The Buffalo Sabres have struggled to get into games as of late. Monday night's contest against the Washington Capitals made no difference for the Sabres in a 5-3 loss at Capital One Arena.
Washington scored the first goal early, with Tom Wilson getting his stick on a deflection in front to put the Capitals ahead. From there, the Capitals controlled the game.
Washington doubled their lead two minutes into the second period with a goal from Connor McMichael. Cody Eakin would answer back later, and the Sabres would regain some control, but that all went away when Alex Ovechkin netted the 741st goal of his career and the 11th tally of this season.
The Sabres would find their legs in the third period and get a goal off a mad scramble in front of the Capitals' net, as Anders Bjork was able to direct it into the net. However, Washington would finish the Sabres off with a second goal from Tom Wilson and then another late goal from defenseman John Carlson.
Let's take a look at what we observed from Monday night's contest:
1.) Sabres have to work on faster starts
Another game, another goal for the other team first.
Throughout their western road trip, the Sabres struggled to get their legs going and keep up with the Capitals. Wilson's goal took the wind out of their sails early, and they allowed the Capitals to play their game.
Washington controlled the shot share through the first period and played an 80% period in expected goals-for percentage.
Buffalo finally got an answer in the second period from Eakin, and they seemed to re-gain some control over the flow of events. However, a point shot deflected by Ovechkin put the Capitals back up by two goals and brought the momentum back to the home team for the rest of the period.
The starts have not been good enough, that's for sure.
2.) Give Cozens some different linemates
Nobody seems to know what to do with Dylan Cozens.
The 20-year-old has been centering a line with Vinnie Hinostroza and Drake Caggiula. Defensively, he's having a rough go of it, and he's not able to control play. His wingers don't exactly seem to fit with him on a line either.
While Cozens has struggled to defend, he's still an offensive presence on the ice. It would be interesting to see what he could do with a defensively sound pair like Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo.
3.) Pysyk is the perfect stabilizing partner for Dahlin
Sabres head coach Don Granato has been leaning heavily on a pairing of Rasmus Dahlin and Will Butcher.
Butcher and Dahlin have played a total of 167:31, according to Natural Stat Trick. In that time, they mustered an expected goals-for percentage of just 44%.
At this point, with Rasmus Dahlin being a former No. 1 overall pick, the Sabres defender needs to be performing better and driving offense more than teams are driving against him. The pair rated just 2.11 goals per-60 as a pair.
Switching over to Mark Pysyk may help. Pysyk excels at being a great defender and routinely has great expected goals-against figures throughout his career.
Naturally, having Pysyk as part of his pair provided a boost, in regards to their expected amounts while on the ice, with Dahlin dramatically improving his percentage in one game paired with Pysyk.
The pair of Dahlin and Pysyk posted an xGF% over 60%, indicating the Sabres controlled play with the two on the ice.
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Buffalo will take the rest of the week to figure things out in practice on home ice. The Sabres return to game action on Friday night when they face Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers at KeyBank Center.
Sabres pregame coverage on WGR starts at 6 p.m. EST the Bulldog, followed by a scheduled puck drop just after 7 p.m. EST on the radio home of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.
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