Tale of the Tape: Buffalo Sabres vs Washington Capitals

An in-depth preview of the upcoming Sabres vs Caps matchup
4/16/2023 • Gage Westerik

BUFFALO SABRES WASHINGTON CAPITALS

RECORDS

  • Season: 51-24-7 (5th in league, 1st in Atlantic)
  • Home: 28-10-3 (5th in league)
  • Away: 23-14-2 (12th in league)
  • Post-Deadline: 14-6-1 

RECORDS

  • Season: 50-26-4 (T-7th in league, 4th in Metro)
  • Home: 25-12-4 (10th in league)
  • Away: 25-14-2 (6th in league)
  • Post-Deadline: 14-4-1

SEASON STATS

  • Shots for: 2329 (18th in league)
  • Shots against: 2269 (14th in league)
  • Shot differential: 60 (18th in league

 

  • Goals for: 242 (12th in league)
  • Goals against: 202 (6th in league)
  • Goal differential: 40 (8th in league)

 

  • Powerplay: 19.85%, 54/272 (15th in league)
  • Penalty kill: 82.19%, 203/247 (14th in league)

 

  • Shooting %: 10.39% (6th in league)
  • Save %: .911% (4th in league)
  • PDO: 101.49% (5th in league)

SEASON STATS

  • Shots for: 2678 (2nd in league)
  • Shots against: 2118 (3rd in league)
  • Shot differential: 560 (3rd in league)

 

  • Goals for: 274 (2nd in league)
  • Goals against: 215 (12th in league)
  • Goal differential: 59 (6th in league)

 

  • Powerplay: 21.27%, 67/315 (6th in league)
  • Penalty kill: 82.11, 179/218 (15th in league

 

  • Shooting %: 10.23% (12th in league)
  • Save %: 89.85% (18th in league)
  • PDO: 100.08% (15th in league)

MATCHUP STATS

  • Record: 1-2-0
  • Shots for: 80
  • Goals for: 10
  • Powerplay: 12.5%, 2/16
  • Penalty kill: 71.43%, 5/7

Shesterkin - 3GP: .878%, 3.63 GAA, 1W 

MATCHUP STATS

  • Record: 2-0-1
  • Shots for: 90
  • Goals for: 11
  • Powerplay: 28.57%, 2/7
  • Penalty kill: 87.5, 14/16

Swayman - 3GP: .875%, 3.28 GAA, 2W

PROJECTED LINEUP

Hyman - Malkin - P. Kane

Perron - Backlund - Meier

Engvall - Kuraly - Terry

Chmelevski - Olivier - Motte

 

D. Toews - R. Suter

Leddy - Gavrikov

Hakanpaa - Forsling

 

Shesterkin

Comrie

PROJECTED LINEUP

Kreider - Tavares - Verhaeghe

Reinhart - Schenn - Palat

Zegras - Cirelli - Tatar

Formenton - Bellemare - Kerfoot

 

Spurgeon - Pesce

Holl - Petry

DeMelo - Zub

 

A. Forsberg

Swayman

The matchup looks to be a very close one, despite what some may think. Caps GM Gage Westerik said the following: "Well, it looks like we're the underdogs. Nothing wrong with that, that just means we get to prove everyone wrong. Buffalo is certainly a difficult opponent. Their greatest strength is their defensive and goaltending performance. As can be seen by looking at their save percentage, goals against, penalty kill, etc. Buffalo is better by pretty much every defensive metric. On the flip side, we feel that our offense is above theirs, and this can also be seen by looking at the offensive stats, shots, goals, powerplay, etc. This is a classic matchup of offense vs defense, with these two teams being the antithesis to one another, but we've already proven during the season that we've been able to solve Shesterkin. Time will tell, but we're going out there to prove that this match is not as cut and dry as everyone seems to believe." 

Sabres GM Ian Thornton also had comments: "Very evenly matched teams with only 3 points seperating them in the regular season - and one played in the Atlantic and the other played in the self-proclaimed strongest division in the league. Although we don't have as good a Goal Differential or Shot Differential as the Caps, for the Sabres to win their top talent needs to show up for the playoffs this year and Hopefully Igor can outplay Swayman."

The series begins tomorrow night, and it should be a great one. 

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