The Washington Capitals will meet the Florida Panthers on Monday night for the first time since the latter were crowned Stanley Cup champions last June. The Panthers won all three games against Washington last season, but they’ll face a much different Caps team this year.
After several key offseason acquisitions, this year’s Capitals are the first to fully implement head coach Spencer Carbery’s preferred system of play. The fast-paced system has led the team to a 13-6-1 start and, according to Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, isn’t far away from what Florida used to secure the franchise’s first Cup.
“Washington plays a different game now, a different team game,” Maurice said pregame, per George Richards. “I think in the past, you felt if you could get to Ovi, or you could close him out, or you could eliminate that, then you had a really, really good chance of winning that game. I don’t think that’s true of the way that they play. They play a really good team game.
“Systematically, they’re not far from us at all. They do one or two different things on some rush defense than we do, but they play the game that we play now. They go to the net hard. They collapse at their own net. They don’t cheat the game. They’ll make plays, but long gone are the – they’re not a seven-pass seam team on the way up the ice. They used to be. They play a lot like we do.”
To Maurice’s credit, the Capitals and Panthers are demonstrating those similarities with near-matching statistical starts at five-on-five. While Florida edges Washington with their shot attempt percentage, the Capitals are the better team regarding high-danger chance differential.
Five-on-five percentages
| Team | CF% | xGF% | SCF% | HDCF% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Capitals (13-6-1) | 50.4 | 52.7 | 52.8 | 53.9 |
| Florida Panthers (12-8-1) | 53.1 | 52.8 | 53.0 | 48.6 |
During his pregame availability, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was asked what he thought about Maurice’s comparison. As he heard the question, Carbery began to crack a wry smile at the suggestion.
“I would [agree with that],” Carbery said. “We have very similar systems that we play. I think even before they won it last year, there’s a lot of things that you can appreciate about the way Florida plays and how Paul has everybody on the same page in a consistency line to line. I think that’s what we try to replicate – making sure that we have an identity to the way that we play and it’s consistent through our entire lineup, three pairs of D and four lines.
“I feel like they’re obviously at the top of the heap when it comes to the way that they play and being really, really consistent with that, but we try to replicate a lot of things that they do well. I think just coincidentally – it wasn’t like we took a model and said, ‘Hey, we want to look like the Florida Panthers.’ But, we prioritize some of the main foundational things that they do and are very, very important to our team and our identity as well.”
The two teams come into Monday night’s matchup looking to snap their first real losing skids of the season. After winning seven games in a row earlier this season, Florida has dropped three in a row and five of their last six. Washington just lost two games in a row for the first time this year.
Washington will be without Alex Ovechkin for a third game running, but if Maurice’s assumptions are correct, the Capitals are still a threat to take two points at Amerant Bank Arena. A win would represent Washington’s first against Florida in the regular season since November 26, 2021. They have not beaten Florida on the road in the regular season since November 7, 2019.
