Buffalo Run – Fresh from their last break of two or more days between games this season, the Caps are set for their marathon finish to the 2023-24 NHL regular season. Starting with tonight’s visit to Buffalo to take on the Sabres, the Caps will play nine games in 15 days, and they’ll be traveling to play eight of the nine.
The Capitals are seeking to shake off a two-game winless (0-1-1) stretch; they have not lost more than two straight in any fashion since a six-game skid (0-5-1) from Jan. 20-Feb. 8.
Beginning with a Feb. 10 visit to Boston, the Caps have rolled up a 14-7-3 record over their previous 24 games. By pulling two of every three points available to them during that span, Washington has put itself in a playoff position, one in which it controls its postseason destiny at the outset of the month of April. And if the Caps are able to continue that equation of taking two of every three points, they will most likely return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs this spring.
The Caps have gotten this far by directing their focus entirely on what’s right in front of them, and in this case, it’s the Buffalo Sabres. Sure, there’s a game in Washington on Thursday against Pittsburgh, and another one in Carolina the very next night, and then right back home for yet another one on Sunday against Ottawa, the day before they leave for Detroit, and …
“Not to make it sound like it’s easy to do, but because we’ve been in this for the last month,” begins Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, “I just think our team has been very, very mentally focused on short term, and next day, and taking advantage of that day. How are we going to figure out a way to beat the Buffalo Sabres, and not worry about how many games we have left, who do we need to beat, and what does it look like, landscape wise, what is the big picture?
“And that’s the way we’ve had to be for the last month, because we’ve been teetering back and forth. Are we in it? Can we do it? And we’ve won some really crucial games just by focusing on one day at a time.”
Unless and until their berth in the playoffs is clinched, every game is crucial for the Caps. Buffalo’s own playoff hopes may be on life support, but the Sabres are a formidable foe and have always been so for the Capitals. Five of the last six meetings between these two teams have required overtime, and the Sabres scored seven times in the one that didn’t go past 60 minutes, cruising to a 7-4 win over the Caps here in Washington’s most recent visit here on Feb. 26 of last year.
“I think it helps a little bit, to just be able to talk about what they do at a high level,” says Carbery of the Sabres. “They’ve had some success as of late. They lose to Toronto [on Saturday night], but if you watch that game or if you go back to that game, [ex-Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov] stole that game. [Toronto] gets outchanced – I think we had it at 21-14 for Buffalo – and [the Sabres] lose the game 3-0.
“This is not a team you can take [lightly]. If you take an inch of it lightly, you’re going to be caught off guard [tonight].”
The Caps have knocked off some elite teams on their climb to contention, beating Boston, Tampa Bay, and Vancouver on the road, and taking down Carolina and Winnipeg at home. To finish the season in a playoff spot, the Caps will still need to knock off some good teams, some playoff teams. But they’ve also got to win the games they “should” win, the games against teams behind them in the standings, like tonight’s game against the Sabres. But Buffalo is one of those teams – like Toronto, New Jersey and Edmonton – that boasts a lot of wheels and a lot of skill. Those type of teams typically give Washington trouble.
“Yes, big time,” says Carbery. “Their [defensemen] are always active, and you’ve got [Owen] Power and [Rasmus] Dahlin, and now you add [Bowen] Byram to that mix. All three of those guys are as mobile as they come, shifty, can make you miss. Their blueline mobility laterally is through the roof. And then their speed and ability to make plays off entry, to find middle ice, is very much like New Jersey and Toronto.”
For tonight’s game, the Caps will have blueliner Rasmus Sandin back in their lineup after a one-game absence because of a lower body injury. Right wing T.J. Oshie will also miss tonight’s game because of an upper body injury that has sidelined him from nine of the last 17 games. Tonight’s game also marks the last game that Washington winger Tom Wilson will miss because of suspension; his six-game sentence ends tonight. The Caps are 3-1-1 without him in the first five.
Capital Youth – Recalled from AHL Hershey ahead of the team’s trip to Toronto last week, defenseman Vincent Iorio is getting his first taste of NHL activity this season, just a shade later in the campaign than his three-game stint with the Caps last March in the first season of his entry level deal.
Iorio stepped in for Sandin on Saturday night against the Bruins and gave the Caps just over nine minutes of good hockey, while the rest of Sandin’s usual workload of 20 or more minutes was spread around the rest of Washington defense corps.
With Hershey this season, Iorio had four goals and 14 points in 60 games, to go along with a plus-26 plus/minus rating.
“Really good,” he says of his season to this point. “I think at the start of the year I was in a little bit of a slump. I think it was good that I had that, because I was able to lean on some of the older guys there, and I was able to get out of that and to turn the page. Since then, I’ve been playing really well and I think the team has been playing very well, and we have a really good record to show that.”
Having gotten a three-game taste of the NHL last season, he is better equipped to deal with the uptick in speed and pace at this level, and he showed that in Saturday’s game against the Bruins.
“Just play my game,” he says. “Play sound, play smart defensively, break out pucks well, and we’ll see how the offense goes. But for me, it’s about just playing a steady, to-way game and just being reliable in my zone.”
The Caps drafted Iorio in the second round (55th overall) of the 2021 NHL Draft; he was the first player Washington chose in that draft. After finishing up his WHL career with the Brandon Wheat Kings, Iorio turned pro last season. In addition to his three-game NHL baptism, Iorio totaled two goals and 22 points in 63 games with Hershey, and he added a goal and five points in 15 playoff games. Most significantly, he picked up a championship ring in his first pro season, as Hershey won its 12th Calder Cup title last June.
“I think it’s huge confidence wise and maturity wise,” he says of the Calder Cup title run. “You learn a lot and you go through a lot of ups and downs through a season like that. For me, just taking things day by day, I was able to learn a lot of the veterans, and I still am learning, so it’s been really good.”
Called back up to Washington some nine months after that title run with the Bears, Iorio is now one of six members of last season’s Calder Cup championship squad who are now plying their trade with the Capitals, accounting for a significant chunk of the team’s roster down the stretch as it tries to nail down a playoff berth.
“First of all, I think you have to appreciate all the guys who were in Hershey last year, and to see their success up here is really great,” says Iorio. “I’ve been following along – I think everybody in Hershey has been following along – and it’s a pretty good run the Caps have been on. Hopefully, they can keep things up and continue to push for a playoff spot.”
Stepping into the lineup on Saturday against Boston when Sandin was unable to go, Iorio was installed into the lineup just in time to be part of John Carlson’s 1,000th NHL game that night. It was also the 21-year-old Iorio’s fourth game in the League.
“I don’t even know how to describe it, to be honest,” says Iorio. “You think of a thousand games, and that’s a lot of times to be lacing up then skates, and he’s one of the best to ever do it. I look up to him, and he has given me some pointers here and there, and I’m very fortunate.”
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren continues to shoulder most of Washington’s netminding duties down the homestretch. Tonight in Buffalo, he starts for the fifth consecutive game and the ninth time in the Caps’ last 10 games. Lindgren will appear in his 10th straight game tonight – he came on in relief in the last game he did not start – and he will be making his 16th appearance in Washington’s last 17 games, dating back to a Feb. 27 start in Detroit.
Lindgren has yet to go consecutive starts without helping the Caps to at least a point, and he is one of the main reasons Washington is in the thick of the postseason chase, two weeks from the end of the regular season.
Lifetime against Buffalo, Lindgren is 2-0-0 with a 2.67 GAA and a .912 save pct. in three appearances (two starts).
For the Sabres, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is the expected starter against Washington tonight. Since Feb. 10, Luukkonen has a dozen victories, tied with Lindgren and three others for third most in the NHL over that span; only Nashville’s Juuse Saros and Dallas’ Jake Oettinger (13 each) have more.
Like Lindgren, Luukkonen has been a late-season workhorse for the Sabres, appearing in 29 of the team’s last 34 games since Jan. 11.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Luukkonen is 2-0-2 with a 3.32 GAA and a .902 save pct. in four appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Caps and the Sabres might look on Tuesday night in Buffalo:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 24-McMichael, 21-Protas
23-Sgarbossa, 17-Strome, 63-Miroshnichenko
67-Pacioretty, 29-Lapierre, 15-Milano
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aubé-Kubel
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Injured/Out
19-Backstrom (lower body)
25-Bear (NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program)
43-Wilson (NHL suspension)
77-Oshie (upper body)
Scratches
2-Iorio
45-Phillips
BUFFALO
Forwards
77-Peterka, 72-Thompson, 89-Tuch
9-Benson, 24-Cozens, 22-Quinn
13-Rousek, 19-Krebs, 53-Skinner
50-Robinson, 28-Girgensons, 71-Olofsson
Defensemen
25-Power, 26-Dahlin
4-Byram, 10-Jokiharju
78-Bryson, 75-Clifton
Goaltenders
1-Luukkonen
27-Levi
Injured/Out
23-Samuelsson (upper body)
Scratches
12-Greenway
17-Jost
31-Comrie
38-Clague
