The Washington Capitals dropped their final game of a very long road trip in Buffalo on Saturday, gifting the Sabres enough free chances to blow an otherwise winnable game.
Jason Pominville scored early, beating some insouciant Caps defense to get Buffalo the lead. Sam Reinhart extended that lead with a rush goal off a chip shot/stretch pass.
Early in the second, Alex Ovechkin didn’t skip leg day and won a footrace to score on a breakaway for his 44th goal. Rasmus Dahlin responded late in the period with a power-play goal to make it 3-1 entering the third.
The Caps killed a Backstrom penalty early in the third and then scored on a Djoos/Burakovsky team-up. The Sabres replied promptly to restore the two-goal lead. In the final minute, Sam Reinhart sank a long-distance empty-netter goal to get the hat trick.
Caps lose 5-2.
- The Caps controlled play early but had little to show for it, especially close to the Buffalo net. A couple goof-ups gave the Sabres all they needed to get dangerous chances from the slot, and — ultimately — the winning margin.
- Carl Hagelin made his debut as a Washington Capital. He played on the PK and skated with the fourth line, who got doubled up in shot attempts unfortunately.
- Alex Ovechkin, 33, outraced Evan Rodrigues, 25, at the end of a 90-second shift to score a breakaway goal, his 44th and his sixth in the last five games.
- Just so he doesn’t get a big head, here’s Ovi getting flattened by Buffalo’s second best Rasmus:
Alex Ovechkin tries to take down a 1.93 meter tree in Rasmus Ristolainen, fails pic.twitter.com/j05POOZbBx
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) February 23, 2019
- Jeff Skinner missed a bunch of the game after apparently injuring his knee during a trip from Carl Hagelin. This story might be more attractive if it had the media embedded, but it’s pretty gruesome, so I’m just gonna link to it. Miraculously, Skinner returned for the third period. He had a scoring chance on his first shift so I hate him again.
- Today is the #CAPSPROM at Penn Quarter Sports Tavern in DC, put on by our pal Lindsey. Peruse the hashtag to see a bunch of good-looking people looking good.
- Washington’s third line looked great, winning every matchup they faced and getting a ton of chances in the second period. Only Andre Burakovsky was rewarded for the effort, tapping in Djoos’ shot from up high.
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight (er, day) #CapsSabres Stripes! pic.twitter.com/b2kZXAEnRJ
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) February 23, 2019
So ends a brutal 12-day road trip, the longest of Washington’s season. The Caps won half of their games, which is fine enough, but now is no time to rest. In less than 24 hours, the Caps will host the New York Rangers, themselves undergoing a trade-deadline upheaval, at Capital One Arena.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Sabres
Headline photo: Bill Wippert
