Buffalo Run – The Caps make a quick one-game trip to Buffalo for their lone visit to Western New York this season, and the last of their five Monday night road games this season. Owners of an eight-game point streak (6-0-2) on home ice, the Caps are looking to get right on the road in a building that hasn’t been friendly for them over the last couple of seasons.
Since forging a 10-game road winning streak earlier in the season, the Caps have dropped four of their last five road games (1-4-0). They have two more one-game journeys – to Nashville and Ottawa, respectively – before they embark upon their longest trip of the season in the back half of this month.
Washington has lost each of its last three visits to Buffalo, falling by a combined count of 17-8 in those three contests. In their only previous meeting this season, on Dec. 14 in Washington, the Caps prevailed 4-2 over the Sabres.
Buffalo was without blueliner Rasmus Dahlin in that game last month, but the dynamic defenseman is back in the lineup, and he has notched nine helpers in his last six games.
“[He is a] game changer back there,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It just gives them an added weapon that can change the game in a number of different facets, whether that’s power play, 5-on-5, offensive blueline. He plays a ton of minutes for them, so we’ll have to be prepared for him.”
Draw The Line – The Caps’ newly reconfigured line combinations delivered a 7-4 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena. Three of Washington’s four forward lines got a new look for Saturday’s game, and all four lines delivered a goal at 5-on-5 for the Caps in the victory over the Blueshirts.
It was four years ago this month – at the outset of the pandemic-abbreviated and schedule-limited 56-game 2020-21 season that then-Caps coach Peter Laviolette first put Nic Dowd on a line with Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway, and that Dowd line – obviously with different wingers in the last couple of seasons – has continued to display its brand with the same man in the middle.
Laviolette deployed the Dowd line to shut down Buffalo’s line of Taylor Hall, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart early in that season in which the Caps and Sabres met eight times, with half of those meetings coming in the first half dozen games of the season. Then-Sabres coach Ralph Krueger quickly gave the Dowd line its due, referring to the unit as “one of the best checking lines in the League.”
Four years and a couple hundred games later, Dowd is still centering one of the game’s best checking lines; though he has had a rotating cast of wingers (last year's wings – Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aube-Kubel – are both now with Buffalo). Last week, before Andrew Mangiapane was dropped onto the right side of that unit, Dowd discussed the 2024-25 iteration of his line, with Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh.
“I think we all want to accomplish the same goal,” says the veteran pivot, “and I think our individual goals align with what we want to do as a line. I'm not going to say we all play the same way, because I think in that case, we wouldn't complement each other like we do, but I feel like we're all good at similar things.
“I think what makes us successful is that we're predictable [to each other] on where the puck should be going, and that allows us to have a half a second on top of the defenseman. We understand that we're going to get the puck in over here, and it's going to end up over here, so guys need to be over here. And then another thing makes us successful is that we play close to each other. In the [defensive] zone, we're close to each other. We don't rely on one guy to make two or three plays to get out of the zone; I rely on those guys to be right next to me so they can help me out.
“And then in the [offensive] zone, it's the exact same thing. We're asking, F1 and F2 to do their job – and F3 – but we're all very close to each other, so if somebody needs help, we're right there to help. We try and make it challenging [for the opposition] to get out of the zone in that we're smothering [them], and we're constantly doing the same thing over and over and over. And then eventually, you know something is going to happen, right? And sometimes you score, sometimes you don't, sometimes you get rewarded, and other times you don't. But honestly, in my opinion, with how we play, if we keep doing the same thing, eventually we're going to have a positive outcome.”
It's a relentlessness of mindset and on-ice performance, and it seems to spread easily to whomever is slotted in on either side of Dowd. In his first game on the line on Saturday against the Rangers, Mangiapane delivered the third of Washington’s seven goals on a sublime cross-crease feed from Dowd.
A day later, Carbery praised Mangiapane’s Saturday performance as “one of his best games of the year, as a Washington Capital.”
“They’re good, hard-working players, and it’s easy to read off them,” says Mangiapane of his newest linemates. They’re predictable, and they make the right play I’d say every time, or at least they try to. It’s fun to play with those guys. They’re hard working, and I think we had some good chemistry today.”
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren gets the crease tonight for the Capitals in Buffalo. From Nov. 15-Dec. 20, Lindgren won seven of nine starts, but he is seeking to halt a short three-game personal slide (0-2-1) tonight. Most recently, he made 30 saves in a Jan. 2 shootout loss to Minnesota at Capital One Arena.
In five career appearances – four starts – against the Sabres, Lindgren is 2-2-0 with a 3.68 GAA and an .874 save pct.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is the expected starter for the Sabres tonight. Buffalo’s second-round pick (54th overall) from the 2017 NHL Draft is now in his fifth NHL season, and he established a career high with 27 victories last season. He is 3-1-1 in his last five starts, yielding two or fewer goals against in three of the five games.
Lifetime against the Caps, Luukkonen is 4-1-2 in seven appearances, all of them starts, with a 2.93 GAA and a .906 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Caps and the Sabres might look on Monday night in Buffalo:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 16-Raddysh
21-Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
20-Eller, 24-McMichael, 13-Vrana
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 88-Mangiapane
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
42-Fehervary, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
63-Miroshnichenko
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
BUFFALO
Forwards
17-Zucker, 24-Cozens, 72-Thompson
77-Peterka, 71-McLeod, 89-Tuch
9-Benson, 20-Kulich, 19-Krebs
22-Quinn, 81-Lafferty, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
26-Dahlin, 4-Byram
25-Power, 75-Clifton
23-Samuelsson, 10-Jokiharju
Goaltenders
1-Luukkonen
47-Reimer
Extras
8-Gilbert
78-Bryson
Out/Injured
12-Greenway (undisclosed)
29-Malenstyn (illness)
