Here’s a few quick observations from the first period here in Buffalo:
* Anton Gustafsson broke his stick to the left of goaltender Semyon Varlamov and then went across the ice to the bench. That led to a golden chance for the Sabres — and likely a lesson learned by Gustafsson.
SEE RELATED:
* That was part of an opening eight minuntes in which Varlamov was getting shelled, but he kept the Sabres off the board and the Caps were better in the second half of the period.
* Daniel Paille crunched John Carlson behind the Caps net, but he didn’t miss a shift. Carlson saw time killing the lone penalty with Karl Alzner.
* The d-pairings are Schultz-Collins, Alzner-Carlson and Sloan-Pothier.
* Buffalo goalie Patrick Lalime and linesman Brad Kovachik are wearing camers on their helmets. Haven’t seen any footage from it, but that could be an interesting experiment.
* Alexandre Giroux scored a goal and took a penalty, though he was trying to cover for Collins, who got caught/beat in the neutral zone.
