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Defense optional in road loss to Sabres: numbers for the morning after

By Chris Cerullo

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February 27, 2023 5:49 am

The Washington Capitals took their good vibes from Saturday and almost immediately dunked them into the trash on Sunday. They scored four goals which is a great output of late for them but they also just didn’t play any defense, falling 7-4 to the Buffalo Sabres.

This year’s Caps cannot play like that and win.

  • For a hot minute in the first period I thought the Caps were actually hanging with the Sabres trying to play a run-and-gun type game. That didn’t last long as Buffalo pulled a Saturday-Caps move and scored four times in the second period. In the game, one of the NHL’s most potent offensive teams out-scoring chanced the Caps 40 to 24 and out-high danger chanced them 18 to 10. Today’s Caps aren’t winning a game like that, especially against a team like the Sabres.
  • The top line was downright awful and I think a lot of that was Evgeny Kuznetsov apparently being on another planet while trying to play hockey. The Caps were out-scoring chanced with Kuzy on the ice at five-on-five 17 to 5 and out-high danger chanced 10 to 3.
  • At least Alex Ovechkin scored. That’s probably going to be the lone positive from a lot of the games remaining on this season’s schedule. Ovi snapped a six-game streak without a goal.

  • I feel like if you watched this game you are very aware of how bad that Matt Irwin and Dylan McIlrath pairing was. Just go watch the Sabres goals scored with them on the ice and it’s obvious. They were on for three of them and zero for the Caps. I’m very much on the tank crew right now so I’m down with them just sticking with those two guys a lot.
  • TJ Oshie seems somewhat healthy for probably the first time this season and has found some hot-shooting form. He tallied two more points in this one and now has six points (4g, 2a) in his last three games.
  • Darcy Kuemper started on back-to-back days and that didn’t go very well. The defense in front of him was atrocious but five goals allowed on 19 shots is still pretty terrible. That decision is a questionable one.

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

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