(WGR Sports Radio 550) - It took awhile, but an eight-game losing streak is finally starting to take the Buffalo Sabres out of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Going into Saturday, Buffalo is six points out of the two Wild Card positions in the Eastern Conference, and have a points percentage of .448, which is second-worst in the conference and 26th in the NHL.
It’s not going to get any easier Saturday for the Sabres, as they’re in Washington to face the Capitals. Washington leads the Eastern Conference with 42 points, and their points percentage of .750 is also No. 1 in the NHL.
The most amazing thing is Washington is doing this lately without their star winger Alex Ovechkin. The Caps captain has missed 10 games with a broken leg, and Washington is 7-2-1 in that span.
The Capitals have won seven out of eight games.
The secret for Washington has been their goaltending, and the way they defend. The Capitals are seventh in the NHL with a goals-against average of 2.68.
Charlie Lindgren is in his third season with Washington. He had pretty much been an AHL goalie before that with short stints in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens.
For some reason, it just clicked for the 30-year-old, as 95 of his 124 NHL games are with Washington, where he has gone 47-32-10 with a 2.79 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.
In June, the Caps traded for Logan Thompson, sending two third-round picks to the Vegas Golden Knights. Thompson was steady in Vegas, going 56-32-11 with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.
Lindgren and Thompson have alternated all season, going every other game, and all Thompson has done is go 11-1-2 with a 2.48 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
It appears to be Thompson’s turn to play against Buffalo. In his last six games, he’s only allowed more than two goals once.
Before Ovechkin got hurt, he scored 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points in 18 games. That still ties him for the Capitals' lead with Connor McMichael.
McMichael has been a huge find for Washington. The 23-year-old was taken 25th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. That’s the same draft Buffalo took Dylan Cozens seventh overall.
On Friday, Lindy Ruff said winger Jordan Greenway is questionable for Saturday.
Related
In Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers, Buffalo wasted an excellent game from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who stopped 25-of-27 shots and held Buffalo in the game for the first two periods. That’s, at least, the third time this year the Sabres wasted a great Luukkonen game because they can’t score goals.
In the eight-game losing streak, Buffalo has only scored 18 goals, which is 2.25 goals per-game. That's the third-worst rate in the NHL, and another reason why six of those losses were by one goal.
It also doesn’t help that their goals-against in those eight games is 3.63, which is also third-worst in the league.
As for the power play, Buffalo is dead last at 4.6%.
They also can’t win when Alex Tuch, JJ Peterka, Ryan McLeod, Jack Quinn, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Jiri Kulich and Zach Benson have one or no goals in eight games.
Saturday starts a three-game road trip for Buffalo, which will also see trips to Toronto on Sunday against the Maple Leafs, and Montreal on Tuesday against the Canadiens.
The Sabres are 4-2-0 in their last six games away from Buffalo, and have won 3-of-4 games.
Join Brian Koziol and myself at 6 p.m. EST for pregame coverage on WGR, when you’ll hear from Ruff, Beck Malenstyn and Nic Aube-Kubel, who are both returning to Washington for the first time since playing there last season.