A shorthanded Sabres squad missing Casey Mittelstadt, Victor Olofsson, Craig Anderson and Henri Jokiharju dropped a not-so-close 5-3 contest to Washington on Monday night. The Sabres have now lost five games in a row and find themselves 5-5-2 on the season after starting the year 5-1-1.
The first period started badly for the Sabres as Trevor van Riemsdyk fired a shot from the point which Alex Ovechkin deflected before it went off Tom Wilson’s elbow and past Dustin Tokarski. There was nothing much Tokarski could have done as the puck pinballed around and found the back of the net. The Sabres were hemmed in their own zone for large swaths of the first period and were unable to manage much pressure of their own.
Tage Thompson was the only Sabre who could manage to hold onto the puck in the offensive zone and make plays through the first 20 minutes. To say that Thompson has elevated his game following the switch to center would be a disservice to the major gains the tall center has made in all facets of the game. While Thompson has continued his stellar play, he’s not getting much help from anyone else to sustain offensive zone pressure with any regularity. Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo have returned to Earth following the stratospheric production of the first five games that was never going to be sustainable. Those other three Sabre lines tried their best to hold the Capitals at bay and couldn’t manage any sustained zone time, even on the power play.
Speaking of the power play, the one-and-only opportunity for the Sabres with the man advantage in the first period was a futile endeavor. Not only did they fail to manage a scoring opportunity, they couldn’t even gain the zone with possession and establish a solid presence. It’s evident that the loss of Casey Mittelstadt and Victor Olofsson have totally neutered the man advantage opportunities for the blue and gold.
I’m going to go ahead and put on my captain obvious hat here and say that the first period demonstrated how the Sabres are short of any game breaking talent. There’s no one who can turn the tide of the game on any given shift, and the Capitals capitalized on that by exiting the period with a 12-6 shot advantage. The Caps probably deserved another goal-or-two and the Sabres generated exactly zero high-danger chances by my count.
The second period didn’t start any better for the visiting Sabres.
Defenseman Christian Wolanin – who made his Buffalo debut Monday – dished up a juicy giveaway to start the second period which the Capitals converted into a goal less than three minutes into the second period. The game felt all but out of reach following that goal as the Sabres were able to generate exactly zero opportunities up to that point. Alex Ovechkin must have been feeling generous, though, as he decided to blow a tire while exiting his defensive zone. Cody Eakin gladly lapped up that giveaway and fired an absolute laser high glove side to beat Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanacek. That goal seemed to breath some life into the Sabres’ bench.
The Great Eight would make up for that blunder in short order, though.
Ovechkin put the game away midway through the second as he tied Brett Hull for the 4th most NHL goals in NHL history with 741. Ovechkin has been an absolute pleasure to watch over the years and his continued goalscoring prowess is as fun to watch as ever as the Russian winger enters his late 30s. Ovechkin has always brought a bit of flair and personality to a league that is often devoid of it. Between his gold skate laces and his tinted visor (before the league outlawed tinted visors because the NHL isn’t allowed to be fun), OV is very easy to root for.
The Sabres were outshot 21-15 by the end of the second and it would be hard to argue that they deserved a better fate than losing by 2 after two periods. Other than Thompson dangling and dishing, they really had nothing going for them offensively. Dylan Cozens got absolutely lit up by massive hits twice during the game. That situation is getting worse and worse though the Sabres are reticent to move him down to Rochester where he belongs. He’s not getting any better and his confidence seems to be worsening.
The third period settled into a stagnation that allowed the Sabres to lull the Capitals into a false sense of security. Anders Bjork, who had been something of a disappointment for the Sabres during the early going of the season, finally got on the board following a mad scramble in front of the net. This young squad needs more from the speedy winger than 2 points in 11 games, and they got a nice, gritty goal from the young American to draw things to within one goal midway through the final frame.
Kyle Okposo then gave the puck away in the defensive zone and allowed Tom Wilson to cash his second of the night to totally seal the deal. The Sabres don’t need Okposo to score a ton of goals but they certainly can’t afford to have him giving goals away to the opposition. They need him to be a solid, steady, defensive presence. He can’t be the reason that the Sabres give up goals, especially when they don’t have the firepower in the lineup to generate offense.
Next up for the Sabres will be Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Friday which figures to be a brutal matchup unless the Sabres can get some firepower back in the lineup. They’re going to need all the help they can get with the excellent duo of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl coming to town.
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