Caps Conclude Trip on Monday in Buffalo
Caps finish three-game trip and stretch of eight of nine on the road on Monday against the Sabres
Early last month, the Caps were slated to come to Buffalo for a pair of games against the Sabres, two contests that would have concluded the road portion of their season's series with the Sabres. But the Buffalo club came down with an outbreak of COVID-19, leaving the Caps with a sudden weeklong gap in their schedule. On Monday night, the Caps are in Buffalo to make up one of those two postponed games; they'll return here to make up the other game on April 9.
Monday's match against the Sabres is the finale of a three-game road trip and in concludes a stretch in which Washington has played eight of nine games on the road. The game in Buffalo also starts a set of back-to-back games for the Capitals, who will return home to host the New York Islanders on Tuesday night. Each of Washington's next six games will be part of three sets of back-to-back games.
With Monday's game in Buffalo, the Caps are aiming to finish off a perfect trip after taking a pair of games from the Flyers in Philadelphia on Thursday and Saturday. The Caps won the opener of that set by a 5-3 count and followed up with a 5-4 win over the Flyers on Saturday. Caps center Nic Dowd scored three goals in the two games - including the game-winner in each contests - and skated over 17 minutes in each game.
In each of the two games against Philadelphia, the Caps scored a pair of first-period goals in transition, took multi-goal leads into the third period and held off a late Philly surge. Washington has yielded a total of seven goals in the third periods of its last three games, and a total of just four goals in the first two periods of those games.
"We are actually doing a really good job of starting the game," says Dowd, "which actually, at the beginning of the season we did a poor job of starting the game. And then we'd have to battle back a lot, and we'd finish the game strong. Whereas right now, I think we're starting the game really well. I just think that we take our foot off the gas a little bit, back up a little bit and play on our heels.
"And there is some situational stuff; obviously a power-play goal [against] - we try not to take penalties, but it happens - and then the 6-on-5 [goal against]. But I'm sure we'll take a look at it and tighten it up from here on out."
Washington will be seeking its fifth straight victory on Monday; in winning eight of its last nine games, it has sandwiched a pair of four-game winning streaks around a single loss in Boston on March 5. The Caps have been rolling on the road as of late, winning seven of their last eight games away from Capital One Arena. Washington has the best road record in the NHL since the start of the 2014-15 season, and its .714 points percentage on the road in '20-21 ranks fourth best in the League and tops in the East Division.
"I think we've done a good job of coming out with a lot of energy each game," says Washington winger Carl Hagelin. "And to be able to score that first goal and you can see we're doing a pretty good job defensively - obviously in the third we're giving up too much - but just overall we feel we have a lot of confidence in our teammates and our linemates that they're going to do their job so we're not putting two guys on one guy and end up on the wrong side of the puck. Overall, we trust each other and that goes a long way."
The Caps started the season in Buffalo nearly two months ago, taking wins in back-to-back games here on Jan. 14-15 when they won by 6-4 and 2-1 counts, respectively. In three games against the Sabres in Washington since then, the Caps are 2-0-1 against Buffalo
With the offseason addition of 2017-18 Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall on a one-year contract and a few other key adds up front, it appeared as though the Sabres were poised to take some strides forward this season after a decade of doldrums, but Buffalo has not made good on that promise.
The Sabres have never really taken off this season; they've won consecutive games only once in 2020-21 and have yet to do so in regulation. As it enters Monday's game against Washington, Buffalo is mired in a 10-game slide (0-8-2) in which it has been outscored by a combined total of 39-17.
To make matters worse, the Sabres are playing without franchise center Jack Eichel (upper body), No. 1 netminder Linus Ullmark (lower body), top four defenseman Jake McCabe (knee), and rookie forward Dylan Cozens (upper body), among others missing in action for various reasons.
Buffalo will be aiming for its first victory since Feb. 23 at New Jersey, and it is seeking its first win on home ice since Jan. 30 when it downed the Devils 4-3 in a shootout. The Sabres' lone win in regulation on home ice was a 3-2 shaving of the Rangers here on Jan. 26.
