Courtesy: Panthers.NHL.com
WASHINGTON — For the second straight game, the Washington Capitals will be without their captain Alexander Ovechkin as they look to get back to .500 Saturday night as they face the 3-8-2 Florida Panthers.
Washington improved to 12-8-2 in 22 games without their star forward Friday night with a beatdown of the Flyers in Philadelphia 7-0. In a game that featured a wide-scale brawl in the third period, forward Joel Ward’s first career NHL hat trick and a solid three-point effort from center Nicklas Backstrom, Washington was able to blank the Flyers as they took 30 shots on net — Capitals skaters took just two more shots, but obviously capitalized on their scoring chances with much more frequency.
Not having Ovechkin can hurt this team as he always provides that extra spark and intensity, especially at Verizon Center. However, head coach Adam Oates had to look at the schedule and see two lesser opponents in the Panthers and Flyers and think he could roll with his current group of horses even without Ovechkin. If the Capitals keep up the aggressive play they brought to the table in the second period, a win over the Florida Panthers shouldn’t be out of the question.
Once again, Capitals forward Jason Chimera tallied another goal for the fourth-straight game. His line has become more active recently and has provided the Capitals with scoring lines outside of their usual top guns with Backstrom, Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson. In addition to the offensive depth coming to light, Washington’s defense has allowed a lot of shots towards their respective goalies, but the netminders have stood strong and kept the Caps in each game even in defeat.
Michael Neuvirth will get the start in goal for the Capitals tonight, but Braden Holtby’s 30-save shutout against the Flyers gave Oates a much tougher decision than he expected. The 24-year-old was initially going to be given the night off and it turns out that will in fact happen, but Oates didn’t rule out the possibility before he made the last-minute decision to go with his backup. Neuvirth last stopped 38 pucks in a 3-2 defeat to the Vancouver Canucks Monday night in British Colombia.
The Panthers just wrapped up a six-game homestand where they finished 1-3-2, while the Capitals return to the friendly confines of the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. after going 3-2-0 on their five-game road trip that spanned Canada and the city of Brotherly Love. This is the first of three meetings between the former Southeast Division rivals as they have now gone their separate ways in the Eastern Conference.
