Nov. 22 vs. Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Buffalo Sabres (8-9-1)
Washington Capitals (9-4-2)
A mostly longstanding tradition continues on Wednesday night in Washington when the Caps host the Buffalo Sabres in a Thanksgiving Eve game at Capital One Arena. Along with the subsequent Black Friday matinee – against Edmonton this year – the Thanksgiving Eve game has graced the Capitals’ home schedule almost every season for decades now.
Facing the Sabres for the first time this season, the Caps carry a four-game winning streak. Most recently, they took a 4-3 win over Columbus on Saturday, a victory fueled mostly by one line. Filling in for an ailing Evgeny Kuznetsov (illness), Hendrix Lapierre became the first Caps’ rookie in nearly a decade to post a three-point game in the NHL. Lapierre had a goal – the game-winner in the third period – and two assists, and linemates Sonny Milano and Aliaksei Protas also scored and had multi-point nights.
Lapierre’s three-point game came in his 11th NHL game, a game in which he logged only 10:12 in ice time. Ironically, Lapierre’s three-point game was the first by a Caps’ rookie in nearly a decade, since Kuznetsov himself achieved the feat in a March 14, 2014 home game against Vancouver. Kuznetsov dealt a trio of helpers in that game – the third game of his NHL career – despite logging only 9:58 in ice time that evening.
Saturday’s win was also Washington’s fifth in its last seven games on home ice. The Caps have used this home-heavy stretch of the schedule to climb their way up the standings ladders of both the Eastern Conference and the Metropolitan Division, and they’ll be seeking to keep their collective feet on the gas pedal as they moved into the final two games of that stretch this week.
Their longest road trip of the season – a five-game, 12-day trip out west – looms just ahead on the horizon. The Caps will depart for that trip immediately after Friday’s homestand finale, a matinee match against Edmonton.
“It’s huge; it’s a huge two games,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “[We’re] not getting ahead of ourselves and not letting our minds wander to post-Thanksgiving, where things really ramp up and we go and play a bunch of road games in a short amount of time. We’re trying to stay as focused as possible – with the [recent] days off – of just [looking at] Buffalo. Just Buffalo; we’re not looking at anything past that. How do we clean up the areas of our game that we need to? How do we get better in this area, this area, and this area?”
When Washington returned from Newark with its first road win of the season in the wee hours of Oct. 26, it owned the 27th best points percentage in the NHL at .417 (2-3-1). Four weeks later, the Caps are at .667 (9-4-2), the second-best mark in the Metro Division, fourth-best in the Eastern Conference and eighth in the NHL.
“I think our team is headed in the right direction,” says Caps’ center Connor McMichael. “As games have gone on, we’re more and more comfortable with what we need to do, and it’s starting to get a little seamless out there. I think this homestand for sure helped, and with the big road trip coming up, I think it’s good to build off these last couple [home] games coming up before we head out and hopefully steal some points on the road.”
Although Washington’s 8-1-1 record over the last 10 games is tied for the best mark in the League over that span, the Caps still believe they’ve got a lot of upside to their game as they approach the end of the season’s first quarter.
“We still definitely have another level,” says Caps’ right wing T.J. Oshie. “I think we know that, and we’re working towards that. I think you’re starting to see the identity of this team come through here in this little stretch. Obviously, it’s easy to say when you’re winning games, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement in our overall game. But some of the issues that we had last year defensively and moving the puck wise have improved a lot.
“It’s good to see. It’s always fun when you’re winning. It’s fun when young guys are playing well and getting points and getting goals. So the vibes are good right now in the room, but we’re also aware that we’re going to get to. We’ve just got to keep working at it.”
“I don’t think we’ve had a game where we’ve played the full 60 minutes yet,” echoes McMichael. “And I think that’s an exciting thing for this group, because we’ve been finding ways to win hockey games without playing our absolute best. These are exciting times around here, and we’re just going to keep pushing to get better and better.”
Buffalo is seeking to end a 12-year playoff drought in western New York. The Sabres have assembled a coterie of skilled and talented young players, and they’ve managed to sign defensemen Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson and center Dylan Cozens to long-term extensions. That quartet is locked up through the end of the decade, and the Sabres will now look to secure other key young players going forward, while filling out the remainder of the roster with the proper complementary players needed to get Buffalo back to the postseason on a regular basis.
Thus far this season, the Sabres are still seeking traction in the standings. Buffalo has managed to win consecutive games just once, winning its last October game and its first November game. The Sabres dropped three straight in mid-November – their longest slide to date – but they halted that skid with a 3-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago in the second game of a three-game trip that concludes on Wednesday in Washington.
