Capitals 6, Blue Jackets 3
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The best team in the NHL played the worst team in the NHL on Tuesday in Nationwide Arena -- and it looked like it.
The Washington Capitals, on pace for the best season in franchise history, scored four goals on their first nine shots and roared to a never-in-doubt 6-3 victory over the woeful Columbus Blue Jackets.
Center Nicklas Backstrom scored two goals, while left winger Alex Ovechkin, left winger Jason Chimera, center Marcus Johansson and left winger Andre Burakovsky also scored for the Capitals, who have earned points in 17 of their last 19 games (16-2-1).
Center Evgeny Kuznetsov added four assists and defenseman Matt Niskanen added two assists.
Goaltender Braden Holtby made 28 saves for his 30th victory of the season.
The Blue Jackets inhabit the same planet as the Capitals, but theirs is a much different world.
Columbus lost more regulation games in the first month of the season (10) than the Caps have lost all season (eight).
The Jackets got goals from left winger Boone Jenner, defenseman Ryan Murray, and rookie left winger Kerby Rychel, who earned the first of his NHL career.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, playing his first game since Dec. 8 because of a groin injury, stopped only 22 of 27 shots.
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead at 9:30 of the first period when Rychel finished a 2-on-1 with center William Karlsson, burying a point-blank feed off a perfect Karlsson pass.
It was Rychel's first NHL goal, but it only served to awaken the Capitals.
At 12:15, Washington pulled to 1-1 when Backstrom finished a perfect 3-on-2 break with Ovechkin and right winger T.J. Oshie.
Chimera, a former Blue Jackets player, made it 2-1 when he scored from the slot at 15:52.
The Caps pulled away in the second period, scoring two power play goals on a double-minor high-sticking penalty by Blue Jackets defenseman Justin Falk at 3:03 of the period.
The first, by Ovechkin, took only 13 seconds. From his usual perch above the left circle, Ovechkin buried a one-timer off a Kuznetsov feed.
The second, at 4:47 of the second, made it 4-1. Backstrom scored on a wrister from the slot.
Even when the Blue Jackets threatened to make it interesting, the Caps had a quick answer.
Jenner scored his 15th goal of the season -- he scored off his own rebound after find space alone in front of Holtby -- to make it 4-2 at 9:35 of the second.
But Burakovsky's goal at 10:25 -- scored as Jenner's goal was being announced -- made it 5-2 and put the thin crowd back into a slumber.
The Blue Jackets pulled to 5-3 at 5:07 of third, when Murray -- in low -- gathered a puck that bounced off the end boards and beat Holtby with his backhand.
Johansson scored into an empty net with 32.4 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.
NOTES: According to The Columbus Dispatch, Blue Jackets veteran LW Scott Hartnell apologized to the team after practice on Monday for a rash of penalties in recent games, including one that almost cost the Blue Jackets a win over Colorado on Saturday. It might have earned Hartnell the respect of his teammates but didn't persuade coach John Tortorella. Hartnell was a healthy scratch against the Capitals. ... Washington D John Carlson, out since Dec. 26 with a lower-body injury, skated with the club for the first time on Tuesday and could return this weekend. ... Blue Jackets D David Savard is expected to miss four weeks with a strained oblique.