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Caps 4, Sabres 3 (SO) - Short-handed Caps Earn Two Points |
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Hello All,
The Washington Capitals entered last night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres without four of their starting players. Ovechkin, Orlov, Kuznetsov, and Samsonov will be be out four games as penalty for breaking COVID protocol after the Penguins game on Sunday. Without getting in to too much detail about the entire event, I was very disappointed with the news that they broke protocol and would be missing four games. You have to be smarter than that. In a shortened season, every point counts even more, and this just puts the rest of the team in a pinch. Peter Laviolette has touted the Capitals depth since training camp. The next four games will truly test the depth that Laviolette speaks so highly of.
Moving on.
The Capitals hosted the Buffalo Sabres for their first game on home ice this season after playing the first four games of to open the season on the road. The Capitals came out victorious winning 4-3 in a shootout in what was a pretty exciting but sloppy game.
The Capitals now have a 16-1-2 record in their last 19 home openers. I don’t have other teams stats across the league but I would bet that this is one of, if not the best record in the entire NHL during that span of 19 seasons.
Here are some surface level stats for the game:
First Period Shots: WSH 11, BUF 7
Second Period Shots: WSH 10, BUF 14
Third Period Shots: WSH 7, BUF 6
OT Shots: WSH 4, BUF 0
Total Shots: WSH 32, BUF 27
Takeaways: WSH 5, BUF 2
Giveaways: WSH 7, BUF 3
Hits: WSH 24, BUF 20
Blocks: WSH 11, BUF 12
PIM: WSH 6, BUF 4
Random Observations + Stats from the game:
With home ice and last-change. The Capitals rolled with the Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway as somewhat of a “sandpaper line” in attempt to slow down the Sabres top line of Hall-Eichel-Reinhart. Other than a few minor breakdowns throughout the game, Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway did an incredible job keeping the Sabres top line off the score-sheet. The usually productive Hall-Eichel-Reinhart line was held pointless for just the second time this season.
Jack Eichel had a couple real good chances to score but simply did not convert. That is the kind of season it has been for Eichel so far from a goal scoring perspective. While he is tied for the league lead with six assists, he has yet to score a goal even though he has had a couple strong high-danger chances. This is the longest Eichel has gone goaless in his career to start a season with the Bufflao Sabres. He has scored at least a goal within the first two games of the season in all five seasons leading up to this one. Here are his stat lines for the first three games in each of the last six seasons including this one:
2015-2016: 2G-0A
2016-2017: 3G-1A
2017-2018: 1G-2A
2018-2019: 3G-1A
2019-2020: 1G-2A
2020-2021: 0G-6A
While this is the longest he has gone in his career without a goal to start the season. Six assists in the first three game is objectively the most productive start to a season he has ever had. While I am sure he is frustrated he hasn’t scored a goal, he has to be happy with his start.
Zdeno Chara recorded his first point as a Capital last night. With his assist he joins Doug Harvey, Allen Stanley, Tim Horton, and Chris Chelios as the only five defencemen in NHL history to post a regular season point at 43 years or older. On this assist, Chara also became the oldest player in Capitals history to record a point. -Capitals PR
John Carlson record his 376th career assist last night. That assist moves him ahead of Dale Hunter for 5th most in Capitals Franchise history -Capitals PR
Jakub Vrana scores his third goal of the season. Entering the game, Vrana ranked third in the NHL over the last three seasons with 1.43 goals per 60 minutes of play at five-on-five (min. 100 games), only trailing Alex Ovechkin (1.48) and Montreal's Brenden Gallagher (1.47). -Capitals PR
13 of the Capitals 32 Shots came from defencemen. They were noticeably involved in the offense and putting pucks on net every chance they could get. The first goal from Backstrom originated on a Dillon shot from the left blue-line.
Dylan Cozens scored his first career NHL goal last night for the Buffalo Sabres. He had a chance to win the game in the shootout but failed to convert. I had a chance to watch a lot of Cozens in the world junior tournament (on my TV) and this kid can play. He was second in points during the entire world junior tournament. He will be a future stud in this league. Congrats to him on his first career goal.
The Capitals continue to give up a ton of high-danger chances against. It must have been at least 10 times last night where Buffalo was able to get behind the defense and generate a grade-A opportunity. I touched on this in another blog but through five games, the Capitals give up the 9th most high-danger chances against and the 4th most high-danger goals against in the entire NHL. This is a worrisome statistic and we must start recognizing this could likely be more a result of the talent and system versus just chalking it up to early season sloppiness from limited training camp and no preseason.
Overall, The Capitals played well enough to win this game even being short handed. The game was tied on the scoreboard and tied on shots heading into the third period. The Capitals held a 7-6 shot advantage in the third period but if you look closer at the numbers, the Capitals only gave up two scoring chances at 5on5 and only allowed one high-danger chance in the third period.
There is no word on Tom Wilson and the severity of his injury. He left the game and did not return. He has easily been the Capitals best all around player to start the season with 6 points in 4.5 games. Lets hope he does not miss much time as the Capitals are already short-handed enough as it is.
The Buffalo Sabres remain one of the most disciplined teams in the league as it relates to taking penalties. According to nhl.com/stats, the Buffalo Sabres rank first in the league taking a league low 1.57 penalties per 60 minutes. Last night, the Capitals earned their first power play of the game with 10 seconds left in the third period. Kudos to Buffalo for this stat. I am very jealous…not gonna lie.
In closing, the Capitals showed a generally solid effort last night. Sure there were more than a few defensive lapses but they got a win when the squad was seriously short-handed. If they can grab another against Buffalo on Sunday, I will be thrilled. From there the Capitals have a tall task ahead of them as they face one of the stingiest teams in the league in the New York Islanders.
Thoughts on the game? Thanks for reading and GO CAPS
Statistics and Numbers were pulled from the following:
nhl.com/stats
hockey-reference.com
naturalstattrick.com
@CapitalsPR Twitter page
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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