Caught the Cats cat-napping: Capitals beat Panthers 6-3

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Capitals vs Panthers
📸: kurly from #crashers

The Washington Capitals matched up with the Florida Panthers for the third and final time this regular season on Saturday evening. The Caps won both prior meetings with Florida earlier this year by a combined 10-4 score.

Connor McMichael, Sam Bennett, John Carlson, Seth Jones, Anthony Beauvillier, and Jonah Gadjovich all scored in a crazy first period. McMichael and Beauvillier had the best-looking of the six goals, fooling Vitek Vanecek with dekes on breakaways.

The Caps had another three-goal period in the second, getting a goal from Tom Wilson just seven seconds into the frame and two deflections from Dylan Strome and Andrew Mangiapane.

Capitals beat Panthers 6-3!

  • What an absolutely insane way to start a hockey game. Neither team decided to play defense in the opening 20 minutes, turning the puck over in their own ends, allowing multiple breakaways, leaving players all alone in the slot, etc. The goaltending was also very suspect.
  • Logan Thompson had what could be his worst period of the season from a level of goals-allowed standpoint in that first frame. I didn’t like any of the three goals he gave up. Nonchalant puck-handling on the first one led to a wide-open net, not being able to find the puck on a point drive for the second, and then whiffing with his glove on the third.
  • Jakob Chychrun missed the final 8:09 of the period after heading back to the locker room with some sort of hand/wrist injury. Rasmus Sandin took his spot on the second power-play unit. He jumped back on the ice in the second, so good sign there.
  • Another three-goal period from the Capitals, but this time no goals for the Panthers. There wasn’t a ton poor Vitek Vanecek could really do as the Caps just cut Florida open throughout the period and gave them little to nothing at the other end. Really great work.
  • The Capitals don’t have a power-play goal in their last eight games. They’re still winning games despite that, but you’d really hope they’re able to find some sort of rhythm by the time the playoffs roll around in a few weeks.
  • Big win for Emily Engel-Natzke and the rest of the video staff in the second. The Capitals successfully challenged a wrongly called delay of game penalty on Lars Eller. You don’t see those every day.
  • John Carlson is back to even in terms of goals scored this year compared to goals taken away by video review. He was the recipient of some much-due puck luck when his shot clicked off of a Panthers defender and slid into the back of the net. The game is over, but I think we’re all still waiting for the NHL to say that he used some sort of illegal Jedi mind trick to put the puck in, and therefore, it doesn’t count anymore.
  • Far better effort in this third period than against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. They wilted a little towards the end of the final frame but ultimately held things down.
  • While the power play couldn’t get anything going, the penalty held the number two road man-advantage unit to a 0-for-3 performance. The Panthers came into the game operating at 31 percent effectiveness on their power play in road games. Several good shot blocks on Florida’s third-period opportunity.
  • The Capitals scored 16 goals in their three games against the normally very stingy Panthers this year. Hopefully, they can keep that up against them for at least the next few months…for no particular reason.

The Capitals have a rare two-day break between games next before flying up to Winnipeg for a battle of the best two teams in the league. Tuesday night, be there or be square.

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