The Washington Capitals are in town, and it’s time for the Buffalo Sabres to play their first game since they beat the Capitals in a shootout on March 9, 2020.
Washington is here on back-to-back nights as the condensed schedule gets going. Ralph Krueger wouldn’t confirm that Carter Hutton is starting in goal, but Hutton was the first goalie off the ice at the morning skate.
Krueger has liked what he’s seen from Hutton in training camp.
“We’ve really liked Carter Hutton’s camp. He’s come in here extremely confident, very fit and he’s in a good place,” Krueger said.
However, Krueger cautioned that Hutton must maintain where he is right now.
“We had him in a good place at the start of last year, and now the key will be to maintain that right through the whole season,” he said.
Hutton spoke about the team improving its penalty killing, which was 30th overall last season. He said both he and Linus Ullmark have to make big saves when shorthanded, knowing that your goalie is usually your best penalty killer.
Kyle Okposo didn’t take part in the morning skate and likely won’t play. Jack Quinn was placed on the taxi squad before practice, and Riley Sheahan was back on a line, so he likely has been activated off the NHL Non-Roster list.
Dylan Cozens will play in his first NHL game in place of Okposo. Others making their first appearances in a Sabres uniform will be Taylor Hall, Eric Staal, Cody Eakin, Tobias Rieder and Sheahan.
Thursday’s lines:
Forwards:
Hall - Eichel - Thompson
Olofsson - Staal - Reinhart
Rieder - Eakin - Cozens
Skinner - Lazar - Sheahan
Defense:
McCabe - Ristolainen
Dahlin - Montour
Miller - Jokiharju
Washington comes in with a new head coach in Peter Laviolette. The Capitals have also added Zdeno Chara and Justin Schultz to a defense that already includes John Carlson and Dmitri Orlov.
Up front, the firepower remains with Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
The problem for Washington could be in goal.
Braden Holtby left in free agency for the Vancouver Canucks, leaving Ilya Samsonov, who has just 26 NHL games under his belt. Vitek Vaencek has never played in an NHL game, but has four years of work with the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League.
Join Mike Schopp and the Bulldog for pregame coverage starting at 6 p.m. EST, when they’ll be joined by Krueger, Jack Eichel, Hutton and Colin Miller.
