Hello All,

The Washington Capitals took care of business against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night winning by a score of 3-1.

Here are some stats from the game:

Shots on Goal:

WSH – 21

BUF – 23


Faceoff %:

WSH –51.3

BUF –48.7


Power Play:

WSH – 1/1

BUF – 1/2


Hits:

WSH – 22

BUF – 17


Blocks:

WSH – 7

BUF – 14


Chances For:

WSH – 49

BUF – 45



Chances For (5v5):

WSH – 42

BUF – 40


Scoring Chances For:

WSH – 24

BUF – 18



Scoring Chances For (5 on 5):

WSH – 21

BUF – 17


High Danger Chances For (5 on 5):

WSH – 5

BUF – 8



Here are some quick takeaways:



-Nicklas Backstrom scored a goal last night. This is one of the best starts he has had to start a season in recent years. He has been the Capitals most consistent point producer and goal scorer. His 20 points leads the team. In second place is Alex Ovechkin with 14 points. Backstrom also leads the team with 8 goals.

-The Capitals scored on their lone power play opportunity of the night. As it currently stands, the Capitals have the 4th best power play in the league at 32.4%. Ahead of them is Toronto (34.6%), Dallas (33.3%), and Chicago (32.7%). Unfortunately, the Capitals rank 30th with 37 total power play opportunities. They also rank 30th with 2.47 PP opportunities per game played. The Capitals do not get a lot of power plays but when they do, they are one of the best teams in the league at converting. This is fool’s gold in my opinion. The Capitals need to be better at consistently generating power plays in games.

-With that being said above, the Buffalo Sabres continue to be one of the stingiest teams in the league when it comes to taking penalties. The Sabres rank #1 in the league with just 2.33 penalties taken per 60 minutes. They also rank first with just 28 minor penalties all season. For reference, the Capitals rank 14th best with 51 minor penalties total this season.

-The Capitals third line scored again last night. Conor Sheary scored a goal on a juicy rebound. He had a beautiful opportunity in the first period but was robbed by Ullmark who made a sensational highlight reel save. Conor Sheary’s 1.86 goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five leads the Capitals and ranks tied for ninth in the NHL among players with at least 10 games played. Also, that is back to back games Sheary has scored his first goals against former clubs (as a member of the Washington Capitals). That is pretty cool. I don’t have any deep stats to confirm but I would imagine that is a pretty rare occurrence.

-This was another strong outing for Vitek Vanecek. With the support of a more consistent defense, Vanecek stopped 22 of the 23 Buffalo shots. Vanecek has stopped 63 of 65 shots faced over his last seven periods, good for a .969 save percentage. This is the second game in a row he carried a shutout midway through the third period and the third time this season he has held a shutout with less than 10minutes left in the third. I think he will get one here soon.

-In four games this season against Buffalo, Vitek Vanecek is 3-0-1 with a 1.92 goals against average and a .938 save percentage. Vanecek is now tied with Chicago’s Kevin Lankinen for the most wins among rookie goaltenders this season (7).

-The Buffalo Sabres continue to reel. They have lost four games in a row and have only scored one 5v5 goal during that stretch of losses. The Sabres rank dead last in the league with only 15 5v5 goals in 13 games. That is 1.15 5v5 goals per game. The Capitals score 2.53 5v5 goals per game.


All in all, I thought the Capitals took care of business tonight. This could have easily been a trap game after coming off such an emotional win at Pittsburgh. It wasn’t perfect, but it never is. The Sabres are struggling big time right now, especially 5v5. The Capitals played a strong defensive game in front a Vanecek, special teams scored a PP and a SH goal, and Vanecek seems to be heating up. Lets see if the Caps can keep it up and get some Revenge against the Rangers on Saturday at 12:30am ET.



Thanks for reading. Co Caps!


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Stats and Facts provided by:

nhl.com/stats
hockey-reference.com
naturalstattrick.com
@CapitalsPR Twitter page

Follow me on Twitter @HB_Capitals

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