Caps Host Panthers on Black Friday
Two of the NHL's top teams clash at Capital One Arena late Friday afternoon
The Caps conclude a two-game homestand with their traditional Black Friday game at Capital One Arena, and with the Florida Panthers in town for the only time this season to supply the opposition. The game is the second of three between the two teams this month; the Panthers edged the Caps 5-4 in overtime in South Florida on Nov. 4 and the two teams will tangle again in Florida's building on Tuesday, the final day of November.
Washington comes into Friday's game on the heels of a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday in the opener of this two-game homestand. That game marked the second straight home game in which the Caps received six goals from six different skaters, and the third straight game in which they scored the game's first goal on their first shot on net of the night.
Caps center Nic Dowd scored that first goal at 3:34 of the first, seconds after Washington killed off the game's first penalty. Later in the game, Evgeny Kuznetsov scored less than a minute after the Caps killed off another Montreal power play. Washington snuffed out all three Habs power plays on Wednesday, and the Caps' penalty-killing outfit has quietly moved into the NHL's top 10 with a kill rate of 84.3 percent on the season.
In its last 10 games, Washington has killed off 21 of 22 shorthanded situations (95.5%).
"I think the crowd tonight was awesome," said Dowd after the Montreal game. "That was the first time we played in front of a full crowd like that in a long time, and it was awesome and the electricity was great.
"It's just so much fun to play here at Cap One, and people here know hockey. So you get out of that [early] kill, and the fans are excited, and then [Dmitry Orlov] makes an unreal play off the wall. It gives us a chance to go on a little bit of a rush, and we were fortunate enough to find the back of the net. But yeah, those are big momentum swings because you could have gone down 1-0 and then you're chasing it."
The Caps are 7-1-1 in their last nine games, and they are 5-1-3 at home this season. At the 20-game mark of the 2021-22 season, they are averaging 3.50 goals per game to rank fourth in the League. They are also fourth in the league in fewest goals allowed per game at 2.35.
Washington leads the NHL with 52 goals at 5-on-5, and it is tied for fifth in the League in fewest goals against at 5-on-5 with 30. During the course of the team's current 7-1-1 run, the Caps have outscored the opposition by a combined total of 33-18.
Throughout the season, the Caps have played shorthanded within the forward ranks. Center Nicklas Backstrom has yet to suit up for regular season duty, though he has started practicing with the team in a non-contact sweater. Wingers T.J. Oshie and Anthony Mantha have been sidelined for the better part of the last month, the Caps have recently had to play without center Lars Eller and winger Conor Sheary.
In Wednesday's game against the Habs, the Caps lost a member of their blueline corps to injury for the first time this season. Defenseman Justin Schultz departed the game late in the first period, and he did not return after suffering an upper body injury. He did not participate in Thursday's Caps practice, though Eller, Sheary and Backstrom did do so, albeit in non-contact sweaters.
Florida comes to town on the heels of a 2-1 overtime victory over the Flyers on Wednesday in South Florida. With that win, the Panthers ran their home ice record to 11-0-0 on the season and they matched the NHL's record for consecutive home ice victories at the start of the season, matching the standard set by the 1963-64 Chicago Blackhawks.
Friday's game is the front end of a set of weekend back-to-backs for the Panthers, who will return home to host the expansion Seattle Kraken on Saturday. The Cats will attempt to erase the '63-64 Hawks from the record book in their first-ever meeting with the NHL's newest team.
The Panthers boast the League's best record at 14-2-3, and they're the only team that has suffered as few as two regulation losses. With 3.84 goals per game, the Cats are the League's second most prolific offensive team. With 2.42 goals against per game, Florida ranks fifth.
Like the Capitals, Florida has been taking care of business at 5-on-5. The Caps and the Cats are tied for the League lead with a plus-22 differential at 5-on-5, and neither team ranks among the circuit's top 10 in power play prowess.
