The Washington Capitals pulled all the stops for yesterday’s special day… up until the start of the game. When players took the ice for warmups, they did a cool thing for Nicklas Backstrom, forming a stick tunnel before he entered through. For Backstrom it was his 1,000th game.
Players wore special #19 jerseys during warmups and on their way to the arena wore these special “N1KY” t-shirts. You got to wonder what Backstrom was thinking during all of this since he doesn’t quite like the attention.
After warmups there was a pregame ceremony where Backstrom was presented a commemorative stick and a gift card to play golf at any resort of his choice. Backstrom was joined by his wife and kids and received tributes throughout the league, including from some former Caps like Mike Green and Braden Holtby.
When the puck was dropped all that energy from the warmups was pretty much gone. The Caps fell 5-2 to the league’s worst team, a team that will be playing spoiler the rest of the way. Good news for the Caps is despite the loss they are still in first place in the MassMutual East Division after the New York Islanders lost to the Boston Bruins.
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Sam Reinhart struck first for the Sabres at 18:50. The Caps would answer with a goal in the McNugget minute, ensuring free chicken McNuggets from McDonald’s for everyone. We’ll take that as a moral victory.
Dmitry Orlov winded up his shot but was stopped by the pads. T.J. Oshie got the puck and fed it right back to Orlov and this time he scored for his sixth of the season. The goal came at 19:37. If you have the McDonald’s app all you have to do is spend a dollar then you get a free six piece McNuggets.
1-1 was the score after one with the Sabres leading in shots 12-8.
Victor Olofsson gave the Sabres the lead at 1:36. The Caps would get a power play opportunity with a chance to get back in the game but that all backfired when Casey Mittelstadt scored a shorthanded goal at 5:42.
At 9:59 the Caps would get a goal back. Backstrom set up John Carlson, who found new guy Anthony Mantha down low by the net for his second goal in as many games since being traded to the Caps. He has 13 total on the season.
The Sabres answered with a goal from Anders Bjork at 13:23. 4-2 was the score after two periods with the Sabres leading in shots in the middle stanza 13-9.
The Caps outshot the Sabres 12-5 in the third period but couldn’t get another goal let alone the equalizer. The Sabres led in shots overall 30-29. They put the game away with an empty net goal from Tage Thompson.
Ilya Samsonov didn’t play as he’s day to day with an injury. Vitek Vanecek got the start and allowed four goals before he was pulled in favor of Craig Anderson. Anderson turned away all eight shots he faced.
The Caps will look to put this one behind them and move on. Their first opportunity comes tomorrow afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 12:30 start.