The Washington Capitals will meet the Panthers for the second time this season. Can we expect them to break through their recent struggles? Here’s how to find out.
For the second game in a row the Washington Capitals struggled to stay out of the penalty box, making it difficult to win against a team searching for revenge.
Last time out the Capitals mounted a comeback being down 5-1 in Vancouver to win 6-5 via shootout.
This time the shootout win belonged to the Canucks who capitalized on one of the five power play opportunities they had to tie the game in the first period, and eventually tally the only goal in the shootout in round seven.
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Some positives the Capitals can take moving forward, starts with Braden Holtby standing on his head in stopping 32 of 33 shots in regulation and holding off the shootout for six rounds. It seems he has put this seasons slow start completely behind him at this point.
An area of growth for the Capitals at the start of the season was to better the faceoff win percentage, in this contest the top two centermen Evgeny Kuznetsov and Lars Eller each won 68.8%. This should help get the recently stagnant offense going soon.
Last time out against the Panthers, the Capitals were able to overcome the same number of penalty minutes as they just had versus the Canucks.
The biggest difference was the presence of healthy and available penalty killers, currently the Capitals will be missing Nicklas Backstrom – injury, Carl Hagelin – injury, and Garnet Hathaway – suspension.
Hopefully the Capitals will have Nic Dowd available for this game to help out on the PK and in the faceoff dot after being injured.
The Capitals will be looking to extend the Panthers losing streak while stopping their own. Even with their recent struggles both teams still sit atop the best in their division with the Capitals still leading the Metropolitan and the Panthers only trailing the Bruins in the Atlantic.
Considering the offense it took to take the first matchup, many of the top players will be expected to provide a spark to help out whoever is in goal for the Capitals. Expect to see the hits to pile up in favor of the Caps, which will hopefully payoff with some great scoring chances.
Want to know how it plays out? Here is how to follow the game:
Date: Nov. 27th
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Where: Capital One Arena
TV Broadcast: NBC Sports Washington
Radio: WJFK 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
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