Jan. 6 vs. Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (26-10-2)
Buffalo Sabres (14-21-4)
It’s the first week of January, and the Caps are headed out on the road for their first away game of 2025. As a winter storm bears down on the DMV, the Caps are heading to the storm safe space of – checks notes – Buffalo, NY. The Caps make their only visit to Western New York this season; they’ll face the Sabres there on Monday before returning home to host Vancouver on Wednesday.
On Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena, the Caps concluded a 2-0-1 homestand with a 7-4 victory over the New York Rangers. Seven different Capitals scored – including captain Alex Ovechkin, whose 872nd career goal was also his 133rd career game-winning goal – in support of Logan Thompson (16-2-2), extending Washington’s home point streak to eight (6-0-2).
Facing a desperate Rangers team that was aiming to stack up consecutive victories for the first time since mid-November, the best thing the Caps did in a wild matinee affair was to keep the Blueshirts at arm’s length after each of New York’s last three goals of the game. Washington’s power play struck in the penultimate minute of each of the game’s first two periods; the first of those goals tied the game at 1-1 heading into the middle frame and the second extended the Caps’ lead to 4-2 heading into the third period.
Each of New York’s last three goals of the game pulled it to within a goal of Washington, but the Caps were able to answer back with a goal of their own within two and a half minutes of each of those last three Rangers goals.
“The last time we played them here [Oct. 29], we were maybe five games into the year, and it was a really, really tight game,” remembers Caps center Dylan Strome, who had a goal and three points in Saturday’s victory. “It was like 4-3 early in the second, I remember, and it stayed that way [until Nic Dowd’s empty-netter in the final minute].
“[Saturday’s] game was just a back-and-forth game, and the goals were just so rapid in succession. But we found a way to collect two points, and special teams was good. Sometimes you need those games in the middle of the season; it was game 39, I think. It’s one of those wins where we can play better at both ends of the [rink], but we’ll just take the win.”
Washington’s power play has scored in six of its last seven games, but Saturday’s game marks its first multi-goal game since it went 2-for-3 in a home game against Buffalo on Dec. 14, supplying the difference in a 4-2 Capitals victory that night in the only previous meeting between the two teams this season.
Soon after Sunday’s practice session, the Caps flew to Buffalo – ahead of the DMV’s impending inclement weather – with plenty of time to get dinner and then turn their attention to Sunday night’s gold medal game in the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship. The gold medal contest pits Team USA against Team Finland; the Americans’ lone loss of the tournament to date was a 4-3 overtime loss to the Finns in group play. The Finns beat Sweden 4-3 in overtime and the Americans defeated Czechia 4-1 in a pair of compelling semifinal games on Saturday.
With a pair of prominent Caps prospects – Team USA captain Ryan Leonard and blueliner Cole Hutson – playing in the championship tilt, Washington’s coaches are planning on watching the game as a staff tonight in Buffalo. The Americans are aiming for their first set of consecutive goal medals in tournament history.
“We’ve been following it closely as a staff, watching the games,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I think we’ll probably get together as a staff and watch that game. It’s a great opportunity to win back-to-back for Lenny, and for Hutson to win his first.”
In Saturday’s semifinal game, Leonard displayed a brilliant individual effort to set up Gabe Perreault for the first goal of the game, then accepted a feed from Perreault in the third period for the goal that gave Team USA some breathing room, extending their late lead to 3-1.
“He’s a gamer, man,” says Carbery of Leonard. “And that’s why we’re excited about his future in this organization. He is such a competitor, and you see it come out on such a big stage, at the Worlds, representing your country. And you’re excited about the future because you can just feel how passionate he is and how bad he wants to win, and how much he lays it on the line. And Caps fans are going to get used to that for a long time to come.”
Leonard has five goals and eight points in six tournament games, while Hutson’s nine points (two goals, seven assists) are tied with four other players – including Perreault – for the most in the tourney. Leonard was Washington’s first-round choice (eighth overall) in the 2023 NHL Draft, and Hutson is a second-rounder (43rd overall) from the 2024 NHL Draft.
In addition to Leonard and Hutson, Washington has four other players – all from the 2024 NHL Draft, representing four different countries – in the 2025 WJC Tournament.
Swiss defenseman Leon Muggli (second round, 52nd overall) finished the tournament with three assists in five games. Latvian forward Eriks Mateiko (third round, 90th overall) finished with five goals in as many games; only Czechia’s Jakub Stancl (six) has more goals among all players in the tournament. Czechia forward Petr Sikora (sixth round, 178th overall) has four goals and seven points in six games. And Slovakian forward Miroslav Satan (seventh round, 212th overall) appeared in three games without recording a point.
“It’ll be awesome,” says Carbery of the tourney’s gold medal game. “It’s been great to see especially players that now you know and have a relationship with, and you’re pulling for them and you’re seeing them have success. It’s always nice to see.”
Buffalo is returning home from a four-game trip west of the Mississippi, a journey that concluded Saturday night in Vegas with a 3-1 loss to the Golden Knights. The Sabres returned from that trip with a 1-2-1 mark. Just ahead of the holiday break last month, the Sabres shook the shackles of a 13-game slide (0-10-3), a skid in which six of the 13 setbacks came by the margin of a single goal.
After spending the last week on the road, the Sabres won’t be in town much longer than the Capitals. Buffalo will be on the move to Ottawa later in the week; they’ve got a Thursday night divisional date with the Senators before they return to start a three-game homestand here on Saturday against Seattle.
