Saturday afternoon, the Washington Capitals ended a very long, up and down road trip with a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. They return home for another afternoon affair only a day later against another team from New York in the Rangers.

The Sabres out-shot the Caps 38 to 33.

• End of a long road trip and all, but man that was one of the poorest defensive games from a Caps team that I can remember. At even strength alone they gave up 32 scoring chances and 20 high danger chances. Just look at that heat map, u-g-l-y. If there’s a button that this coaching staff can push to put this team on the right track like they seemingly did last season, it’s about past time to do so. They cant be happy with how this team has played this season overall.
• The line in particular that was thoroughly brutal in this game was the first. Evgeny Kuznetsov was on the ice at five-on-five for nine Sabres high danger chances to the Caps one. That is a number of things that involve expletives, but I’ll just start with concerning. John Carlson topped that effort with being on for nine Sabres high danger chances to the Caps zero. That’s a whole lot of money being paid to some guys to not do their jobs right and at this point on a consistent basis.
• I think the Caps best player in this game was Andre Burakovsky and he’s quietly put together a really, really nice last 15 games or so. Burakovsky scored his eighth goal of the season and has two points in his last three games.
• Alex Ovechkin scored his 44th goal of the season and has now scored in five straight games. Legend.
• I love the Nick Jensen and Carl Hagelin deals together, especially with the quick Jensen extension. I personally don’t think GMBM should be done, but if he is he has put this team right in the mix for another Cup run. Dude’s really good at his job.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Sabres

Headline photo: Bill Wippert