Game 41 Preview & Open Thread: Sabers vs. Capitals

Game #41

Buffalo Sabres (14-21-5) vs. Washington capitals (26-10-3)

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EDT | KeyBank Center, Buffalo, NY

TV: MSG-B, NHLN

Know your opponent

Washington capitals

Record: 26-10-3 | 55 PTS

Last game: 7-4 win over Rangers

Division Ranking: 1., Metropolitan

PP: 11th, 23.5% (27/115 ops) (Sabres: 23rd, 17.9% (20/112 ops))

PK: 4th, 84.2% (101/120 kills) (Sabre: 20th, 78.2% (97/124 kills))

1. Halfway

We’re halfway through the season and fans are already tuning out. To be fair they do because it also seems some of the players are also tuning out and already making golf plans and booking summer vacations.

A recent report indicated that the Sabers have the second lowest attendance in the league, and that’s really no surprise. The on-ice product continues to be substandard, and it’s hard to see how the fans can be won back when the stench emanating from this team casts a pall all over downtown.

Even with a win tonight, the Sabers will need around 55-60 points in the back half of the season to make the playoffs, something like a 27-8-6 record.

2. No Ovie, no problem

There were many who thought this was the year the Capitals would fall out of the playoffs, and that was before Alexander Ovechkin went down with an injury.

Instead, Washington has turned itself into a very useful team, cruising at the top of the Metropolitan division and very good at getting Ovie to his holy grail of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s scoring record.

Ovechkin scored his 872nd NHL goal on Saturday to move within 23 of Gretzky’s all-time mark and since recovering from his broken left fibula has scored in four of the five games he has played. While he probably won’t get all 23 tonight, he’s probably good for one or two against the Sabres.

3. Now what for Buffalo?

The Sabers are in a strange place right now. Lindy Ruff already looks frustrated and you can only imagine that he regrets his choice to come back here. General Manager Kevyn Adams will have to make a move sooner rather than later, either bringing in a fresh face to jumpstart things or sending out some usual suspects to send a message. Ideally both.

Buffalo Sabres

Extenders

Jason Zucker – Dylan Cozens – Tage Thompson
JJ Peterka – Ryan McLeod – Alex Tuch
Zach Benson – Jiri Kulich – Peyton Krebs
Jack Quinn – Sam Lafferty – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin – Bowen Byram
Owen Power – Connor Clifton
Mattias Samuelsson – Henri Jokiharju

Goalkeepers: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (projected starter), James Reimer

Washington capitals

Extenders

Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Taylor Raddysh
Aliaksei Protas – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Tom Wilson
Lars Eller – Connor McMichael – Jakub Vrana
Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Andrew Mangiapane

Defense

Rasmus Sandin – John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun – Matt Roy
Martin Fehervary – Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goalkeepers:

Logan Thompson (projected starter), Charlie Lindgren