Washington Capitals (6-5-0 12pts) v. Buffalo Sabres (4-4-3 11pts)

Game Recap:

After another rough showing at home, the Washington Capitals travel up to Buffalo to faceoff with the Sabres. Before the game, head coach Spencer Carbery met with the media. First discussing forward Pierre-Luc Dubois who was injured on Friday night against the New York Islanders. “[He] did not travel and I would call him day-to-day,” Carbery said. “He’s getting, uh, evaluated back home.”

“He [Dylan Strome] will be a game time decision to warmup and we’ll see where he’s at,” Carbery said when asked about Strome’s status for tonight’s game. “If Strommer doesn’t play, [Spencer] Smallman to go [into the lineup].”

“It’s not as sharp as we’d like it to be,” Carbery said when asked about the Capitals inconsistency with the puck and the amount of giveaways they’ve had the past two games. “I think some guys are fighting the puck right now. I don’t think it’s any different… then like we talk about with our execution right now it’s just off with a lot of guys fighting the puck, bobbling it, going over their stick, I think a prime example would be, so the turnovers, you look at Mikey’s [Connor McMichael] 2-on-1 right? You’re like, ‘ah,’ it’s almost there to pass it over to Willie [Tom Wilson], it’s a bobbling puck, rolls into the corner. It’s a 4-on-1 or 4-on-2 back the other way. So those plays are just I’m, I’m not pinpointing that exact play, but that’s a microcosm of what’s happening a lot with our group right now.”

For the Capitals, they will have Charlie Lindgren between the pipes for them, and in the last two games for Lindgren, the Capitals looked listless in front of him. “Yeah, I would expect them to lay it out on the line for him tonight in this back to back difficult environment,” Carbery said when asked about how the team should look in front of Lindgren against Buffalo. “[Buffalo is a] hard team to play against that we’ve had our struggles with with their speed, skill, mobility on the back end. So, um, gonna need everything that we’ve got from our group tonight.”

Going into the game, the Capitals would receive good news as Dylan Strome would return to the lineup and would center the second line with Anthony Beauvillier and Ryan Leonard. In the first period, Strome would strike quickly to give the Capitals the 1-0 lead 1:07 into the game. Then Aliaksei Protas would score on a tic-tac-toe play with Connor McMichael to give the Capitals the two goal lead a little over a minute after Strome’s goal. However, 15 seconds after Protas’s goal, Tage Thompson would score his fifth of the season to get the Sabres on the board and back within one. Moments later, Tom Wilson would take an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a scoring opportunity by McMichael, and the Capitals would kill off the penalty. Sparks would fly after Jordan Greenway would do an illegal check to the head of Declan Chisholm which would draw the ire of Wilson who would fight Greenway. For the Sabres, they would weather a storm from the Capitals which would see Alex Ovechkin get a really nice opportunity to score, but instead, Alex Tuch would score to tie the game at two for the Sabres. After some back and forth chances for both tea,s, with 1:15 remaining in the first period, Isak Rosen would score his first career NHL goal to give the Sabres the 3-2 lead.

Great start for the Capitals, but once they took the 2-0 lead, the Sabres were able to flip the script on the Capitals to take the 3-2 lead.  The late goal by Rosen is not ideal for the Capitals as that really gives the Sabres the momentum going into the first intermission.

In the second period, the Capitals would survive a wave of chances from the Sabres, which would lead to a really great 2-on-1 for the Capitals, but Protas would beat Ukk0-Pekka Luukkonen but hit the post instead of going into the net. 6:20 into the period, the Capitals would be given their first powerplay opportunity as Alex Tuch would be called for interference. The Capitals powerplay did get some chances on net, but they continued to struggle with the extra man advantage. However, the Capitals would get a dominate pair of shifts to generate some scoring chances after the powerplay expired. The Capitals and Sabres would continue to trade chances, including one for Alex Ovechkin that could have turned into a rebound goal for Protas, but Ryan Leonard would take a hooking penalty to give the Sabres their second powerplay of the game. The Capitals would go on to kill off the penalty, and then create a scoring chance for themselves to take some momentum from the Sabres. In the final minute of the period, Matt Roy would shoot one from the point that Sonny Milano would redirect to tie the game at three for the Capitals. After the goal was scored, there was some rough housing that resulted in a pair of penalties.

Then in the third period, we would see an Alex Ovechkin faceoff, which is very rare, but a little over 3 minutes into the period, Declan Chisholm would get called for holding to send the Capitals to the penalty kill for the third time this game. While the Sabres would get some chances, the Capitals would kill off the penalty, and then draw a penalty of their own to go on their second powerplay of the game. The Capitals would not be able to set it up to get chances on net during the powerplay, but once the penalty expired, Milano would draw another tripping penalty to put the Capitals back on the powerplay. For the third time in this game, the Capitals would fail to capitalize on the powerplay. Both teams would play back and forth hockey looking for the winning goal, but Alex Tuch would take a penalty for holding to put the Capitals on their third straight powerplay this period, and we would see a really great opportunity for Alex Ovechkin, but then at the same time we would see a really bad turnover to end the powerplay that luckily the Sabres did not capitalize on that shorthanded chance as this game would go to overtime tied at 3.

In the extra frame, the Capitals would absolutely dominate the Sabres, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen would not allow the Capitals to score. In the shootout, both goaltenders would look spectacular, but Bowen Byram would get the lone goal to give the Sabres the 4-3 shootout victory over the Capitals.

 

Lineups:

Washington Capitals

Alex Ovechkin — Hendrix Lapierre — Sonny Milano

Anthony Beauvillier — Dylan Strome — Ryan Leonard

Aliaksei Protas — Connor McMichael — Tom Wilson

Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Justin Sourdif

Martin Fehervary — John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy

Declan Chisholm — Trevor van Riemsdyk

Charlie Lindgren

Logan Thompson

Scratched: Dylan McIlrath, Spencer Smallman

Injured: Rasmus Sandin (upper body), Pierre-Luc Dubois (lower body), Ethen Frank (upper body)

 

Buffalo Sabres

Jason Zucker — Tage Thompson — Jordan Greenway

Josh Doan — Ryan McLeod — Alex Tuch

Isak Rosen — Jiri Kulich — Jack Quinn

Josh Dunne — Peyton Krebs — Beck Malenstyn

Mattias Samuelsson — Rasmus Dahlin

Owen Power — Conor Timmins

Bowen Byram — Michael Kesselring

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Alex Lyon

Scratched: Jacob Bryson, Mason Geertsen

Injured: Zach Benson (lower body), Colten Ellis (back), Tyson Kozak (lower body), Justin Danforth (lower body), Josh Norris (upper body)

 

First Period

WAS Goal – 1:07 – Dylan Strome (3) from Anthony Beauvillier (2) and Ryan Leonard (3)

WAS Goal – 2:15 – Aliaksei Protas (5) from Connor McMichael (3) and Tom Wilson (7)

BUF Goal – 2:30 – Tage Thompson (5) from Jason Zucker (3)

WAS Penalty – 4:39 – Tom Wilson – 2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct

WAS Penalty – 7:04 – Tom Wilson – 5 minute Major for Fighting

BUF Penalty – 7:04 – Jordan Greenway – 5 minute Major for Fighting

BUF Penalty – 7:04 – Jordan Greenway – 2 minutes for Illegal Check to the Head

WAS Penalty – 7:04 – Tom Wilson – 2 minutes for Instigator

WAS Penalty – 7:04 – Tom Wilson – 10 minute Misconduct

BUF Goal – 10:02 – Alex Tuch (5) from Josh Doan (5) and Owen Power (4)

BUF Goal – 18:45 – Isak Rosen (1) from Jack Quinn (4) and Conor Timmins (4)

 

End of First	WAS – 2	BUF – 3
Shots	9	10
Faceoff Wins	11/19	8/19
Hits	5	7
Powerplay	N/A	0/1

Second Period

BUF Penalty – 6:20 – Alex Tuch –  2 minutes for Interference

WAS Penalty – 14:16 – Ryan Leonard – 2 minutes for Hooking

WAS Goal – 19:17 – Sonny Milano (1) from Matt Roy (2) and Martin Fehervary (4)

BUF Penalty – 19:17 – Bowen Byram – 2 minutes for Roughing

WAS Penalty – 19:17 – Ryan Leonard – 2 minutes for Embellishment

 

End of Second	WAS – 3	BUF – 3
Shots	24	17
Faceoff Wins	18/36	18/36
Hits	16	15
Powerplay	0/1	0/2

Third Period

WAS Penalty – 3:11 – Declan Chisholm – 2 minutes for Holding

BUF Penalty – 6:09 – Peyton Krebs – 2 minutes for Tripping

BUF Penalty – 8:26 – Beck Malenstyn – 2 minutes for Tripping

BUF Penalty – 16:48 – Alex Tuch – 2 minutes for Holding

 

End of Third	WAS – 3	BUF – 3
Shots	29	22
Faceoff Wins	25/48	23/48
Hits	17	21
Powerplay	0/4	0/3

End of Third	WAS – 3	BUF – 4
Shots	34	24
Faceoff Wins	26/52	26/52
Hits	17	22
Powerplay	0/4	0/3

 

 

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