Capitals drop another game in Florida
The Washington Capitals dropped their second straight game in the Sunshine State, this time to the Florida Panthers by a final of 5-2. The loss drops their record to 7-9-2.
Aleksander Barkov gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 5:45. 1-0 was the score after one with the Panthers leading in shots 22-9.
In the second period Sam Reinhart scored on the power play at 3:46. The Caps finally got on the board at 15:04 on a snipe from Dylan Strome for his fifth goal of the season. It was assisted by Joe Snively and John Carlson.
2-1 was the score after two with the Panthers leading in shots 14-12 in the second period. The Caps put on more shots outshooting the Panthers 22-7 in the third to even the shot totals overall at 43 apiece but it would be the Panthers that ran away with this one.
Nick Cousins scored at 7:02. John Carlson pulled the Caps to within one with a writer close to the net. It was his third goal of the season and the play was set up by Erik Gustafsson and Anthony Mantha at 11:15.
Carter Verhaeghe would then score twice to put the game away. The first goal came at the 17 minute mark and the second one came at 18:36.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette cleared COVID protocols and was back behind the bench after missing the last two and having assistant coach Kevin McCarthy fill in for him.
"“We got to find a way to score goals. The power play has to get us one, five on five has to get us another one. I thought we played hard in the last 40 minutes and pushed to get that win but we couldn’t seem to get ahead of the score.”"
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The Capitals conclude their road trip on Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues. Although they struggled this season, the Blues always give the Caps a tough matchup.