Washington Capitals Vs. Florida Panthers: Opponent Outlook
Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Capitals and the Florida Panthers had some exciting games in 2014-2015. Will they be as exciting in 2015-2016?
The Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers are both teams that are looking to make the playoffs in 2015. While the Washington Capitals are more of a lock to make the playoffs than the Panthers, don’t sleep on the Panthers because they are an extremely talented and well-balanced team.
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The Florida Panthers only made one major roster move this off-season, as they traded forward Jimmy Hayes to the Boston Bruins for Riley Smith. I think that the Panthers were wise to sell Hayes while his value was at his highest (or at least quite close to it). Smith has nice stats, but it is worth noting that he spent a fair bit of time playing with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. That dynamic duo has the tendency to make whoever they’re playing with look better, so that’s something to keep an eye on.
Even though the Panthers only made one major roster move, they didn’t need to do much because they already have a good team. Stanley Cup winners tend to be very strong down the middle and are stocked with center depth. The Florida Panthers have that part of the contender recipe with Nick Bjugstad and Aleksander Barkov. Jonathan Huberdeau is coming off a 54 point season and is a breakout candidate for the Panthers if he keeps on improving.
Brandon Pirri is most famous for having an impressive and hilarious stat line of 22 goals and 2 assists in 49 games last season. It remains to be seen if he can maintain a high shooting percentage (it’s been over 15% in each of his last two seasons), but he has done so through 105 NHL games. His issue is that he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. If he can stay healthy, he’s a huge part of what the Panthers are trying to do.
The Panthers also have former Washington Capitals forward Jaromir Jagr. Jagr formed one of my favorite forward lines in the NHL last season with Huberdeau and Barkov. He’s an excellent guy for their young forwards to be around because Jagr lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes hockey. He also has one of the highest hockey IQs of any player over the past 30 years.
The Panthers blue line is led by phenom Aaron Ekblad. Ekblad came into his rookie season with lofty expectations. He managed to exceed them by winning the Calder Trophy. The Panthers counted on him to be a top pairing defenseman from day one and he flourished. Willie Mitchell is a stabilizing force for Ekblad. It’s not a stretch to say that Mitchell views Ekblad as one of the members of his family.
The Panthers are represented in net by Roberto Luongo. While Luongo is 36 years old, he has so far avoided the regression that hits older goaltenders. He’s still a very good goaltender despite his age. Regression is coming eventually for him, but he has shown no signs of slowing down yet.
The Washington Capitals played the Panthers three times in 2014-15. The Washington Capitals won two of those meetings. Of their three meetings, two of them went to a shootout. The Washington Capitals won one and the Panthers won one. The one that the Panthers won was a historically long one that involved a shootout goal by Brooks Orpik.
The Washington Capitals won the January meeting between the two teams 4-3. The Capitals got balanced scoring in those three games. Alex Ovechkin led the way with three points. Eric Fehr and Nicklas Backstrom each had two points (both assists). The Panthers and Capitals square off against each other three times in 2015. They square off against the Panthers in Florida twice (October 31st and December 10th) and once on national television at the Verizon Center (February 2nd).
My prediction: the Caps will win two of the three games. Each of the three games will be closely contested because the Panthers and Capitals almost always play each other tough. The Capitals are definitely more talented, but the Panthers are very scrappy. The Caps and Panthers tend to have shootouts whenever they play, but hopefully we won’t see a 20+ round shootout this year.
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