It took 38 games for the Capitals to encounter their first shootout of the 2024-25 season; it took only two more games for them to encounter their second. The results were the same, though, the Caps came out on the short end of a 4-3 skills competition decision to the Sabres on Monday night in Buffalo, four nights after falling by the same count in the shootout at home to the Minnesota Wild.
Caps defenseman John Carlson set up Aliaksei Protas for the tying goal with 4:13 left in regulation, securing a point for the Capitals in a game in which they were far from their best. In the process, Carlson recorded his 700th career NHL point, becoming just the 13th blueliner in NHL history to reach that lofty plateau with one franchise.
Thirty-one NHL defensemen have reached 700 points in the League’s history.
“It seems like it took a while, but it’s a big accomplishment I think, personally,” says Carlson. “I’ve been lucky enough to play on a great team my whole career, and with fantastic players. I couldn’t have dreamt of it as a kid, so it’s pretty special.”
Carlson also assisted on the second of Tom Wilson’s two goals in Monday’s game.
The Caps didn’t look like themselves for very much of Monday’s game; they never held a lead and were chasing the game and fumbling the puck for much of the night, so the point they pulled when Carlson fed Protas for a top shelf deflection late in the third is a fortunate one.
“Yeah, for sure,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “The resiliency to battle back when we weren’t very good at all, to not fold the tent, and to fight back in that game and get it to overtime is a positive that we will draw from.”
The Sabres scored first, jumping out to a 1-0 lead on J.J. Peterka’s goal off the rush at 4:42 of the first frame.
In the immediate aftermath of that first Buffalo goal, Charlie Lindgren made a big stop on Buffalo’s Zach Benson from the top of the paint to keep the Caps within a goal.
Washington pulled even soon after the Peterka goal, cashing in on its first power play opportunity of the evening, and doing so off the rush. Dylan Strome gained the zone and fed Jakob Chychrun on the right side. Chychrun sent it right back to the middle, where Wilson clapped a one-timer from the high slot that eluded Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, squaring the score at 1-1 at 6:10 of the opening frame.
With the two sides playing 4-on-4 hockey early in the second, the Sabres regained the lead. Chychrun lost the handle on the puck at the offensive blue line, and Buffalo’s Alex Tuch took off on a breakaway and scored to make it a 2-1 contest at 1:07.
Just after the midpoint of the middle frame, Wilson evened it up once again, notching his second two-goal game in as many contests against Buffalo this season. Luukkonen stopped a Protas shot from the high slot, but Wilson was at the top of the paint, and he pounced on and potted the rebound to make it a 2-2 tilt at 11:29.
On the game’s next shift, Buffalo’s Payton Krebs and Caps defenseman John Carlson collided, and Strome went after Krebs in the aftermath, incurring a roughing minor. On the ensuing power play, Tage Thompson’s one-timer from the left dot restored the Buffalo lead at 12:49, putting the Sabres back up less than two minutes after Wilson’s second tally.
Down one heading into the third, the Caps finally drew even when Protas celebrated his 24th birthday with his 18th goal of the season, tying him with Wilson for second on the club, trailing only Alex Ovechkin (19).
Lindgren made a number of good stops in overtime to give the Caps a chance to collect another point in the shootout, and the first round went Washington’s way when Lindgren stopped Thompson and P-L Dubois scored on the Caps’ initial attempt. But Luukkonen shut the door the rest of the way while Tuch and Peterka both scored in the shootout for the Sabres, after doing so in the game as well.
Credit to the Sabres as well; they limited the Caps' attack for much of the game, defended well, and had Washington on its collective heels for much of the game.
“At the end of the day, we found a way late to get it tied up, and to give yourself a chance in overtime and the shootout, obviously,” says Wilson. “But I think we started a little bit late. In the third period, we started to tilt the ice and play better. We’ve just got to – coming into this building – make our own noise a little bit early in the first and try to take advantage of the full 60 [minutes], and not just the third period when we’re down one.”
Wilson was pleased to learn of Carlson’s accomplishment.
“He is a guy who puts his head down and goes to work and is never, ‘Woe is me,’” says Wilson. “He has just been a horse for us for so long, and a leader in this room. It’s a pretty impressive career, what he has been able to put together, and I know everyone in this room looks up to him. He is never a guy to announce anything, so I’m happy for him.
“There may be a couple of guys in this organization that are ahead of him as far as impressive accomplishments, but Johnny has been a guy in Washington for a long time who has been next level. He is a heck of a player, so he is going to keep going.”
