The Washington Capitals bounced back with one of their best performances of the season against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night. It took overtime to find a winner, but the Caps put together a strong overall effort and pushed through a couple of poor individual mistakes to win 4-3.
Good to see them beat up on a playoff team from last year. Good to see the forward lines back in order.
- Outside of the horrible miscues on the first two Buffalo goals, I really liked what I saw from the Capitals at five-on-five. The Sabres are not an easy team to deal with offensively, and the Caps did a pretty bang-up job, especially in the middle part of the game. Washington particularly dominated the second period, finishing the frame up 18-13 in shot attempts, 10-6 in shots on goal, 13-5 in scoring chances, 6-1 in high-danger chances, and 1.46-0.67 in expected goals. They also had a slight third-period edge, an issue in previous games.
- There were two really big stars of the show from a production standpoint, with the first being Alex Tuch against his former team. Tuch scored twice to reach seven goals in his first 10 games with the Capitals, and his second was the overtime game-winner. He leads the NHL in game-winning goals this season (4) and is now tied for the Caps lead in overall scoring with nine points (7g, 2a) in 10 games.
- Dylan Strome is tied with Tuch atop that leaderboard and had his breakout 2026-27 game with three points (2g, 1a). Strome scored twice and notched the primary assist on Tuch’s game-winner. Overall, he had a super active game, recording five shots on goal, seven shot attempts, six individual scoring chances, three individual high-danger chances, and one shot block. Strome also went 11-5 in the faceoff dot, so just a dominant performance all over the ice.
- Charlie Lindgren probably wants Buffalo’s second goal back, but he made up for it with some tremendous saves later on, particularly that one shorthanded breakaway stop on Zach Benson. Lindgren made 18 total stops on 21 shots faced and, per MoneyPuck, saved 0.66 fewer goals than expected, which tracks with the really bad one given up to Josh Doan. I still thought he was good overall.
- Jordan Kyrou also picked up two assists in the win, and he now quietly has eight points (2g, 6a) in 10 games this season. He is tied with Strome and Jakob Chychrun for the team lead in assists and tied with Ryan Leonard for second in overall team scoring. Six of his eight points this season have come during his current four-game point streak.
- Dylan McIlrath played 7:13 of ice time in the win. I bring this up to consider whether Jack St. Ivany will immediately get a sweater in McIlrath’s spot against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday. I would imagine that he does and plays more than 10 minutes. If you’re wondering who the heck Jack St. Ivany is… well, you have some reading to do.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
