Caps Continue Trip in Florida
Caps seek bounce back effort on Tuesday night against the Panthers in South Florida
Washington's three-game road trip continues on Tuesday night in South Florida when the Caps face the Florida Panthers for the first time since the Cats ousted them from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the first round last May.
The trip got off to an ignominious start on Sunday in Tampa when the Lightning steamrolled the Caps in the first period en route to a 6-3 victory. By the time the Capitals registered their first shot on net with just under three minutes remaining in the first, Tampa Bay had already scored four goals and Washington had made a goaltending change.
Since season's outset, the Caps have been dealing with a lot of adversity on and off the ice, but Sunday's game against the Lightning is the only one of 17 games in which they were essentially routed. Every team has to deal with a handful of bad beats over the course of an 82-game season, and the response to the bad beat is what's important.
"This is something that happens all the time obviously, and when it does happen you have to address it," says assistant coach Kevin McCarthy, who is still filling in for head coach Peter Laviolette (Covid-19 protocol). "As a coaching staff, when things get to a point where it's not acceptable, then you have to sit down and regroup and have a meeting with the guys and tell it like it is."
Recently, the Caps have lost to a few teams (Detroit, Arizona and Pittsburgh come to mind) where the opponent either came into the game on the heels of a bad beat or lugging a lengthy losing streak. When they take the ice on Tuesday night against the Panthers, it'll be the Caps that will be seeking to rebound from a bad beat, and they'll be looking to do so against the team that bounced them from the playoffs last spring.
"Yeah, definitely," says Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov, when asked if the twin motivations can help spur the Caps on Tuesday. "After every game you don't like, you try to come out hard, and maybe not more with fancy plays, maybe just start with simple plays and for five or 10 minutes just get the puck at their net and try to get a greasy goal once. And then we're going to have that relief and we can play.
"But you know it's a long season, and I'm personally having a short memory all the time. For me, every game is a new game and I try not to think about the past. But unfortunately we are in a situation where we did not like that game, and we have to respond."
Heading into Sunday's game against the Lightning, the Caps had allowed only eight first period goals in their first 16 games of the season, tied for the third fewest in the NHL. The Caps had gone five straight games without permitting a first-period goal before Sunday, and an opponent hadn't put a crooked number on the board in the first since Boston scored twice in the opening period on opening night of the season, Oct. 12.
Three times this season, the Caps have struck for four goals in a single period. But Sunday's first frame in Tampa marked the first time they've yielded that many goals in a frame this season.
"I think we've got to hold ourselves to a way higher competitive standard, and regardless of the situation," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "You know, we weren't in a great situation at the beginning of last year, either; and it felt different, it looked different and it performed different. So I think that's what me personally I'm looking to, and I'm expecting more out of myself and others.
"But I think no matter who we've got in [the lineup], there's dynamic players and players that can really play the game. And consistency has been a big factor as well, and when not everybody is in, and you're not clicking at your 'A' game, you've got to have something to rely on. The more we can do that, the more games we can put together of winning hockey."
Florida roared out to a swift start last season, and it rode that early spree to the first Presidents' Trophy-winning team in franchise history, finishing with 122 points and defeating the Caps in the first round of the playoffs, the Panther's first playoff series win in a quarter of a century. But the Cats were casually swept aside in four games by the Lightning in the second round, and they parted ways with interim head coach Andrew Brunette in the offseason, hiring longtime NHL bench boss Paul Maurice to take the reins.
The Panthers made some sweeping offseason changes to their roster, too, sending longtime star Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary in a deal that brought Matthew Tkachuk to South Florida. Also gone from last season's playoff squad are forward Mason Marchment and deadline acquisitions Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot.
As we near the one-quarter mark of the 2022-23 season, Florida finds itself in a cluster of five teams vying for position behind the runaway Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division standings. Like the Caps, the Panthers are still seeking some level of consistency; they have yet to string together more than two consecutive victories in '22-23. Most recently, the Panthers took a 4-2 loss to Edmonton here on Saturday night.
Tuesday's game with the Capitals is the middle match of a five-game homestand for Florida, and it is Washington's lone visit to this part of the state this season.
