WASHINGTON — Braden Holtby led, the Washington Capitals followed.

It wasn’t about the volume of shots Holtby faced; it was in the way he faced them.

When the Capitals got caught up taking three penalties to give the Philadelphia Flyers a decisive edge in first-period play, there was Holtby operating with the Zen that saw him collect 48 wins this season.

A lot has been made of his preparation. A recent story in Sports Illustrated highlighted his game-day ritual of jamming out on the guitar, holding meditation sessions and running through visualization drills from the bench before taking to warmup.

The routine came in handy for Game 1 on Thursday.

The pace was furious in front of him when Philadelphia’s Brayden Schenn wound up for a slap shot from 35 feet away, but Holtby was collected as he kicked out a rebound to his right. Jakub Voracek one-timed it with velocity and Holtby smothered the chance as if it were just another save.

“I don’t know, I believe I should make those stops every time,” said Holtby. “Hopefully at that point of the game it shows that I’m prepared to the rest of the bench, and that’s all you can really ask for is an opportunity to start to contribute to the way the game’s going to play out.”

What Holtby contributed was a 19-save shutout that helped the Capitals offer a glimpse of where they might go from this point forward.

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“I thought we managed the puck and I thought we were able execute out of the zone, I thought we were able to get a forecheck, I thought we just had good structure in every part of the ice,” said Capitals coach Barry Trotz.

“I think our game will start building, slowly,” Trotz added. “Some things we can correct. I see us getting stronger here with more of these games.”

The lack of discipline the Capitals exhibited in the first period wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was the charge Tom Wilson took at a Flyers defenceman in the dying minutes of the third period, while his team was clinging to a 1-0 lead.

Discipline was an issue on both sides of the ice.

Simmonds’ retort to Wilson’s boarding infraction cost the Flyers a chance at a power play with 6:51 remaining. By engaging Wilson in a fight, he took himself out of the game.

If Philadelphia had remained close until that point, it was on the strength of their team defence. They bottled the neutral zone with precision, took away the passing lanes and frustrated Washington’s top players at every turn.

Sean Couturier, who typically leads the Flyers in that regard, left the game and did not return.

Alex Ovechkin, who led the NHL this season in shots (398) and goals (50), was held without a shot through the first 23 minutes of the game. He finished with three; all of them on the power play, none of them resulting in goals. But Philadelphia’s lack of discipline overshadowed that accomplishment and took them off course.

“We want to take away their time and space and be physical and try to wear them down,” said Philadelphia centre Ryan White, who threw two of the 27 hits his team registered in the game.

“We didn’t get as much pucks behind them as we wanted to,” White continued. “That’s our biggest goal; we want to make them play defence because that’s going to be our best defence. We got away from it a bit when we got into some penalty trouble in the second.”

It was White who kicked off the parade to the penalty box with a charge on Washington’s Dmitry Orlov.

Philadelphia defenceman Brandon Manning made a brilliant play to break up a rush after the Flyers killed off the White penalty. The problem was Manning’s interception pushed the puck out of play for a delay-of-game penalty.

All it took was a few seconds on the ensuing power play for Capitals defenceman John Carlson to score through a maze of players and give his team the advantage.

With that, Washington held Philadelphia to just eight shots over the final two periods—none of them quality scoring chances that would beat a goaltender of Holtby’s ilk.

“Obviously you’re going to have to find ways to beat him,” said Schenn. “I think that involves traffic and getting tips and screens because we feel like he’s going to make that initial save.”

The Capitals feel it too.

Holtby had every reason to be excited about meeting expectations. A shutout performance was a heck of a way to start this playoff run.

“We have a bigger goal in mind. We can’t get too wrapped up in one game.”