#4 Defense, PK, and physicality
I decided to group defense, penalty kill, and the Caps physical game together on one slide. If there’s any good chance the Caps can play David and upset the Goliath’s that are the Florida Panthers, the Caps need to step up their physical game. While the Panthers have speed, the Caps have the edge physically.
Here were the defensive pairings from Sunday’s practice via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post:
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-Schultz
Here’s what the penalty kill has looked like lately:
PK 1: Dowd, Wilson, TvR, Jensen
PK 2: Larsson, Eller, Fehervary, Carlson
These might or might not work but it’s hard to get a read on it. You can look at how the Caps did in early March to mid April or you can look at how they ended the season with four losses in a row. Since this is a positive article let’s look at the former.
The Caps penalty kill is in the middle of the pack at 12th in the NHL in the regular season with a success rate of 80.4 percent The Panthers are below that at 16th with a success rate of 79.5 percent. The Caps are also 21st in the league in goals allowed while the Panthers are just behind them at 20th. So the Caps do have the edge defensively even if it’s for a slight.