Home shooter success: Caps beat Sabers 4-3

Home shooter success: Caps beat Sabers 4-3

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The Washington Capitals opened their 2021 home campaign against the Buffalo Sabers and did so for the first time without Alex Ovechkin since 2003. I repeat … 2003. Can they enter the bizarro world and get away with two points?

Eric Staal sent a forehand home after Victor Olofsson stripped Zdeno Chara behind the net to open the scoring. Nicklas Backstrom converted a setback from a tip-in attempt by Tom Wilson to tie things up.

Nic Dowd put the Caps off once in their first lead of the evening from an amazing Caps cycle and clever feed from Jakub Vrana. Dylan Cozens has his first NHL goal to level the game once again. Vrana got one of his own shortly before Riley Sheahan re-locked the game.

No goal in overtime, so we got the ole boring skill competition.

  • Oshie does not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Eichel did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Backstrom did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Hall did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Vrana did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Cozens did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Carlson puts the biscuit in the basket.
  • Reinhart did not put the biscuit in the basket.

Caps beat the Sabers 4-3!

  • In the first period, the Caps certainly had the amount of advantage to send packs to the Sabers net, but they were defensively incredibly porous and gave up all quality to Buffalo. I could see that the Chara-Jensen clutch struggled early (it would last the whole match) and that foresight was true when Zdeno gave up the bag behind the net and Eric Staal punished him by finishing the layout. They then burned again and this led to Conor Sheary to have to take the only penalty for the period. Not a good start, but a draw after twenty minutes.
  • Tom Wilson is the Caps’ best player in their first five games, and that’s pretty obvious. Fantastic screen and hint that led to Nicklas Backstrom‘s rebound goal and some clutch, timely sticking to the penalty kill.
  • During the first break, news broke that Columbus was trading Pierre-Luc Dubois as early as tomorrow morning. Ian let us know that the Caps have a valid interest in acquiring the young center. However, it looks like the Winnipeg Jets may be the favorite to land him.
  • Would you believe me if I said the Caps were even worse in the second? Something tells me you would. They lost the quantity and quality battle … a lot. People this team are struggling defensively. There is no other way to put it.
  • A Brian Pinho turnover led to Connor McMichael‘s WJC teammate, Dylan Cozens reaching his first career NHL goal. Hint, hint.
  • Chara grabbed his first point as Washington Capital in the second point and then towered over all of his teammates in the celebration.
  • I think Vitek Vanecek should probably have had the third Sabers goal, but it was still a wide-ranging shot from the net. Vitek saved the Caps bacon in second place on about three or four other occasions alone. He was also absolutely fantastic in the shooting to earn the Caps the extra point.
  • To make matters worse, Tom Wilson went to the locker room early for the second break. He returned for one shift at the beginning of the third time and immediately left for the room again. The Caps have announced that he will not return due to a bodily injury and will be re-evaluated tomorrow. It’s bad, bad, bad.
  • The third was much better for the Caps. You can see though that this team is going to struggle offensively without numbers 8 and 92. That period they should look like they are playing without it. Dampen the other team defensively and a heavy preview plus offensively lower.
  • Rasmus Dahlin, in my honest opinion, hacked Lars Eller on a mini-break in the third. The refs disagreed and gave the Sabers no penalty against the Caps for 179 consecutive minutes. The one they did do was with ten seconds left in the game and gave the Caps a four-on-three OT advantage.
  • I want to see Trevor van Riemsdyk gets his Caps debut on Sunday and maybe one more debut on the center line should happen to McMichael.

Well, the Caps did not look pretty again. They had a second hold on the Sabers on Sunday in the second game of this Russellose game.

Full RMNB coverage of Caps vs Sabers

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