We have a small 3 game slate tonight in the NHL. The biggest game of the night is the Florida Panthers traveling to New York to take on the Rangers. Florida has the best record of the year and looks stay hot against a good Rangers team. Tonight however, we check out a matchup between two teams looking to turn it around in the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals.
Buffalo Sabres @ Washington Capitals
| Opening ML | Current ML | Spread | Total | |
| Buffalo Sabres | +215 | +210 | +1.5 (-115) | o5.5 (-120) |
| Washington Capitals | -255 | -250 | -1.5 (-105) | u5.5 (+100) |
The Buffalo Sabres shocked the NHL earlier this year and started off great but, have regressed as most would have predicted. They enter tonight’ game on a 4-game losing streak and will look to turn it around against a tough Capitals team.
As I had mentioned in a previous article, the Jack Eichel saga has come to an end in Buffalo. For the past few years their offense was run though him and Sam Reinhart, who signed with the Panthers in the off season. This year Victor Oloffsson has stepped up for the team but was declared out for tonight’s game. Another key contributor for the Sabres has been Rasmus Asplund, who leads the team in points. Tage Thompson who switched from winger to center under Don Granato has also been playing better.
Buffalo’s defense hasn’t been great as of late, conceding an average of 4.25 goals against during their four game losing streak. Rasmus Dahlin who was picked first overall by the Sabres in 2018 draft, has not been as good as they would have hoped. He’s struggled to generate offense and lacks strength to make the tough plays in front of the net. The bright spot for the Sabres has been the play in net with Craig Anderson and Dustin Tokarski. Anderson is out for tonight’s game so Tokarski will get the start. He has a +1.9 GSAx on the year along with a 2.72 GAA and .915 SV%.
The Capitals also had a stellar start to the year but like the Sabres, enter this game on a losing streak. Washington has dropped their last four out of five, including a 2-1 loss to Philadelphia on Saturday. The good news for the Capitals is that they average the 6th most goals per game (3.36) and face a team struggling defensively in Buffalo. Washington is led by none other than longtime captain Alex Ovechkin in points who has 18 through their first 11 games. The start of Washington’s three game slide correlated to TJ Oshie’s injury who is on IR currently for a lower body injury. He was a key contributor to their offense but, will be sidelined for a few months. In addition to Oshie, Washington will be without Backstrom and Mantha.
On the back end of things Washington has been solid to start the season. They currently average 2.64 goals against and allow the second lowest shots on goal per game. However an interesting matchup tonight will be the Caps Penalty Kill which ranks 20th against Buffalo’s Power Play that ranks 5th. The Caps don’t take many penalties which will be a trend they need to follow if they want to win tonight’s game. Vitek Vanecek will start tonight for the Washington Capitals. Vanecek has been average this year allowing an average of 2.43 goals against per game and a +0.8 GSAx.
PICK: BUFFALO SABRES +1.5 (-115)
Tonight’s matchup is between two teams that are struggling, the Capitals have not played great enough as of late to be -250 on the moneyline. Tokarski has also been good as of late and ranks higher than Vanecek in individual stats. Both teams are without key contributors in offense with Olofsson and Oshie out. I’m going with a value play tonight with the Sabres puckline. If you’re feeling dangerous on Monday night, sprinkle the +210 moneyline.
Best of luck, and as always you can find me on Twitter @GatorBetting and Instagram @Gator_Sports_Betting.
