Caps Host Sabres to Close Homestand
Capitals finish five-game homestand and start a weekend set of back-to-backs on Friday afternoon against the Sabres.
© Geoff Burke
Washington closes out a five-game homestand on Friday afternoon when it hosts the Buffalo Sabres for the first of two times this season. The Caps have won three of four on the current homestand and are coming into Friday's game on the heels of a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.
The Caps and Sabres will play all three games of their 2016-17 season series in a span of 15 days beginning on Friday. Buffalo returns to the District on Dec. 5 and the Capitals will make their lone visit to western New York on Dec. 9. The Capitals are also starting their fourth set of back-to-back games this season with Friday's game against the Sabres; the Caps travel to Toronto immediately afterwards, and they'll take on the Maple Leafs there on Saturday night.
Friday's game against Buffalo kicks off a predominantly Atlantic Division portion of the schedule for the Caps, who will play six of their next seven games against Atlantic foes. The Caps are 3-0 vs. Atlantic teams thus far in '16-17. With Wednesday's win over St. Louis, Washington's record against Western Conference clubs improved to 7-2.
In the victory over the Blues, the Caps wore down a St. Louis team that played in Boston a night earlier. The Caps drew four first-period penalties on the Blues, and Alex Ovechkin scored on the fourth of those power play opportunities to take a 1-0 lead late in the first. Ovechkin went on to record his 16th career hat trick and the Capitals never trailed en route to a victory that halted St. Louis' four-game winning streak.
"We were patient, waiting for our chances," says Caps goaltender Braden Holtby, who recorded his 10th win of the season. "I think both teams would like to get a little more five-on-five in the first couple of periods, but we capitalized and the power play came up big. Ovi obviously had a big game, and we played good for 50 minutes."
Playing good for only 50 minutes is what let the Blues back into the game in the waning minutes. The Caps took a pair of late penalties, and the Blues scored a power-play goal and an extra attacker goal to pull within one late. The Caps played very well early in Wednesday's game, but they hopefully learned a cheap lesson with the way the game ended closer than it should have been.
"We kept our feet moving to draw those penalties," says Holtby, "and we kind of turned with 10 minutes left in the game when we stopped moving our feet and got a couple of penalties against us and ultimately made the game too close. It's something we need to get better at. It's a win, but there's a lot to learn from this one."
From a points percentage standpoint, the Capitals (.684) own the third best record in the NHL heading into Friday's slate of league activity. This weekend's set of back-to-back games takes the Caps to the quarter mark of the season. Beyond the games against Buffalo and at Toronto this weekend, Washington has a four-day break on its horizon.
Buffalo is tied with Detroit at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, six points shy of what would constitute a playoff position at this juncture of the season, a quarter of the way through the 2016-17 campaign.
"We've got to keep it going, though," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "We all feel like we kind of let one slip away against Columbus, but good response [Wednesday] and a team good effort. Everybody should have a happy holiday, and then try to keep things going on Friday. Take care of business at home and then find a gutty road win on Saturday, hopefully, to end the month here."
Only six points separate the top five teams in the Metropolitan Division, and the Caps are right in the middle of that quintet, three points south of the top and three points north of the bottom of the grouping.
The Sabres have managed just 23 five-on-five goals in 20 games this season, the fewest in the league to date. Buffalo ranks last in the league with an average of 1.85 goals per game overall, but the Sabres' power play (ninth in the NHL at 21.2%) has contributed 14 of the team's total of 37 goals.
Buffalo has scored just 17 goals - only 11 of which have come at even-strength - in its 12 November games, but it has still managed to pull at least a point out of seven of those dozen games (4-5-3).
The Sabres just finished off a four-game homestand with a 2-1-1 mark, defeating Pittsburgh in a shootout and Calgary in regulation while earning a point in a 2-1 shootout loss to Detroit on Wednesday in their most recent outing.
Friday's game starts a two-game road stretch for the Sabres, who will visit Atlantic Division rival Ottawa before returning to western New York for a two-game homestand at the outset of December.
Buffalo has been plagued by injuries to key players early in the season. Twenty games into the season, the Sabres have lost 104 man-games because of injury. Center Jack Eichel (high ankle sprain) has yet to take the ice for the Sabres this season, but he skated with his teammates at Wednesday's morning skate and is seemingly nearing a return to the lineup.
Black Friday Close Out - The Caps play their semi-traditional Black Friday late afternoon game on Friday, taking on the Buffalo Sabres in the first of three meetings between the two teams this season. The game also closes out the Capitals' season-long five-game homestand. The Caps have earned three wins in the first four games of the homestand and will be seeking to close it out on a strong note against the Sabres.
Friday's game is the first of three meetings between the Capitals and Sabres over the next 15 days, constituting the entirety of the season's series between the two teams.
The Caps have earned at least a point in 21 of their last 27 games against the Sabres (17-6-4) and in 12 of their last 14 home games against Buffalo (10-2-2).
Buffalo is last in the NHL with an average of 1.85 goals per game. The Sabres have scored the fewest five-on-five goals this season (23 in 20 games) and they've managed just 17 goals in their last 12 games. In those last dozen games, the Sabres have scored only 11 even-strength goals.
"They're a good team on the power play and they do have a lot of net front presence," says Caps coach Barry Trotz of the Sabres. "They hack and whack in the blue paint a lot, and they sort of bump your goalie. They do all the things in those dirty areas that allow them to get some offense from secondary chances and seconds.
"It's really important that our defense - around our net - is doing a really good job controlling them getting to our net, and their sticks around our net. That will be a big emphasis on us."
Hotline -The forward trio of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky combined for all four of Washington's goals and a total of seven points in Wednesday's 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues.
The three players combined for a dozen of Washington's 25 shots on goal in the game against the Blues, and they could have scored a couple more goals were it not for some impressive stops from Blues goalie Carter Hutton and some narrow misses.
"I think our last game, we were working a lot harder for each other," says Burakovsky. "I think the games before that, we were a little too far from each other in the battles.
"Now we're closer and tighter to each other, and when we're tighter we win more battles. When we get a stop on the [defense], our second guy can be in there real quick instead of being far away where it takes a little bit longer for him to get in there, and then the play is already over. I think the key last game was that we were all working really hard for each other and we all three were skating really hard."
Oshie Improving - It's been exactly a week since Caps winger T.J. Oshie suffered an upper body injury that has sidelined him on a "week to week" basis. Oshie has been skating some on his own before practices and morning skates, and today he took to the ice with his teammates for Washington's morning skate.
"We let him come out for practice," says Trotz. "He is still week to week. But he's making progress and he's getting in shape. His legs are fine."
Oshie was injured in last Friday's 1-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings. He has missed two games thus far.
"I feel pretty good," says Oshie. "The training staff has been doing a good job of keeping me in shape and giving me the treatment I need. I think we're on a pretty good track right now still, just trying to get better every day."
Three From '09 -Three of the top five scorers from the 2009 NHL Entry Draft will be taking to the ice tonight at Verizon Center.
First overall pick John Tavares of the New York Islanders and third overall pick Matt Duchene of the Colorado Avalanche are 1-2 on the scoring list from that draft seven summers ago, with 485 and 389 career points, respectively.
Then comes Buffalo center Ryan O'Reilly, who was drafted 33rd overall by Colorado, with 315 points. Atlanta chose winger Evander Kane with the fourth overall pick, and Kane, now with Buffalo, is fourth among 2009 draftees with 259 points. Washington's Marcus Johansson is fifth in scoring in that draft class with 245 career points. Johansson was the Capitals' first choice and 24th overall in 2009.
Grubauer In Goal -Friday is the 25th birthday of Caps goaltender Philipp Grubauer, and he will get the start in goal against the Sabres. With the Caps starting a back-to-back set tonight against Buffalo, the plan was to split the two games between Washington's two goaltenders. Braden Holtby will start tomorrow against the Maple Leafs in Toronto.
"I just wanted to give Grubi a home game," says Trotz. "We had a five-game homestand and he always gets [the second of] back-to-backs. I just thought this would be an opportunity to play Grubi - he's played well - and give him a home game and then come back with Holts [on Saturday]. We did that once earlier, too. If you just play all the road games, you forget what playing at home is, too. We just wanted to mix one of those in, too."
Grubauer has made three career appearances against the Sabres, and he has fared well against them from a qualitative standpoint, posting a 1.11 GAA and a .951 save pct. But he is without a win against Buffalo, owning a career mark of 0-0-2 against the Sabres.
All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Capitals and the Sabres to look when they take to the ice tonight at Verizon Center:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
90-Johansson, 19-Backstrom, 14-Williams
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 65-Burakovsky
82-Sanford, 83-Beagle, 10-Connolly
26-Winnik, 20-Eller, 43-Wilson
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
27-Alzner, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 4-Chorney
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
31-Grubauer
Scratches
88-Schmidt
Injured
77-Oshie (upper body, week-to-week)
BUFFALO
Forwards
82-Foligno, 90-R. O'Reilly, 21-Okposo
9-Kane, 22-Larsson, 12-Gionta
26-Moulson, 23-Reinhart, 48-Carrier
27-Grant, 19-C. O'Reilly, 28-Girgensons
Defensemen
4-Gorges, 55-Ristolainen
29-McCabe, 6-Franson
41-Falk, 38-Fedun
Goaltenders
40-Lehner
31-Nilsson
Scratches
10-Schneider
Injured
8-McCormick (blood clots)
15-Eichel (high ankle sprain)
44-DesLauriers (knee)
47-Bogosian (sprained MCL)
63-Ennis (groin)
77-Kulikov (lower back)
