{"id":541010,"date":"2026-04-04T22:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541010\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:08:21","slug":"game-preview-washington-capitals-vs-buffalo-sabres-at-capital-one-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541010\/","title":{"rendered":"Game preview: Washington Capitals vs Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/capitals-sabres-live-blog-040426.jpg\" class=\"above-the-fold wp-post-image\" alt=\"Washington Capitals vs Buffalo Sabres live blog\"  decoding=\"async\"  fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8: RMNB\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGame information\/links<\/p>\n<p>Date<\/p>\n<p>Saturday, April 4, 2026<\/p>\n<p>Game preview<\/p>\n<p>Hold onto your forks, because the <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/04\/04\/capitals-nhl-playoff-odds-eastern-conference-race-sabres\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Capitals\u2019 playoff hopes aren\u2019t done for yet<\/a>. After three Eastern Conference teams ahead of them in the standings suffered regulation losses in their preceding games, the Caps are still somewhat in the thick of things heading into tonight\u2019s game against the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo enters tonight\u2019s matchup on a high note after clinching their first playoff berth in 15 years. They\u2019re 14-3-2 since the Olympic Break and a league-best 32-8-4 in their last 44 games since replacing GM Kevyn Adams with Jarmo Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen on Dec. 15, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>One of those rare losses came against the Capitals during the two teams\u2019 last meeting on March 12, which ended a Sabres eight-game winning streak. <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/player\/charlie-lindgren\/\" class=\"player\" title=\"View Charlie Lindgren&#039;s stats, bio, and status\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlie Lindgren<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/03\/12\/capitals-end-sabres-8-game-winning-streak-nhl\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">had a Herculean performance<\/a> \u2014 which actually was his last appearance in net. His most impressive moment came when <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/03\/13\/tage-thompson-five-consecutive-one-timers-charlie-lindgren-sabres-power-play\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he stopped 5 consecutive Tage Thompson one-timers<\/a> during a Sabres\u2019 power play late in the first period.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/player\/aliaksei-protas\/\" class=\"player\" title=\"View Aliaksei Protas&#039;s stats, bio, and status\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aliaksei Protas<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/04\/04\/aliaksei-protas-injury-return-capitals-forward-lines-sabres\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">will return to the Capitals\u2019 lineup tonight<\/a>, while <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/04\/04\/logan-thompson-10th-straight-start-capitals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Logan Thompson will make his 10th straight start<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Puck drop for Caps-Sabres is at 7 pm. Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin will have the call on Monumental Sports Network.<\/p>\n<p>Today is <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/04\/04\/alex-ovechkin-894-goal-tie-wayne-gretzky-goals-chase-anniversary\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the one-year anniversary of Alex Ovechkin\u2019s 894th career goal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Comment below. Refresh for live updates during the game. The thread will be closed shortly after the game is completed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcf8: RMNB Game information\/links Date Saturday, April 4, 2026 Game preview Hold onto your forks, because the Capitals\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-541010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-capitals","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-capitals","13":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116348723084363571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}