At The Final Horn: Sabres 1 - Capitals 3

Victor Olofsson scored on the power play and Linus Ullmark made 18 saves in the Buffalo Sabres' 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday at Capital One Arena.
Washington got out in front to a 3-0 lead with a goal in each period from Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson and Conor Sheary, respectively. Backstrom is on a five-game point streak. Vitek Vanacek made 22 saves for the Capitals.
Through 13 games, the Sabres are 2-7-1 this season when their opponent scores first.

What happened

The Sabres hit a pair of posts - the first coming from Sam Reinhart 5:13 into the game and another when Jeff Skinner hit iron at the 6:50 mark - before Washington took a 1-0 lead with 2:37 remaining in the opening period while on the power play.
Washington had multiple opportunities to smack the puck in after an Alex Ovechkin blast from the left faceoff circle. Ovechkin pushed his rebound back to the front of the net where Backstrom was able to put it in.
Wilson put the Capitals up 2-0 with a shorthanded goal when he skated in on a 2-on-0, put a move on Ullmark and slipped the puck in on his backhand 6:38 into the second period.
Sheary chipped in a rebound to give the Capitals a 3-0 lead at the 7:28 mark of the third.
Olofsson roofed a shot short side over Vanacek's shoulder to put Buffalo on the board with 8:33 left in regulation. Olofsson's sixth goal of the season was his fifth with the man advantage. He now leads the team in goals and is tied with captain Jack Eichel for the team lead in points (12).
The goal also snapped a 149:47 goal-less streak for Buffalo that dated back to Olofsson's last goal, which came in the second period of Buffalo's game on Monday against the New York Islanders.

Roll the highlight film

Ullmark made a remarkable save on Sheary with 8:15 remaining in the first period to keep the game 0-0:

Worth mentioning

Brandon Montour made his return to the lineup, skating 19:08 against Washington as did forward Curtis Lazar, who played 8:01. Both players missed the last two games as they worked their way back from being on the COVID-related absence list.
The Sabres are not expected to have defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen in the lineup for the duration of their four-game road trip. He was removed from COVID protocol on Tuesday, which he'd entered on February 2. Dylan Cozens and Casey Mittelstadt have cleared protocol, but have yet to return to the lineup.

Coming up

Buffalo's four-game road trip continues Saturday afternoon against the New Jersey Devils. Faceoff is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage on MSG starts at noon.