The Washington Capitals started hot but eventually turned ice-cold as they dropped Game Two of their first-round series against the Florida Panthers by a score of 5-1. That’s what a quick-strike team like the Panthers can do to you.
As Ovi said ever so eloquently…”stuff” happens. Moving on.
- The Caps truly played an excellent first period and were so very unlucky to leave it down two goals. The Panthers only had eight shots on goal halfway through the game so the neutral zone trap was definitely working again, it’s just that the puck was still finding its way in through sheer luck or tremendous skill. That and eventually…shoddy goaltending.
- That shoddy goaltending was via Vitek Vanecek who allowed five goals against on just 19 shots. Ilya Samsonov relieved him and stopped all 17 shots he faced. Your guess is as good as mine as to who gets the start for Game Three. Laviolette has said previously that he’d be leaning on both goaltenders in the playoffs so I would bet on Samsonov getting a turn.
- I don’t know why Brett Leason was chosen to dress for this game. He was invisible and that fourth line that was a huge strength for the Caps down the stretch was downright terrible without Garnet Hathaway on the right. At five-on-five, they were out-attempted 9 to 1, out-scoring chanced 6 to 0, and out-high danger chanced 5 to 0. Connor McMichael, please. And yes, I know he’s a lefty.
Just opening my mail from today. Interesting card came. 😉😛 pic.twitter.com/8t6BdpQPoE
— Chris Cerullo (@CJC_95) May 6, 2022
- The penalty kill was a lone bright spot as they have now kept Florida scoreless on six tries in the two games. The power play also got on the board again.
- Nicklas Backstrom scored that goal, the 37th playoff goal of his career which ranks second in franchise history to just Alex Ovechkin (71).
- 1 PM start on Saturday in DC. Woo. We know how much we love those afternoon matchups.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
