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Sabres get buffaloed: numbers for the morning after

By Chris Cerullo

 5 Comments

February 19, 2021 7:11 am

The Washington Capitals halted their four-game losing streak with a win over Pittsburgh on Tuesday and now have turned the tide completely and started a winning streak by taking down the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 3-1.

The Sabres outshot the Caps 23 to 21 but were out-attempted at five-on-five 42 to 40.

  • The Caps dominated this game for multiple stretches but overpassed themselves out of an even bigger win. Pair that with some incredibly sloppy defensive spells that were bailed out by either a goalpost or Vitek Vanecek and you get a pretty “just alright” victory. I was particularly not happy with about the last seven or so minutes in the second period where they may have gotten a tad cocky and let Buffalo back into the game a little with some missed assignments defensively and miscommunication offensively. Buffalo had eight high danger chances at five-on-five in this game and five of them came in that second period.
  • Speaking of Vanecek, I actually thought he looked much better in this game than he did on Tuesday against Pittsburgh. He tracked the puck extremely well, making a few sparklers on deflection tries by the Sabres. He has stopped 48 of 50 shots sent his way in these past two wins for a .960-save percentage and is now tied at seven with Chicago’s Kevin Lankinen for the most wins among rookie goaltenders this season.
  • The Caps top defensive pairing of John Carlson and Brenden Dillon sure played like a top defensive pairing. With the two on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps saw 62.9-percent of the shot attempts, a plus-eight scoring chance differential, and a plus-two high danger chance differential. This is the top pairing that I think Peter Laviolette should stick with for the remainder of this season.

  • Another night where the Caps best forward trio was their third line consisting of Lars Eller, Conor Sheary, and Richard Panik. Normally it would be a terrible thing when Conor Sheary is consistently your best skater on the ice, but the Caps are making it work, and Sheary is producing as he now has goals in back-to-back games and four in his last seven.
  • Not a good night for the Justin Schultz and Zdeno Chara pairing. Chara specifically was on the ice five-on-five for a minus-six scoring chance differential and a minus-four high danger chance differential. I’d like to see Chara’s role reduced to what it was pre-Caps injury/COVID disaster. Schultz was absolutely killing it with just about every other partner and Chara at least saw average results next to Nick Jensen who has seemingly stepped his game up even more since then.
  • Tom Wilson got on the board shorthanded for his sixth of the season and now has 13 points in 13 games. Is the rest of the league ready for a point per game Tom?
  • Did you know that “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatically correct sentence in English?

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

RMNB Coverage of Caps at Penguins

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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