Washington Capitals Report Card: Offense earns high grades against Sabres

It’s been a while since we graded the offensive performance of the Washington Capitals and they are lucky we didn’t grade them after the Philadelphia Flyers game on Saturday. The offense was simply awesome in a 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres last night and key players stepped up when needed to. Let’s break it all down while you munch on your half off pizza after the Caps scored five goals.

From a shooting perspective, the Caps outshot the Sabres 30-28 overall. That included a 12-6 edge in the opening period with things evening out at nine apiece in the second period before the Sabres outshot the Caps 13-9 in the third period.

It wasn’t just that the Caps were scoring. Guys were grinding out goals, getting to the dirty areas and not being afraid to deflect it in, even if it’s a chance to spoil history like Tom Wilson did after an initial Alex Ovechkin deflection on a Trevor van Riemsdyk shot. That gave the Caps a 1-0 lead after the first period.

Connor McMichael doubled the Caps lead to 2-0 with a shot in front of the net. It was the second of his career and his first goal at home. He made his NHL debut at home last season against the Sabres but didn’t get a chance to score his first goal nor play in front of fans. Now he’s on fire.

Of course no Caps game is complete without an Ovechkin goal and he was buzzing all over the ice with six shots on goal. It was clear he wanted to tie Brett Hull from the drop of the puck. The sixth shot finally went through and it came on a deflection on a shot from Dmitry Orlov. 3-1 was the score after two.

Wilson added his second goal of the game and Ovechkin added assist number 600 on John Carlson’s goal. It was overall a good night for the offense. But what do the advanced stats say?

The Caps had a 60 percent Corsi For percentage in the first period but it dropped to 34.21 percent in the second period and 36.36 percent in the third to round it all out to 42.35 percent. The Sabres on the other hand had a 57.65 percent Corsi For percentage. That means that their puck possession got better as the game went on in their failed comeback attempt.

Grade A: Despite the advanced stats not looking too good, five goals is five goals and when you score five goals chances are you can win a hockey game. As long as you have a goaltender who makes the key save which Vitek Vanecek did. It was a win the Caps can build on.