Nov. 1 vs. Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (6-5-0)
Buffalo Sabres (4-4-3)
The Caps finish up a weekend set of back-to-backs and kick off a busy month of November on Saturday night in Buffalo when they meet up with the Sabres for the first of three contests this season. It’s the first of 15 games for Washington this month.
Despite a spirited first-period performance in which they peppered New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin with 13 shots – 10 of which came from inside of 25 feet from the net – the Caps dropped their third straight game on Friday with a 3-1 loss to the Isles.
Washington also lost the services of center P-L Dubois late in the first period of Friday’s game when he got tangled up with Isles pivot Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the aftermath of a face-off in the Caps’ end of the ice. Dubois suffered a lower body injury and did not return; Caps coach Spencer Carbery said the center would be evaluated further on Saturday.
Dubois missed five games with a lower body injury earlier in the season, and his absence from the lineup over the final 40 minutes of Friday’s game was impactful; the Caps were already playing without center Dylan Strome, who suffered a lower body injury this past Saturday against Ottawa. Strome has missed two games since, but he has practiced with the team, and Carbery says he is a possibility for Saturday’s game with the Sabres.
Without Dubois, the Caps were down to 11 forwards and their line combinations were a tangle the rest of the way. For the eighth time in as many starts this season, Logan Thompson limited the opposition to two or fewer goals against, but he absorbed a third hard luck loss while making 21 saves.
“It was one of those nights the puck was bouncing a lot, which I think killed momentum for both teams a lot of the time,” says Caps winger Tom Wilson, author of Washington’s lone goal in Friday’s game. “When we got away from playing simple and trying to force some stuff, and on nights like that when ice is kind of – you're fighting it – we’ve just got to simplify; forecheck, and turn them over. We got away from that for a little bit in the middle of the game.
“And we just need a little bit better. We need better, 10 percent better from every guy, myself included, and we'll all right.”
The Caps’ ongoing special team woes were also a factor in Friday’s defeat. Washington was 0-for-4 on the power play, which was also obviously missing the services of Dubois and Strome. Worse, the extra-man unit was nicked for a shorthanded goal against, a pretty goal by Pageau that tied the game late in the second period.
Washington is 0-for-9 on the power play during its three-game slide, and a well-timed power-play goal could have resulted in a standings point – or two – in two of those three contests. On the season, the Capitals have converted 16.7 percent of their man advantage opportunities, tied for 24th in the NHL.
“It just continues to be an issue for us,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We’re trying to work through finding some personnel that can make it work. That’s as simple as I can put it. We’ve just got to find something that looks and resembles and can generate some chemistry and that, because thus far this year we haven’t found it.”
Washington’s penalty kill – dented for four power-play goals against in the prior two games – was sturdy on Friday, snuffing out all five New York power plays without incident, the most times the Caps have been shorthanded in a single contest this season.
A three-game slide is a modest one to be sure, but what’s more alarming for the Caps currently is their fallow offense. They’ve been limited to one or zero goals in each of those losses, scoring just two goals in their last 180 minutes of hockey. The last time Washington endured a three-game stretch in which it scored no more than one goal was from Dec. 23-28, 2023, wrapped around the NHL’s annual three-day holiday break in Carbery’s first season behind the bench.
The current streak marks the 22nd time in franchise history Washington has gone three or more games without scoring more than a single goal. Of those 22 instances, only five times has the slide extended beyond three games, most recently when the Caps went four straight games without scoring more than one goal from Jan. 17-24, 2014.
It’s difficult for any NHL team to generate offense when its top two centers are out of the lineup. Last season, both Dubois and Strome played in all 82 games. Through the first 11 games of 2025-26, the Caps have been without Dubois for five games and Strome has missed the last two.
“Everyone is going to have to step up,” says Wilson. “We’ve got some big names out; it's not an excuse. Everyone just needs to give a little bit more. Each guy is going to have to collectively try and fill those voids. And that's not new to anyone; that's hockey, it's part of the gig. We’ve just got to pull together and play well as a group, make plays, get our confidence back and win some hockey games, starting [Saturday] night.”
Saturday’s game kicks off a three-game homestand for the Sabres, who have played seven of their first 11 games on home ice (4-2-1) already.
Buffalo opened the season with three straight losses, getting outscored by a combined 10-2 in the process. The Sabres then straightened their ship with four wins in their next five games. As they enter Saturday’s game with the Capitals, the Sabres are in an odd spot; they’ve lost three straight (0-0-3), but they’ve also picked up points in five straight (2-0-3) and in seven of their last eight (4-1-3) games.
The Sabres have dropped three straight overtime decisions by identical scores of 4-3. Most recently, they rallied back from a 3-1 third-period deficit on Thursday night against the Bruins in Boston, forcing overtime before losing on Marat Khusnutdinov’s goal off a 3-on-1 rush in the extra session.
