Washington Capitals: Top 3 ways to beat the Sabres

#2 Defense has to continue to protect Vitek Vanecek

The Caps defense has struggled all season long in failing to protect their rookie netminder while he shoulders the responsibility of getting excessive starts as they wait for the return of Ilya Samsonov. Here is how the defense lined up at today’s morning skate via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post:

Dillon-Carlson
Chara-Schultz’
Orlov-Jensen
Siegenthaler-TvR

The Caps are coming off their biggest win of the season, a 3-1 domination over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Oshie gave a lot of praise about the defensive performance after the game. Via Mike Vogel of WashingtonCaps.com:

"“Defense has been a point of focus for us here over the last little while. Our offense has been doing a pretty good job; we’ve been getting scoring from up and down the lineup throughout the year it feels like, and our defense hasn’t been good enough as a team. And it’s something we’ve been focusing on, we really have. We’ve been working on it in practice and we’ve been watching video. And hats off to the guys tonight. Everyone individually and collectively as a group committed to bear down defensively, and to not give their top talent those good looks around the net.”"

Their performance marked the third time in 14 games they limited opponents to two tallies or less. They have to continue that momentum against a Sabres team that just started to play games again.