The Washington Capitals lost three games in a row for just the second time this season after falling 8-5 to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday afternoon. The Caps struggled to keep pace with the young Sabres and didn’t have the goaltending to bail them out.
Burn the tape on this one. The Sabres will forever be this team’s kryptonite.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2025-03-30
#ALLCAPS
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) March 30, 2025 at 6:16 PM
- The Capitals actually “played well” when you only take a glance at the five-on-five statistics. They out-attempted the Sabres 58-33 in the game and out-chanced them 20-14. While some may see those numbers and go, “Yeah, I knew these stats were worthless,” I actually think they tell the story of the game pretty well. The Caps simply beat themselves with bad individual errors and poor goaltending. You can dominate a team at five-on-five from a pure process perspective and still get scored on eight times if your goalie isn’t on his game and you’re gifting the opposition odd-man rushes and taking really bad penalties.
- Logan Thompson had his worst game as a member of the Capitals. He faced just 23 shots but gave up seven goals. Per MoneyPuck, he allowed 2.7 more goals than expected, taking him below 30 in the stat this year (27.4) for the first time in a long time.
- The Caps had not allowed more than five goals in a game once this season until they gave up eight to the Sabres, who are dead last in the Eastern Conference. I thought that after the Caps drafted Miroslav Satan’s son, this Sabres curse would subside, but apparently not.
Tom Wilson recorded the primary assist on Protas' shorthanded goal, his 29th assist of the season. Wilson (29a in 72 GP) has established a new single-season career high in assists (previously 2021-22: 28a in 78 GP).
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) March 30, 2025
- Alex Ovechkin scored his 890th career goal, moving four goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky for the goals record and five goals away from sole possession of it. Ovi also chipped in two assists, notching his eighth three-point game of the season.
- Jakob Chychrun and Aliaksei Protas both hit milestones. Chychrun became the first Capitals defenseman since Mike Green to score 20 goals in a season, and Protas scored his 30th goal of the season. This is also my chance to remind you that the PHWA blatantly robbed Green of two Norris Trophies.
- Big congrats to one of the biggest unsung heroes on this year’s team, Rasmus Sandin, who played in his 300th NHL game. Sandin was super physical in the loss, throwing at least two big hits, and he recorded an assist on Ovechkin’s goal.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
