Caps Prevail Over Sabres, 6-4

With a new coach and a handful of new players, the Caps played their first regular season games in over 10 months on Thursday night in Buffalo. Although the quality of play on both sides was understandably wobbly and uneven at times - every team in the league had a shortened training camp and no exhibition games - the Caps were better for more of the game's 60 minutes, and they skated off with two points in a 6-4 victory.

All four Washington lines had a hand in the scoring, and the Caps' active defense was also evident in Thursday's season opener, chipping in a couple of goals and four points. The Caps never trailed in nailing down their fourth consecutive opening night victory, the first of Peter Laviolette's tenure as Caps head coach.
Thursday's game was Laviolette's first behind an NHL bench in just over a year, the longest gap between games of his lengthy and distinguished coaching career.

"I was really happy with the way guys worked at training camp," says Laviolette. "Starting on the road like this, it was a good win. Buffalo's got a good team; they made some nice additions to their roster, so I think for our guys to come out and play well and take control of the game the way we did, I was really happy about that.
"But it's not just me with the first game. There's a lot of guys in that room, a lot of players and coaches and video coaches, and there have been some additions to the team. I'm really happy for everybody. You want to start the season the right way, and we were able to do that."
On the one-year anniversary of the announcement of his five-year contract extension, Nicklas Backstrom's pact kicked in on opening night, and he started the scoring at 5:43 of the first, chipping a shot home from the top of the paint with help from linemates Alex Ovechkin and T. J. Oshie. Brenden Dillon started the play in transition at the Washington line.

Just ahead of the midpoint of the first, Taylor Hall scored his first goal as a Sabre on a Buffalo power play to knot the game at 1-1. Less than two minutes later, Oshie answered back on a Washington man advantage, tucking the rebound of an Ovechkin wrister behind Buffalo goalie Carter Hutton to put the Caps back on top at 10:33.
In the front half of the middle frame, Backstrom and Oshie combined to spark a second transition tally at 5-on-5, springing john Carlson into Buffalo ice with enough time and space to pick a corner and pot it for a 3-1 Washington lead at 7:05 of the frame. Minutes later, the Caps had a power play opportunity but were unable to extend their lead. No matter, though. They did so on the next offensive zone face-off.
Lars Eller won the draw, and Conor Sheary helped the puck back to Dillon at the right point. Dillon threaded a seeing eye shot through traffic, and it got past Hutton for a 4-1 Caps advantage at 13:23 of the second.
Washington got a little cute in the remaining minutes of the second, getting pass happy and trying to make some fancy plays rather than putting pucks on net. For the first time in the game, they iced the puck with just under four minutes left, ending a stretch of remarkable precision with their exit passes. Neither team iced the puck at all in the first period.
The Caps rarely spent extended time in their own end but did get hemmed on such a shift late in the frame, and the Sabres took advantage, making it 4-2 at 18:46 of the second on a Tobias Rieder goal.
When Buffalo blueliner Jake McCabe scored from the top of the right circle just 20 seconds into the third, the Caps' lead was suddenly down to a single goal. But less than half a minute later, Jakub Vrana collected an uncharacteristic Eric Staal turnover right in front of Hutton, burying it for 5-3 Washington lead.
With Hutton pulled for an extra attacker, Buffalo again closed to within a goal with just under two minutes remaining when Victor Olofsson converted a Hall feed from the back door. Garnet Hathaway's long-distance empty-netter removed any doubt, accounting for the 6-4 final.

"I think it was huge," says Carlson of the win. "We've anticipated coming back; this is different from any other year. So certainly for [Laviolette] with all the new things we've been implementing throughout our game system-wise [and] how we want to play the game, I think we actually did a great job with a lot of them tonight. When we were playing bad, it was almost like we kind of resorting back to plays from the past and maybe trying to do too much. I think since he has been here, we've simplified it a lot."
The Caps got the jump on Buffalo in the opener, but the Sabres had been idle for more than 10 months going into Thursday's opener. They got better as the game wore on.
"We had a very disappointing start," says Sabres coach Ralph Krueger. "They came with a lot of speed, and we had trouble adapting after the [10-month] break to the start. They did a very good job of getting on us and taking away space and time, and the pressure. I thought it took us at least a period and a bit to finally see our legs coming. We did continue to be too complicated through the neutral zone until the third period, where we really felt we were getting some momentum. But we have them one back, and too little, too late at the end."
Both teams hustled off to bed after this one; they'll meet in a rematch here on Friday night.