.
Carolina falls to 0-1-1 after dropping its opener 1-0 in overtime to Florida. Washington visits Tampa Bay on Saturday.
Tuch’s first trip back to Buffalo comes March 18, one of the dates on our NHL revenge game schedule. If this is how he plays against the champs, Sabres fans should get comfortable.
