Caps and Sabres Skirmish on Sunday
Caps meet Sabres in Sunday matinee match, the fourth meeting between the two clubs in 11 days
For the fourth time in six games in the early going of the 2020-21 season, the Caps will tangle with the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday afternoon. The four games are spread over a span of just 11 days, and although the Sabres have outplayed them for significant stretches of those first three meetings between the two teams, the Caps have prevailed in each of the three.
Most recently, the Caps took a 4-3 shootout decision over Buffalo on Friday night in Washington's home opener. Already playing without four key performers - forwards Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, defenseman Dmitry Orlov and goaltender Ilya Samsonov - the Caps also lost top six winger Tom Wilson to injury in the third period.
The two teams were even after all three periods and overtime in Friday's game, and John Carlson's shootout goal - the only one scored in four rounds and the blueliner's first shootout goal in more than six years - ultimately supplied the difference in the game and swung the second point to Washington's total in the standings.
"Looking at the game, we obviously weren't happy with the second period," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom, who scored his third goal of the season on Friday. "That was our worst. We just talked about playing better in the third and we know we had a tie game, but we obviously wanted to win it. Sometimes it's going to end up going to overtime or a shootout. We found a way to win. Maybe not the prettiest, but we'll take it."
If Wilson is unable to play on Sunday - and he did not practice on Saturday - the Caps would be without half of their normal group of top six forwards. Offseason free agent addition Daniel Carr practiced with the main group on Saturday, but with so many lineup absences all at once, the Caps aren't sure exactly what their personnel plan will be for Sunday's rematch with the Sabres.
Peter Laviolette | January 23
"Tom is still day-to-day with a lower body injury," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette after his team's midday practice on Saturday, when asked who might step in for Wilson. "And we just got off the ice so we're working through that right now. I don't have an answer for you at this moment."
Amidst the blueline brigade, there were also some adjustments during Saturday's brief practice. Zdeno Chara skated with Justin Schultz, and Trevor van Riemsdyk skated in the team's top six alongside Jonas Siegenthaler. But listening to Laviolette afterwards, it sounds like the Caps are exploring a variety of possibilities.
"We're trying to figure out what's available to us [on Sunday]," says Laviolette. "Not to be vague again, but we're trying to figure out whether we need to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen and then who can play forward if that's the case. We were just looking at different things in practice to try and figure it out. Again, I'm not trying to keep anything from you, I just don't have the answers for you just yet. We're working on them ourselves in here."
The Caps conducted a team meeting after practice, and the coaching staff will huddle up to hash out these and other roster decisions before Sunday's matinee match. Because of the 3 p.m. start on Sunday, the Caps won't conduct a morning skate prior to the game. Even the identity of the goaltender for Sunday's game is up in the air.
Vitek Vanecek has won two straight starts against the Sabres, accounting for both of his two career NHL victories. Seventeen-year NHL veteran Craig Anderson served as Vanecek's backup on Friday, and Anderson has a strong track record of success against Buffalo from his days with the Ottawa Senators, posting a 20-10-2 mark with three shutouts, a 2.36 GAA and a .927 save pct. in his 33 career appearances against the Sabres.
"We're going to go back and talk to the goalies again," says Laviolette. "Vitek played really well and probably deserves to go back in there. I don't think it's about trying to get Anderson in there; it's just about evaluating our goaltending as we're going here. If the opportunity arises for Anderson to get in there, we'll be excited to see him play.
"There is no real plan or real path to how we are going about it - who is going to start or who is going to get in there or are we going to be able to see everybody. We're going game-by-game, and so the early conversations were about Vitek and how well he played [Friday] night and that he gave us an opportunity [to win]. I think we'll look at that and talk hard about that [Saturday] afternoon and then make that decision."
Although they've won only one of their first five games this season, the Sabres have played much better than their record would indicate. They've controlled the play for much of the 185 minutes of hockey they've played against Washington, and since surrendering six goals - one of which was an empty-netter - on opening night to the Capitals, the Sabres have yielded just nine goals in four games since, with only seven of those coming at even strength.
"We love the defensive structure of the team," says Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger. "We've given up very few chances relative to what we did last year, and we believe we're playing two of the better teams in the league here with Philadelphia and Washington, and so that has been confirmed. But as we all know, in the end we're measured by our results and the points, so we need to bring an edge, we need to bring a grit and a fight because right now we're not getting the results that we possibly would be capable of getting because of the way we're playing."
The Sabres have been extremely disciplined in the early going of this season, too. Buffalo is by far the league's least penalized team this season, facing only six shorthanded situations in five games. In Friday's game against the Caps, the Sabres went shorthanded just once all night, and that was with 9.2 seconds remaining in regulation when Rasmus Ristolainen was sent off for holding T.J. Oshie in the offensive zone.
As the estimable Carter Myers notes, that Ristolainen minor is the only power play opportunity Washington has had in the last 151 minutes and 41 seconds of hockey played between the two teams.
