On Monday, Matthew Phillips scored the first goal of his career and the first goal of the Caps’ season in a 3-2 shootout win against the Calgary Flames.
Unfortunately, this is the longest it took to get the Caps on the board to start the season, after Friday’s 4-0 loss to the Penguins.
This made us wonder what else we could find out regarding the first goal of the season, so below is a list of each one.
Phillips is the 36th Caps player to score a season-opening goal. Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin lead the Caps with three season-opening goals. Nine others have scored two season-opening goals: Aan Haworth, Andre Burakovsky, Bengt Gustafsson, Brooks Laich, Dmitri Khristich, Jaromir Jagr, Mike Gartner, Richard Zednik and T.J. Oshie.
Alan May scored a season-opening goal on Oct. 7, 1992. Congratulations, Alan!
Sixteen of the goals were scored on the power play. Only once was a goal scored shorthanded, by Jason Chimera in 2015.
The fastest goal came in 1981, when Ryan Walter scored only 12 seconds into the game.
Most of the goals were scored in the first period, while 12 came in the second and one in the third period.
| Season | Opponent | Result | Goal | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974-10-09 | @N.Y. Rangers | L, 3-6 | Jim Hrycuik | |
| 1975-10-07 | Pittsburgh | L, 2-4 | Greg Joly | Bill Clement, Hartland Monahan |
| 1976-10-05 | Atlanta | W, 6-5 | Hartland Monahan | Ron Lalonde, Yvon Labre |
| 1977-10-14 | Pittsburgh | W, 2-1 | Bob Sirois | Guy Charron, Ace Bailey |
| 1978-10-11 | @Los Angeles | W, 4-2 | Bob Girard | Rick Green, Guy Charron |
| 1979-10-11 | @Buffalo | L, 3-6 | Peter Scamurra | Dennis Maruk, Mike Gartner |
| 1980-10-10 | Winnipeg | W, 4-1 | Bengt-Åke Gustafsson | Dennis Ververgaert, Mike Gartner |
| 1981-10-07 | @Buffalo | L, 3-5 | Ryan Walter | Bobby Carpenter, Paul MacKinnon |
| 1982-10-06 | @N.Y. Rangers | W, 5-4 | Ted Bulley | Milan Nový |
| 1983-10-06 | @Philadelphia | L, 1-4 | Alan Haworth | Dave Christian, Bobby Carpenter |
| 1984-10-11 | @Philadelphia | T, 2-2 OT | Alan Haworth | Dave Christian, Timo Blomqvist |
| 1985-10-10 | @N.Y. Rangers | L, 2-4 | Bengt-Åke Gustafsson | Greg Adams, Mike Gartner |
| 1986-10-09 | @Pittsburgh | L, 4-5 | Gaétan Duchesne | Rod Langway, Bobby Gould |
| 1987-10-08 | @Boston | L, 3-4 | Mike Gartner | Greg Adams, Dale Hunter |
| 1988-10-07 | Pittsburgh | L, 4-6 | Mike Gartner | Yvon Corriveau, Dale Hunter |
| 1989-10-06 | Philadelphia | W, 5-3 | Geoff Courtnall | Dale Hunter, Calle Johansson |
| 1990-10-05 | Pittsburgh | L, 4-7 | Dale Hunter | John Druce, Michal Pivoňka |
| 1991-10-04 | Philadelphia | W, 5-2 | Sylvain Côté | Dale Hunter, Dmitri Khristich |
| 1992-10-07 | @Toronto | W, 6-5 | Alan May | Paul MacDermid, Kevin Miller |
| 1993-10-06 | @Winnipeg | L, 4-6 | Dmitri Khristich | Mike Ridley, Michal Pivoňka |
| 1995-01-21 | @Hartford | T, 1-1 OT | Dmitri Khristich | Calle Johansson, Joé Juneau |
| 1995-10-07 | St. Louis | W, 4-1 | Sergei Gonchar | Pat Peake, Keith Jones |
| 1996-10-05 | Chicago | L, 2-5 | Richard Zedník | |
| 1997-10-01 | @Toronto | W, 4-1 | Jaroslav Svejkovský | Calle Johansson, Joé Juneau |
| 1998-10-10 | Anaheim | W, 1-0 | Richard Zedník | Joé Juneau |
| 1999-10-02 | @Florida | L, 3-4 | Jan Bulis | Steve Konowalchuk, Joe Reekie |
| 2000-10-06 | Los | L, 1-4 | Calle Johansson | Adam Oates, Jeff Halpern |
| 2001-10-06 | New Jersey | W, 6-1 | Jeff Halpern | Steve Konowalchuk, Ulf Dahlén |
| 2002-10-11 | Nashville | W, 5-4 | Jaromír Jágr | Peter Bondra, Kip Miller |
| 2003-10-09 | N.Y. Islanders | W, 6-1 | Jaromír Jágr | Boyd Gordon |
| 2005-10-05 | Columbus | W, 3-2 | Alex Ovechkin | Dainius Zubrus, Jeff Halpern |
| 2006-10-05 | @N.Y. Rangers | L, 2-5 | Alexander Semin | Chris Clark, Kris Beech |
| 2007-10-05 | @Atlanta | W, 3-1 | Michael Nylander | Nicklas Bäckström |
| 2008-10-10 | @Atlanta | L, 4-7 | Alexander Semin | Sergei Fedorov, Mike Green |
| 2009-10-01 | @Boston | W, 4-1 | Brooks Laich | Nicklas Bäckström, Alex Ovechkin |
| 2010-10-08 | @Atlanta | L, 2-4 | Brooks Laich | Tomáš Fleischmann, Alexander Semin |
| 2011-10-08 | Carolina | W, 4-3 OT | Alexander Semin | John Carlson |
| 2013-01-19 | @Tampa Bay | L, 3-6 | Joel Ward | Tom Poti, Mike Ribeiro |
| 2013-10-01 | @Chicago | L, 4-6 | Alex Ovechkin | Mikhail Grabovski, Nicklas Bäckström |
| 2014-10-09 | Montreal | L, 1-2 SO | André Burakovsky | Troy Brouwer |
| 2015-10-10 | New Jersey | W, 5-3 | Jason Chimera | Justin Williams, John Carlson |
| 2016-10-13 | @Pittsburgh | L, 2-3 SO | André Burakovsky | Nicklas Bäckström, Marcus Johansson |
| 2017-10-05 | @Ottawa | W, 5-4 SO | Brett Connolly | Lars Eller, Matt Niskanen |
| 2018-10-03 | Boston | W, 7-0 | T.J. Oshie | Nicklas Bäckström, Matt Niskanen |
| 2019-10-02 | @St. Louis | W, 3-2 OT | Alex Ovechkin | John Carlson, Lars Eller |
| 2021-01-14 | @Buffalo | W, 6-4 | Nicklas Bäckström | Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie |
| 2021-10-13 | N.Y. Rangers | W, 5-1 | T.J. Oshie | Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov |
| 2022-10-12 | Boston | L, 2-5 | Anthony Mantha | Dylan Strome, Erik Gustafsson |
| 2023-10-16 | Calgary | W, 3-2 SO | Matthew Phillips | Sonny Milano |
