Washington Capitals Report Card: Grading defense against Sabres

The Washington Capitals got a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres last night. Here is our general game story as well as our grades for the offense. Now it’s time to grade the defense.

The Caps defense has been criticized all season long and when they aren’t their goalie Vitek Vanecek is. If we had to grade them in their win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, they would easily get an A+ for the complete game domination. How would they respond against a lowly Sabres team that lost three in a row coming into the game? They shut them down.

Here is how the defense lined up last night: Brenden Dillon and John Carlson up top, Zdeno Chara and Justin Schultz on the second pair, and Dmitry Orlov and Nick Jensen on the third pair.

The Caps offense did their work. Nicklas Backstrom struck first and Conor Sheary gave them insurance in the third. In the second, defense turned into offense. At 5:46 the Caps would go on the penalty kill when T.J. Oshie was called for high sticking.

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On the kill, Tom Wilson stripped the puck and raced down the net for a two on zero breakaway. Wilson went to his left and backhanded the puck in to give the Caps a 2-0 lead.

Wilson talked about the goal after the game to the media. Via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):

"“[Nic Dowd] was screaming at me, ‘No, no, no.’ He wanted me to take it to the net, and I was lucky to put it in. But he made it very clear that he didn’t want to be part of that two-on-oh. That’s kind of funny.”"

Like the last game against the Penguins, Vanecek was robbed of a shutout. The same thing happened in the third period as the Sabres got on the board. Despite that one blemish, the Caps defense held it down from there on out, protecting their rookie netminder.

Grade A: Despite the one goal the Caps allowed, the defense played great for the second game in a row. We need this kind of defense from here on out for the Caps to make a serious run.

John Carlson was presented a Cobra Kai headband for defensive player of the game. Carlson is a gifted player offensively but it was his defense on Thursday night that truly showed out.

The Caps will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 against the New York Rangers.