The Washington Capitals came into Thursday night’s matchup with the Florida Panthers desperately needing to come away with a point or two and they got nothing. The Panthers went into the Caps home barn and despite a late comeback attempt came out 6-3 victors.

Things are not going well.

• At the end of the game, the Caps actually outpaced the Panthers in terms of expected goals at five-on-five 2.65 to 1.67. Where things get bad is when you factor in all strengths and there, the Panthers sat at 5.27 to the Caps’ 3.43. I have to say that I don’t think the Caps played particularly well in this game until the final ten minutes of regulation and by then they needed to mount a pretty furious comeback. It ended up being the typical story of too little, too late.
• Evgeny Kuznetsov ended up scoring a goal but he also played just 5:52 total ice time at five-on-five. That is more than six minutes less than his next lowest teammate. He didn’t look hurt at any point of the game. Read into that what you will.
• A quick minus-two for Dylan McIlrath in his Capitals debut. I don’t think he looked bad per se but I also still have zero idea why he’s being given a chance at this point of the season. Bizarre.

Erik Gustafsson recorded his third assist of the game on the Capitals' third goal. It marks Gustafsson's second three-assist game of the season and the fourth of his career.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 17, 2023

• Dylan Strome was absolutely everywhere in this game. He scored a goal and was probably unlucky to not get at least one more. He finished with eight shots on goal, ten shot attempts, six individual scoring chances, and four individual high-danger chances. That contract is going to be a good one.
• Repeating this little tidbit from Joe B during the broadcast. Including that third period, the Caps have scored more than one goal in a period just twice in their last 27 periods.
• According to MoneyPuck, with the regulation loss the Caps’ playoff chances have fallen to 30.7 percent. On the bright side, their chances at winning the Connor Bedard sweepstakes have increased to almost 1 percent.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.