Washington Capitals at Buffalo Sabres - 4/9/21 NHL Picks and Prediction
Photo by Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Buffalo Sabres (9-23-6) vs Washington Capitals (25-10-4)
Game Info: Friday, April 9, 2021 at 7:00 pm (KeyBank Center)
Betting Odds: Buffalo Sabres +206 / Washington Capitals -234 --- Over/Under: 5.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Washington Capitals and the Buffalo Sabres meet in NHL action from the KeyBank Center on Friday night.
The Washington Capitals will look to rebound from a 4-2 loss to Boston in their last matchup. Nicklas Backstrom leads the Capitals in scoring with 39 points including 13 goals and a team-high 26 assists while Alex Ovechkin has 34 points with a team-high 19 goals along with 136 shots on goal this season. John Carlson has 32 points with 22 assists while T.J. Oshie and Jakub Vrana each have a double-digit goal and assist tallies this season. As a team, Washington is averaging 3.3 goals on 27.8 shots per game with a 24% success rate on the power play while allowing 3 goals on 29.2 shots against with an 82% success rate on the penalty kill this season.
The Buffalo Sabres will look to bounce back from a 6-3 loss to the Devils in their last outing. Sam Reinhart leads the Sabres in scoring with 24 points including a team-high 13 goals with 11 assists while Victor Olofsson has 22 points with 10 goals and 12 apples. Taylor Hall has a team-high 17 assists and Jack Eichel has 16 assists as well this year. As a team, Buffalo is averaging 2.2 goals on 27.6 shots per game with a 22.6% success rate on the PP while allowing 3.4 goals on 32.2 shots with a 79.2% success rate on the PK this season.
Washington is 6-1 in their last 7 games on no rest and 19-7 in their last 26 games overall while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games on no rest. Buffalo is 5-16 in their last 21 home games and 17-42 in their last 59 games overall while the under is 18-6 in their last 24 games on no rest. The favorite is 38-17 in the last 55 meetings between these two teams.
I get that the fact that both teams are on a back-to-back kind of throws a wrench into everything, but the bottom line is that not only are the Capitals the better team playing better hockey, but they’ve had success on the second half of a back-to-back and I just don’t see how the Sabres keep the final score within reason. I’ll take Washington -1.5 in this one.
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Chris’s Pick Washington -1.5
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Mitch's Take...
