Pinnacle -½ +135 BET365 -½ +130 SportsInteraction N/A 5DIMES -½ +125 Bookmaker N/A

Posted at 12:15 PM EST. 

Buffalo -½ +135 over WASHINGTON

3:05 PM EST. Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and Ilya Samsonov will still be out of the lineup due to the NHL’s Covid-19 protocols. That didn’t stop the Caps from beating the Sabres on Friday but we wouldn’t recommend that happening again.

Buffalo is playing great hockey without great goaltending and frankly, that’s the only reason they are losing. Only two teams in the NHL have better puck possession numbers than Buffalo and only three teams are creating more scoring chances. One of those teams is not the Capitals. In fact, Washington ranks 18th in time of possession in the offensive end. The Sabres also rank third in xGF% while the Caps rank 19th. It is quite possible that Washington gets fortunate again and beats the Sabres because of goaltending but it is highly unlikely that the Caps outplay the Sabres.

Some things in hockey are predictable and some are not. Shooting %, SV%, Power-play % and Penalty Kil % are entirely unpredictable. Which team will outplay, out-chance and outshoot is entirely predictable and we can almost guarantee that Buffalo will win all the predictable categories. If we lose, so be it.

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