The Washington Capitals have tried everything this season to win, and it’s usually been in vain. In Saturday night’s date with the Buffalo Sabres, they resorted to the last trick they had up their sleeve: scoring a lot of goals. Hope lives.
The first period was a bonanza. Chychrun sunk a rebound and Strome went to the net before the game was four minutes over. Connor McMichael made it 3-0 and chased Alex Lyon from the net.
The Sabres rallied. Someone screened Logan Thompson‘s vision as Rasmus Dahlin cracked the shutout, then Beck Malenstyn (I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers) hit a yawning open net. 3-2 after one silly period.
The second was a more staid affair, with the Sabres controlling play, but the only goal of the frame belonged to Washington and Aliaksei Protas in particular, with a precision shot over relief goalie Colton Ellis.
Ryan Leonard got assists from Cole Hutson and Justin Sourdif – all first-year players. Tom Wilson scored shorthanded while Hutson was in the box.
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We don’t have a lot of opportunities to do this. Let us dance. Let’s use the live in Belfast version to keep it fresh.
- Sabres goalie Alex Lyon has been half of the league’s best goaltending duo since the start of 2026. The Caps ventilated him with three goals on five shots. See if that .400 helps out his season stats.
- My large son Aliaksei Protas returned to play since suffering that apparent head injury on the 28th. He didn’t look too hot, but he scored a sharp goal during a four-on-four stretch, so I don’t complain.
- From the Palantir out-of-town scoreboard, Evgeni Malkin scored a hat trick to eliminate the Panthers from postseason contention. I posted this and no one said anything.
- But more from the Palantir out-of-town scoreboard: The Blue Jackets and Islanders both lost in regulation. That’s intriguing.
- Is the Ryan Leonard goal really a rookie à trois? Yes for Sourdif, though he’s a rarer kind of rookie at age 24. Leonard played only 9 games last season so this counts as his rookie season. Except by that logic, Cole Hutson won’t play enough games for this to count as his rookie season. He’s pre-rookie. Can you have two rookie seasons? Three?
- Hutson, by the way, has had three minors in his last three games.
Joe looking like a citrusy springtime snack. Like a brilliant clump of flax-leaved stiff-aster purple flowers. Hey, are we still doing “must win”? Okay then, must win.
— RMNB (@rmnb.bsky.social) 2026-04-04T23:00:35.454Z
As this game wore on, one thought kept sneaking up in my mind. I couldn’t get rid of it. It said, “boy howdy I sure wish the Caps didn’t huff farts against the Devils on Thursday.” That loss had outsized importance. But winning against a winning team while a couple foes fumble their games – that’s a good night.
Now to simply turn a good night into a good weekend by trouncing the Rangers on Sunday night. By the way, I don’t know what the hell this is:
Inside Out Classic will turn Capitals vs. Rangers into real-time animated game inspired by popular Disney-Pixar movies
@ me when there’s a real-time animated game based on Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon.
Really good idea to do the live-tracking gimmick in a sludge game (both teams unrested) between two already-slow teams, one of whom has given up and the other can’t decide. Tune in with me for a mandatory win.
