Just hand Braden Holtby the Vezina Trophy right now.
On Monday night in Buffalo, I sat 17 rows behind Holtby and was blown way by his adept puck stopping skills. He's so big and so smooth. I counted a dozen save that were of the impressive variety. Try as Buffalo might to bump, crowd and make contact with Holtby, they could not beat him. His mental toughness was as impressive as his puck stopping prowess was.
Holtby made 31 saves on 31 Buffalo shots and was a virtuoso in the process.
The Caps have now won eight game sin a row.
Look at this gorgeous save that Holtby made on Evander Kane with 1:01 remaining in regulation play and Buffalo goalie Linus Ullmark on the bench in favor of the extra attacker.
Just. Plain. Disgusting.
Alex Ovechkin and Jay Beagle scored second period goals on the only two mistakes that the Sabres made all night long.
These Caps are good. Crazy good.
It was Holtby's second shutout this season and the 22nd of his NHL career.
The Capitals (27-6-2) have won eight games in a row and 15 of their past 17.
Holtby is now 23-4-1 with a 1.86 GAA and .935 save percentage.
After a scoreless, competitively played first twenty minutes, Ovi scored the game winner just 19 seconds into the second period. The Sabres defenders were lulled into poor coverage on T.J. Oshie tapped the puck into the corner. From there Nick Backstrom chucked it Ovechkin who was all alone drinking a Timmy Ho's double-double while left all alone in front of Linus Ullmark. Carey Price nor Holtby would have made that save on Ovechkin who potteed his 18th goals of the season.
Beagle made the score 2-0 with 7:05 remaining in the second period when he scored his sixth goal when he deposited a Tom Wilson rebound behind Ullmark. The Wilson shot kicked off the end wall and sat lazily in the slot for Beagle to throw into the trash can. Over the years, we've seen Ryan Miller and other goalies victimized by fortuitous, ill-timed bounces off of the kick plate on the end boards inside the Buffalo arena. The rookie Ullmark will have to make a mental note of such nasty bounces for future reference.
The Sabres (15-17-4) tried battled hard and fought to the final horn, however, they could not beat Holtby. The killing blow to Buffalo was that they were 0 for 3 on their power play opportunities.
These same two teams will lock horns again in Washington on Wednesday night.
I expect a few fights when these two teams lock horns again.
In the second period on Monday night, Buffalo battler Nic Deslauriers floored Caps winger Justin Williams with a heavy body check on the glass. The Washington bench accused Deslauriers of an elbow on Williams. Midway though the second period, Michael Latta chirped Deslauriers on a faceoff then challenged the heavyweight scraper to a fight. Deslauriers landed several heavy punches and dropped Latta with emphasis. Latta would not return to the game due to an injury sustained during the fight. Latta nd the Caps will think twice about trying the rough stuff with Deslauriers in the future.
Ovechkin plowed Josh Gorges from behind late in the game sending that Buffalo D-man flying face first into the wall.
Get your popcorn ready for Wednesday night.