The Washington Capitals held a lead late in the third period over the Cup-contending Florida Panthers but were unable to come away with two points in their last trip to the Sunshine State this season. The Panthers tied the game up on a late power play and then found the OT winner to send the Capitals home unhappy.
That lost point could be a big one.
- The Panthers were without their top player, Matthew Tkachuk, so this was a big opportunity for the Capitals to strike at the exact right time and unfortunately, they just did not have enough juice to get it done. While they definitely slowed another fast-paced, offensive team down, their own goal-scoring that they’ve seen lately just wasn’t there. They did not manage a single high-danger, five-on-five chance in the third period and both of their goals were power-play strikes. Special teams offense needs to be supplanted by even-strength offense.
- That dropped point is pretty big because the New Jersey Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Detroit Red Wings all won their games on Saturday. That means the Capitals no longer “control their own destiny” in terms of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They now sit seven points behind Detroit, six points behind Tampa Bay, and one point behind New Jersey.
- Alex Ovechkin‘s point streak was stopped at 10 games. Ovi did not have a single individual scoring chance or high-danger chance in the game. This is a bit of a broken record at this point but he needs to play with Dylan Strome. I don’t understand why he’s ever playing a game with Connor McMichael and Nicolas Aube-Kubel as his primary linemates. Especially, when you consider how hot he has been lately.
Rasmus Sandin earned the primary assist on Milano's goal, extending his point streak to three games (1g, 2a). Sandin has recorded 12 points (3g, 9a) in his last 17 games.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 25, 2024
- Anthony Mantha went down in the third period with an injury to make it four straight games in a row that a Capitals player has been forced out of a game early. He’s also the second player who has been heavily involved in trade deadline talks to get injured, joining Nic Dowd. That’s a bit of a nightmare for multiple reasons. Someone check the Devils’ locker room for curse books.
- Pierrick Dube played just 4:33 of ice time in his NHL debut. Unless a player is so obviously out of his depth, which Dube did not appear to be to me, I absolutely hate that for an NHL debut. If the Hershey recall was going to get less than five minutes of ice time, it should have been someone like Joe Snively. Not a fan of that from Carbery and staff.
- Sonny Milano deserves a shoutout because he’s provided a real nice jump since his return from injury. He scored the team’s first goal in this one and now has three points (2g, 1a) since jumping back into the fray on February 17.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
