Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres beat the NHL’s best road team on Wednesday night with a 4-3 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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The league’s second-best road team is the Washington Capitals, and they are in town for a matchup on Friday night.
Washington is 20-7-5 away from home this season, which is a points percentage of .703. The Caps are 9-2-1 in their last 12 road games.
Overall, Washington has lost two-straight games, but before that had won four in a row and picked up points in eight-straight games.
Washington holds down the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, but there’s no worry that they’ll drop out of the playoffs. The Capitals lead the Columbus Blue Jackets by 13 points, and are five points back of the third place New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division.
Alex Ovechkin has 40 goals in 63 games this season. He didn’t score in the last game against the St. Louis Blues, but before that, he had scored in four-straight games and 11 goals in 14 games.
John Carlson has points in 16 of his last 21 games. In those 21 games, he has three goals and 18 assists. Sabres head coach Don Granato says there’s one big thing Carlson has in his game: He's smart.
"They’re able to score on just wrist shots from the point, which are through layers of traffic. Those are things John Carlson can do," Granato said after Friday's morning skate. "He’s so aware of the situation in the moment when he gets the puck, that even a soft wrist shot he can score on, 'cause he’ll take in when there’s a screen on the goalie and he doesn’t know it’s coming.”
T.J. Oshie has missed three-straight games with a lower-body injury.
Vitek Vanecek has been getting the bulk of the goaltending lately for Washington. He’s played in nine out of 11 games since coming back from injury, going 6-3-0 with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.
As a rookie last season, Vanecek owned the Sabres. Overall, he’s 7-1-1 against Buffalo with a 2.28 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage.
The Sabres come into Friday night's game on a three-game winning streak. Buffalo has won five out of six games, and seven out of 10.
Dustin Tokarski gets the start in net for Buffalo. He’s coming off a 24-save overtime shutout win in Calgary over the Flames. In the last 11 games, Tokarski has played twice, but he’s only allowed one goal in those two games, making 53 saves. It’s interesting that in those two starts, the Sabres have not scored in regulation time.
Tokarski is expected to be the only change in the lineup.
Tage Thompson has four goals in his last five games.
The Sabres will be wearing their white sweaters they wore during the 2022 Heritage Classic against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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Join Schopp and the Bulldog for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. ET when you’ll hear from Granato, Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson.
