Sabres 4, Caps 2
Safe to say the Caps will be fine with avoiding the house of horrors that is First Niagara Center for the rest of this season. Their second visit to Buffalo almost matched the disaster of a 5-1 loss on Nov. 26 – you know, the game that hastened the demise of then-coach Bruce Boudreau.
This time Washington was down 4-0 a tidy 14 minutes, 14 seconds into the contest. Michal Neuvirth made everyone forget about his solid week of hockey by allowing three goals on six shots. Not all his fault. His teammates were once again skated off the ice early – something that’s happened far too often this season to be attributed to something as vague as “effort”. This just isn’t a very fast team and when attacked with speed by a skilled team it too often wilts. That first Sabres game is an example. The Maple Leafs blew them off the ice on Nov. 19. Not sure much can be done about that at this point in the season.
There’s only so much solace that Washington didn’t pack it in. The Caps worked hard for a late goal in the second period – first of the year for Matt Hendricks, much to his relief – and earned a power-play goal from Alex Ovechkin with a little over 10 minutes left in the third. All well and good. But there wasn’t enough left in the tank to push for a tie as they did Friday night in New Jersey in an eventual 4-3 shootout loss. Fell behind in that one 3-0.
Washington (17-15-2, 36 points) is in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and missed a chance to creep closer to the ailing Florida Panthers (18-11-7, 43 points), who lead the Southeast Division but had played three extra games. That game in hand is gone now and Florida can extend its lead back to nine points if it beats Toronto on Tuesday. The Caps next face the New York Rangers (22-8-4, 48 points) at Verizon Center on Wednesday night. They only lead the entire Eastern Conference and whipped Washington on their last visit to the District on Nov. 25 – the day after Thanksgiving – 6-3.
At Tuesday’s 11 a.m. practice at Kettler Iceplex, will check on the status of center Mathieu Perreault, speared in the midsection with his own stick after a collision with Buffalo defenseman Christian Ehrhoff. Perreault was taken to an area hospital for observation, according to a team spokesman. Was whistled for a charging penalty on the play, too, to literally add insult to injury.
Ovechkin scored his 12th goal of the season with assists to Nicklas Backstrom and Dennis Wideman. Nice to see a power-play goal. But then you realize this team is 9-for-78 with the man advantage dating to the final two periods of a Nov. 8 loss at home to Dallas. That’s 11.5%. The penalty kill had been on fire, but has now allowed three goals in its last nine chances.
Players have talked a lot in recent days about putting together a run of three or four wins in a row, but that remains an elusive goal under Dale Hunter. They’ll have to figure things out against the Rangers and Sabres at home this week and a New Year’s Eve game at Columbus, which has the NHL’s worst record.
Ovechkin seemed to have an active game with his goal, five shots on net and another going astray with four more blocked. He was also credited with five hits, for what its worth. Also took a huge hit from Buffalo defenseman Robyn Regehr as he brought a puck behind Ryan Miller’s net. Can’t recall seeing too many players get the best of Ovechkin in a physical battle like that. Was a real nice play by Regehr.
The Sabres won 31 of 53 faceoffs (58%) as the opposition continues to tee off on Washington in that area. The Caps lost 53% of faceoffs to New Jersey on Saturday and were eviscerated by Colorado on Dec. 17 (37%). To be fair, they did dominate the faceoff battle against Nashville on Dec. 20 (60%).
Tomas Vokoun came on in relief of Neuvirth in goal in the first period. He stopped 16 of 17 shots on goal in his first action since an ugly Dec. 13 loss at home to Philadelphia. Neuvirth was starting his fifth consecutive game. Guessing that changes after this performance.
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