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Sabres beat Caps 7-4 in curiously coached game

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The oldest team in the league, the Washington Capitals, played the youngest team in the league, the Buffalo Sabres, while the young team was rested and the old team was not. Despite all human wisdom urging otherwise, the Caps chose to play this one wiiiiiiide-open.

The game started off hot, with a bunch of chances before Casey Mittelstadt fed Dylan Cozens for a rush goal. Dylan Strome retaliated with a great assist from Nick Jensen, but then Evgeny Kuznetsov fed Tage Thompson a tantalizing turnover in the high slot to give Buffalo the lead again. TJ Oshie caught a pass from Strome to tie it 2-2 after twenty minutes.

The second period belonged to Buffalo. They scored four goals: Skinner, Girgensons, Hinostroza, and Cozens for his second of the day. Alex Ovechkin caught a rebound off the end-board for his 33rd of the season, then Sonny Milano scored a jailbreak goal to make 6-4 after two periods.

Dylan Cozens got the hat trick in the third period.

Caps lose.

  • It was a fast-paced start with chances at both ends, signalizing a fundamental misunderstanding of the assignment. Washington is slow, old, and tired. Buffalo is young, fast, and rested. The Caps should have been making this a slog on every shift, slowing down the pace of play, taking no chances. They didn’t do that, and they got stomped as a result.
  • Nick Jensen had two solid plays leading to assists in the first period. I keep trying to convince myself he’d be worth a first-round pick in a trade. Non-zero chance this was his last game for Washington.
  • If there’s a memo going around about the Capitals giving up on the season, TJ Oshie left it on read. He’s got four goals in the last three games, plus the assist and fight on Saturday. He’s trying. Meanwhile…
  • Hard to imagine a player earning a minus harder than Evgeny Kuznetsov did here. Might as well be wearing the other jersey with a turnover like that.

  • Dylan McIlrath has been an interesting call-up this season, and I’m using the word interesting as a euphemism for something rude. His pairing with Matt Irwin, a player who I think can be useful in certain conditions, was a disaster, on ice for three Sabres goals. The fact that this pairing (30 and 35 years old) is getting ice at this point of this season reflects one inescapable conclusion: the team does not like its youth options.
  • I realized in hindsight that I did not mention in yesterday’s recap the newest Capital, Craig Smith. I’m still not mentioning him. This bullet doesn’t count, and neither does he.

Late in the broacast, Joe Beninati said that Washington had won twenty-five of their last thirty-five games against Buffalo. And now, these are two clubs heading in two different directions. After nearly two decades of wandering, the Sabres are finally intimidating again. The Capitals – well, I still don’t know. Brian MacLellan’s “retool” could mean so many different things – and to different degrees.

There is so much yet to be revealed, and before the trade deadline there is only one more game: Wednesday night in Anaheim. Next week will be a slow one for the Capitals – on the ice at least.

Headline photo: the king @joeyerdon

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