The Washington Capitals have lost a touchdown full of games in a row after falling 4-2 to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night. The sixth-straight loss means the team is on the verge of being 10 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with the trade deadline now less than a month away.
Their next three games are against the Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, and Colorado Avalanche. This could get to nine.
- This game was another prime example of the discrepancy between an actual playoff team this season and the Capitals. The Panthers ran the Capitals ragged at five-on-five, out-attempting them 70-39, out-scoring chancing them 35-15, and out-high danger chancing them 21-7. You don’t need me to tell you about how that’s not even close. In the third period alone, Florida recorded 23 scoring chances and 15 high-danger chances at five-on-five. The Capitals have exactly one ENTIRE GAME with 15 or more five-on-five high-danger chances this season.
- Darcy Kuemper was the only reason the Capitals were in with a chance to try and salvage something in the third period. Kuemper made 37 stops on 40 shots against. According to MoneyPuck, he faced a whopping 6.2 expected goals against and only allowed three.
- Given that our attention likely needs to turn to the trade deadline in terms of the team selling off assets, it’s nice to see Anthony Mantha further juicing up his value with another goal. Mantha now has 16 goals this season which ranks second on the team behind just Dylan Strome (19) and is on pace for 27 goals by the end of the 2023-24 campaign. The 29-year-old winger is an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Aliaksei Protas recorded his 16th assist of the season on Mantha's goal. Protas has recorded six points (6a) in six career games against the Panthers, the second-most points he has registered against a single opponent (CBJ: 2g-5a-7p in 7 GP).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 9, 2024
- Alex Ovechkin scored for the third straight game and now has 11 total markers this season. The tally was the 833rd of his career, leaving him just 61 shy of Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin is a point-per-game player in 2024, recording 12 points (4g, 8a) in 12 games.
- No Capitals player really had a good night but Martin Fehervary might have had the worst. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the team held massively negative differentials in shot attempts (-8), scoring chances (-9), and high-danger chances (-10). They were also scored on once.
- With their six-game losing streak, the Capitals are now tied with the Montreal Canadiens for the fourth-worst goal differential in the entire NHL (-36). They are only five goals better than the Anaheim Ducks who are currently sporting a 18-30-2 record.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
