The Washington Capitals lost two games in a row on their short road trip against Western Conference opponents last week. Despite their lack of success against the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild, head coach Spencer Carbery isn’t making any lineup changes against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
Carbery was brief when asked about how his team would look against the cellar-dwelling Sabres, though he did name Logan Thompson as his starting goaltender. “Nope, [no changes], Logan will go in net,” Carbery said.
Projected Capitals lineup
Alex Ovechkin will look to move one goal closer in his chase of Wayne Gretzky, entering the game six goals away from sole possession of the goals record. Ovechkin did not score against the Sabres in his previous game against them this season, firing five shots on goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
During his career, Ovechkin has lit the Sabres up on the goal-scoring front. They are one of 11 teams that Ovechkin has scored 40 or more goals (41) against during his 20 seasons in the NHL. In 66 career games against the Sabres, Ovechkin has recorded 68 points (41g, 27a), and he has six career goals against James Reimer, Buffalo’s probable starter.
Thompson gets the start for the Caps after taking an overtime loss to the Jets last Tuesday. The 28-year-old netminder has only lost back-to-back starts once this year but has historically struggled against the Sabres. In four career appearances against them, he has a 2-2 record with a 4.28 goals-against average and a .855 save percentage.
The only teams he has a worse save percentage against are the Utah Hockey Club (.852) and Carolina Hurricanes (.793), against whom he has only played once each. However, Thompson already has a win against Buffalo this season, stopping 19 of 21 shots in a 4-2 victory on December 14.
Per The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski, top Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin will be a game-time decision due to an illness. Dahlin did not play in the Sabres’ 7-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.
Despite winning six of their last 10 games, the Sabres still sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with just 66 standings points. The Sabres have not made the playoffs since the 2010-11 season.
