The Washington Capitals did not play well for the majority of the game against the Florida Panthers and that’s probably an understatement. The 5-3 loss was in a word…sloppy.
The Panthers out-shot the Caps 34 to 29.
- From an outside, purely statistical view looking in, the first line of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Tom Wilson didn’t really have a bad overall game. But in reality they were terrible and pretty much at fault for three of the Panthers goals in this game. Not great, fam.
- John Carlson recorded his 70th point of the season on Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s goal, the first time that the defenseman has hit that mark in his career.
- There aren’t many other highlights from this game statistically. Backstrom has three goals in two games, Jakub Vrana scored his 24th of the season, and Kuznetsov scored his 21st.
- The Islanders lost to the Maple Leafs 2-1, so no movement in the division race. The Caps beat the Habs on Thursday and the division is theirs for the fourth straight season. Simple.
- I think reuniting Ovi, Backy, and Oshbabe as a line for these last two games might be a welcome experiment.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Panthers
Headline photo: Eliot J. Schechter
