Sabres Caps

The Sabres and Caps tussle again tonight, this time down at the Arena. After the Caps held on to beat the Sabres 3-2 last week in DC. With Alexander the Great doing his thing again, and turning Tallinder inside out, which really isn't that hard. But he helped Ovie make a great play.

Ovechkin is quite hot of late, scoring 17 times in his last 17 games. Ovechkin is the Capitals no doubt about it. Its the reason the Sabres won 5-0 the other meeting. The Capitals just aren't as dangerous. Ovie likes to creep or sit at the blue line, so he can break out fast.

The Capitals are having a much better year this year then the Sabres, they won't have to have a miracle run to make the playoffs. They will probably win the Southeast comfy. They are 2nd in the conference, 10 points ahead of the Hurricanes. They are also 8-2 in their last 10. So the Sabres are getting a team playing their best of late. It should be a good test for the Sabres.

Theodore will be in net tonight. So the Sabres could get to him early if they want to. Otherwise he'll build up confindence and the Sabres offensive woes will kill them. The also need to stay out of the penalty box and put the Caps into the penalty box. The caps are 5th in the power play and near the bottom of the league on the penalty kill. But they are also pretty good 5 on 5. Which leads to this interesting tidbit.

The Sabres are .84 5 on 5. They are 26th in the league when even up. Which means they are scored upon way more, then they score. They are 12th on the Power play and 4th on the penalty kill. Which means if their penalty kill slips. They are dead in the water, because they aren't good enough 5 on 5 to beat the good teams. To but that in perspective the Bruins are 1.77 5 on 5. Which means they almost score 2 goals to every 1 at even strength. No wonder they are doing so well.

Gaustad and Gerbe are back tonight. So that should help out the forwards, by getting Peters and Max off the ice. Rivet is almost back and that will help sure up the defense. If the Sabres get healthier, January could be a much better month and they could make a move up the standings. But they first have to improve 5 on 5 or they are going nowhere this year.