POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 5, Sabres 3

By Two's - Monday's homestand closing contest against Buffalo was an important one for the Caps. Despite missing some key performers since the start of the season they've played mostly consistent hockey, but they were coming into Monday's game on the heels of what was likely their most off-brand or substandard performance of the young season in a 2-1 loss to the Flyers on Saturday.

Washington righted the ship and collected two points on Monday with a 5-3 victory. The win quelled a short slide of just three games (0-2-1), which was the team's longest since last February when it opened the month with four straight regulation losses in the wake of a 6-0-3 start to last season.
The long spell of time between "losing streaks" of three or more games in length is illustrative of the consistency with which the Caps have played over their 68 regular season games in calendar 2021, owning the fifth best points percentage (.684) in the League over that stretch.
Yet they entered the Buffalo game with one win in their previous five games (1-2-2) and having scored two or fewer goals in four of those five. The Caps played with a lead for less than 60 minutes of the more than 300 minutes they played in those five games, a reversal from their early season pattern of grabbing an early lead and fending off the opposition for the remainder of the evening.
"Right from the puck drop, the team was playing the right way," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson, who netted a pair of goals in the victory. "And you're fortunate when you can get [a lead] and you just want to keep playing that way. I thought [the Sabres] maybe took a little bit of the momentum in the second period, but then we fought for it back and turned it around. A couple of big goals at big times just to keep that two-goal lead, and you don't look back."
Still missing some key pieces and losing center Nic Dowd to a lower body injury on Monday, it was crucial for the Caps to get two points ahead of an upcoming stretch in which they'll play six of their next seven games on the road, a stretch that includes three sets of back-to-back games - their first back-to-backs of the season - in just 11 nights.
"The most important thing right now is team wins," says Wilson. "We've got some adversity going and we're rallying together and trying to collect the wins."
This One Goes To Eleven - Alex Ovechkin scored his 11th goal of the season on Monday, and the 741st goal of his NHL career. That marker ties him with Brett Hull for fourth place on the NHL's all-time goals list, 25 behind Jaromir Jagr (766) for third place.
"I just take it day by day," says the Caps captain. "It's nice to be in that company and it's a pretty big number. I just move on. Obviously it's nice to be tied, but I still have a couple of games left."
At 36, Ovechkin has his League-leading total of 11 goals in just 12 games. He could have had another goal or two in Monday's win, and his line was dominant from the opening shift of the game.
It's also worth noting that Ovechkin and linemates Wilson and Evgeny Kuznetsov took their game up to "eleven" in Monday's game, to borrow from the vernacular of "This Is Spinal Tap."
"Alex, another strong game from him tonight," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "He just had a lot going on. He had a lot of pucks around his stick and at the net. He couldn't have gotten another one or two tonight for sure. His linemates were awesome - Willy was terrific and Kuzy controlled the game.
"Again, that line has been terrific. But Alex for me just had a lot of opportunity tonight. He got one to go, he made some nice plays, too, moving pucks to other people for opportunities to score as well."
The Kuznetsov line had lot of possession time and there was plenty of movement and skating when they had the puck in the offensive zone, like a ballet. Those possession shifts didn't always result in shots on net or even attempts, so analytics didn't necessarily reflect the depth of that line's dominance over the course of the evening. But they exacted a toll on the Buffalo defense, wearing them down over the course of the evening.
After a lackluster outing on Saturday against the Flyers in which they didn't generate any shots on net at 5-on-5 in the first two periods, they were determined to atone against Buffalo. The line scored three times, getting the game's first goal on their second shift of the night and restoring a two-goal cushion with each of their subsequent strikes.
"He's moving the puck well," says Laviolette of Ovechkin. "The line is moving the puck well. Inside of that, there are going to be times where we need people in front of the net and he does go there."
Killing Time - Washington's penalty killing outfit was at its best on Monday, snuffing out all three Buffalo power plays with relative ease. The Caps set the tone for the night with a textbook kill in the first period while Carl Hagelin - one of their top penalty killers - was in the box.
The Caps expertly denied entry at their own line, forcing the Sabres to put themselves offside twice.
"I thought it set the tone even on that first one," says Laviolette. "They did a good job of defending the line and they got the clears right away. And in the later ones - well, all night but especially in the later ones where [the Sabres] are trying to press - I thought the face-offs were really important, and the execution off the won face-offs in the defensive zone, we were able to get that and get it down 200 feet, and then you're going through your forecheck in the neutral zone.
"It was a really good job by the penalty kill against a power play that has done really well to this point. Their specialty teams were top five in both categories, so great job by the penalty kill."
Washington has now been successful on 14 of its last 16 (87.5%) penalty-killing missions over its last six games.
First Glimmer - For the third time in the last five games, the Caps had a player make his NHL debut on Monday against the Sabres. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby debuted against Buffalo, some five years after he was the Caps' fifth-round choice (147th overall) in the 2016 NHL Draft.
"I think we had a couple of good shifts," says Jonsson-Fjallby of his debut. "Personally, I was a little nervous to start but I got better and better. Hopefully I can get some more games in and just get better."
Jonsson-Fjallby played on a line with fellow rookies Connor McMichael and Brett Leason, following Leason and Aliaksei Protas as recent debuts for Washington. Jonsson-Fjallby blocked a couple of shots and recorded a hit, and he finished the night with 5:44 in ice time over nine shifts, including 23 seconds while the Caps were shorthanded.
"When Dowder went out, we needed somebody to plug in there," says Laviolette of deploying Jonsson-Fjallby on the PK. "That's the conversation I had with him this morning, that's what he does a lot of down in the American Hockey League. Again, just trying to put a guy in a position where he can play to his strengths and I thought he did a good job in his first game. It's always a lot taking in your first game and the building and the nerves, but I thought he settled into it pretty good."
Milestone Men - Ovechkin joined Nicklas Backstrom as the second Caps player to reach the 600-assist plateau for his NHL career. Ovechkin is one of only nine active players with as many as 600 helpers.
Kunzetsov had three helpers on Monday, reaching 300 career assists in the process. He becomes the 12th player in franchise history to reach that mark.
By The Numbers - Kuznetsov led Washington with 25:34 in ice time … Ovechkin led the Caps with six shots on net and 10 shot attempts … Garnet Hathaway and Martin Fehervary led the Caps with five hits each … Six different Caps blocked a pair of shots to share the team lead … Kunzetsov won 16 of 23 draws (70 percent) and Lars Eller won 11 of 18 (61 percent).