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Battling in Buffalo: Caps beat Sabres 3-2

By Chris Cerullo

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February 19, 2018 6:44 pm

It’s pretty safe to say that the Capitals did not play well in Chicago against the Blackhawks on Saturday Night. Their next test was the Buffalo Sabres in wintery western New York. A battle between a beast of the east and well… the Buffalo Sabres.

Nothing for ya through twenty minutes but some good goaltending from Philipp Grubauer and Chad Johnson.

Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring as his chase for goal #600 continues. John Carlson squeaked one home to double the advantage.

Kyle Okposo scored late to make the ending of this one interesting. Kuznetsov empty netter. Evander Kane garbage time goal.

Caps beat Sabres 3-2!

  • Andre Burakovsky was super good today. That should be recognized because the Caps are going to need more of that down the stretch. Big time.
  • Evgeny Kuznetsov is a confirmed time traveler as he took a penalty at a time of the game that no longer existed after John Carlson was credited with a goal after review. Yep, that all makes perfect sense. Kuzy also originally received an assist on said goal (later given to Jakub Vrana), so he took a penalty and assisted on a goal at the exact same time of the game (13:33 of the second) according to the official scorer.

  • It should also be noted that the fourth line, in their limited ice time five-on-five, had a stellar game even though they were labored with their usual amount of defensive zone starts. That was helped along by Jay Beagle having a very good day in the face-off dot.
  • It has been confirmed that Kempny will be wearing the number six for the Caps. The last four players to do so after Calle Johansson were Jamie Heward, Dennis Wideman, Tim Gleason, and Mike Weber.

  • The man between the pipes in red today was locked in from the get go. He also faced fewer shots through two periods than Braden Holtby did in the first period alone against Chicago.
  • The first Buffalo goal was a showcase of why the Caps need Michal Kempny to be at least a replacement level defenseman in the NHL.
  • Kuznetsov now has 69 career goals. Nice.
  • The third period was not good. It was more turtling and the Sabres jumped all over the Caps defensive shell.

The Sabres are not a good hockey team, but this was a good bounce back game from the Caps anyway (outside of that third period). The effort was there, the skating legs were there, the goaltending was there, and the two points were there. They don’t get much time to dwell on this one though as they are right back at it tomorrow in DC against a very good Tampa Bay Lightning team. Could we also see the debut of new defenseman Michal Kempny?

Full Coverage of Caps at Sabres

Featured Image: Joe Hrycych

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