For the second time in a week, the Buffalo Sabres (20-10-3) will make a visit to Capital One Arena and they will look to exact some revenge after the Washington Capitals (20-10-5) walked away with a 4-3 SO victory. Heading into the last weekend before the Christmas break it’s important the Capitals keep up the momentum they have gained over the last 15 games losing only three times. Pittsburgh halted the Caps 5-game winning streak on Wednesday night after a 2-1 win in a physical battle in which the Penguins also ended Alexander Ovechkin’s 14-game point streak.
With the Ovechkin streak over, Buffalo’s Sam Reinhart now enters tonight's matchup with a career-high and current NHL longest point scoring streak at 11 games. The 2014 2nd overall choice in the NHL draft has collected 5 goals and 18 points during that span and since teaming up with Jeff Skinner and Jack Eichel on a line the trio has been almost unstoppable. Former Capitals defenseman and now Sabres coach Phil Housley put them together on Nov. 13 against the Lightning and the Sabres have gone 11-4-3 since, with only one game where none of the trio scored a goal spanning 18 games.
Skinner and Eichel are also on point streaks of their own as the line feeds off each other. Eichel has scored a point in seven straight with 5 goals and 14 points including a beauty he scored in Washington last week when he posterized Dimitri Orlov before sniping a shelf shot that few guys in the league even attempt. Like Eichel, Skinner enters the game on his own seven-game point streak with 5 goals and 9 points. The former Hurricane seemingly always has good games vs the Capitals. He leads the Sabres with 25 goals putting him second place four goals behind the league leader Ovechkin (29).
If the Caps want to get back on the winning side of things they will need to take fewer penalties for sure as the penalty kill unit has struggled lately. Only four teams have a worse penalty killing percentage than Washington’s 75.2% with an even worse home penalty kill of 72.9%. Although Buffalo’s power play is only 19th in the league (19.1%), you do not want to chance it with the weapons they can bring. Additionally, the Capitals power play went 0-5 against the Penguins in what was the biggest reason for the loss on Wednesday and has fallen out of the top 3 in the NHL currently sitting in 6th place operating at 25%.
The one goal scored against the Penguins marked the first time in 14 games the Capitals failed to put up at least three goals in a game, but you could argue they had their chances including two goal-line pucks and a hit post.
Coach Todd Reirden is changing up the lines today in what is likely expected after the loss vs Pittsburgh. Chandler Stephenson will get back in and Andre Burakovsky, who was scratched the last four games, will get another chance to show the coaching staff he’s ready to play consistently again. Some consider Burakovsky is being shopped around the league. I think scouts know what they have in the skilled but inconsistent forward and the Caps will not make any rash decisions in regards to a potential trade out of DC. I'm not sure I agree with scratching Travis Boyd or Dmitrij Jaskin with how they were playing with Nic Dowd but I can get behind keeping guys fresh.
Caps expected lineup vs. Buffalo:
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 21, 2018
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Burakovsky-Eller-Connolly
Stephenson-Dowd-DSP
Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Siegenthaler-Bowey
Washington will leave after the game for the Canadian Capital as they take on the Senators in Ottawa tomorrow night in the last game before the break.
Game time tonight is 7 PM EST.
Capital Gain:
Defenseman Brooks Orpik is skating in a non-contact jersey as he continues his rehab. Nicklas Backstrom is the Capitals all-time leader in plus/minus at +133 Brett Connolly is shooting 17.8% in his games with the Capitals ranking him 6th All-Time for the franchise.