An unrested Washington Capitals team received a gift of a road game from the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. The Caps didn’t need a lot to win this one, and still they just barely managed.
Brenden Dillon, of all people, scored the game’s first goal, a one-timer from the blue line. Alex Ovechkin banked a shot off one of the Rasmii to make it 2-0, but Henri Jokiharju got Buffalo on the board with a screened shot later that period.
Early in the second, the Sabres ceded a shooting lane to Justin Schultz, but later he anticipated an icing call that never came, allowing Casey Mittelstadt to score.
Jakub Vrana roofed the puck halfway through the third to grow Washington’s lead, but Tage Thompson drew Buffalo within one late in the game.
Caps win!
Barely won a game over the worst team I’ve ever seen? I’m houseruling a Bailamos game: karaoke edition.
- There’s that scene in Die Hard where Alan Rickman is like, “You asked for a miracle, Theo? I give you the FBI.” The Sabres are the FBI here. I think that makes the Caps a gang of theatrical and high-tech thieves? I did not think this metaphor through.
- And yet the Caps didn’t dominate this game at all. Eager to see what Chris will say tomorrow morning.
- Alex Ovechkin remains red hot with 14 goals in 18 games. Honestly, if he didn’t score in this game, that would have been more newsworthy. A goal here from him was basically mandatory.
- So you’re trying telling to me that this is too many men?!
- Until he scored in the third period, Jakub Vrana had done virtually nothing in his two games since returning from healthy scratchville, which was just as much of a counterproductive waste of time as Peter Laviolette’s lineup and tactical adjustments this month. That was Vrana’s first goal since a two-goal night on March 9. Very proud of our son.
- Justin Schultz had a three-point night. And he knows not to assume an official will call an icing penalty again.
- After beating up on him for a long while, I’ll give credit to Brenden Dillon, who played just fine and scored his second goal of the season.
- Alex Ovechkin might have had his second goal of the game late in the third — or maybe it would have been Kuznetsov’s? I don’t know and now we never will, as a super long review determined that Tom Wilson was offside way earlier on the play. Boooooo.
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsSabres @JoeBpXp rocking the blue pic.twitter.com/tQTmnDjwEs
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) April 9, 2021
Well, that’s two standings points, an Ovi goal, and a W for Vanecek, but I’m not any more confident about the Caps than I was on Thursday night.
Hmm.
RMNB Coverage of Caps at Sabres
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington
