Caps Set for Clash with Cats
Caps face Florida for first time ever in Stanley Cup Playoffs, opening postseason on road for first time in a decade
For the first time in a decade, the Caps are opening the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the road. On Tuesday night in South Florida, Washington will take on the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of their best-of-seven, first-round series. It's the first-ever postseason series between the two former Southeast Division rivals, and with this series, the Capitals will have faced each of the other 15 Eastern Conference teams at least once in the postseason.
Florida won the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's top regular season team in 2021-22, rolling up a total of 122 points and amassing 14 more victories than the eighth-place Capitals, who finished with 100 points and enter the postseason as the eighth-seeded team in the Eastern Conference.
The Caps and Cats met three times during the regular season, all in the month of November.
The Panthers won a 5-4 overtime decision at FLA Live on Nov. 4 with Eetu Luostarinen supplying the game-winner. Connor McMichael scored his first NHL goal in that game for Washington. Just over three weeks later in D.C., the Caps claimed 4-3 victory over the Cats on Nov. 26 in their traditional Black Friday matinee. Caps captain Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick to pace the Washington attack. On the final night of November, the Caps returned to FLA Live, where they took a 4-1 lead into the third period only to see the Panthers storm back for four unanswered goals in the final frame in a 5-4 regulation win.
Since then, the two teams have played a lot of hockey, they've made some additions and subtractions to their squads, and now they're set to do battle in the first round of the playoffs. Florida is an upstart group that has made the playoffs for a third straight season for the first time in its history. The Caps are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 14th time in the last 15 seasons.
Both teams are seeking to win their first playoff series since the best season in their respective histories. The Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in just their third season in the League in 1996 before bowing to Colorado in the Final, and Washington won the Cup in 2018 but has suffered a trio of first-round exits since.
"It's good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, of his team's vibe on the eve of Game 1. "Everybody's excited. It's the best time of the year. You go through a pretty long, grinding schedule and there's a lot of ups and downs, there's highs and lows, and you're dealing with a lot of things. The whole objective of it is to put yourself in a position to compete for the Stanley Cup, and here we are. So guys are really excited about that."
They are, and the Caps seem to be infused with a mix of reverence for the high-powered Florida attack and what the Panthers have achieved this season as a team, as well as a confidence in their own game.
"Extremely fast team, a lot of power up front, a lot of scoring capability," says Caps center Lars Eller of the Panthers. "It's going to be fun, probably the best team in the league this year, so a huge challenge for us. But I think our team can play a lot of games. Whatever game is presented, we can adjust and we can be successful."
Washington went 16-8-3 over the season's final two months, the fifth best record in the Eastern Conference over that span. Unsurprisingly, Florida forged the best record in the League over that span at 23-5-1.
"Obviously the season, there's been a ton of ups and downs, there's been a lot of guys in and out," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. "But I'm excited about this group, I'm excited about having everyone fully healthy and being in their right spot, ready to go. It's something that if you're hitting your stride and you're playing well, you're playing with confidence, it doesn't really matter where you're seeded in the playoffs, you've got to be ready to go.
"The last couple of [regular season] games obviously didn't go the way we really wanted, but we're not going to focus too much on that. There were guys in and out of the lineup, and those games are always kind of funny; you're kind of in, you're kind of not, you're maybe fighting for one position. Guys just want to get to the playoffs and get that started. The excitement level [for Sunday's practice] was there, and it was a good practice and you just feel that energy. We're not looking back at all, we're looking forward. We're excited."
Both the Caps and the Cats figure to be adding a key piece back into their lineup for Tuesday's series opener, a piece that was missing at the end of the regular season. Caps captain Alex Ovechkin missed Washington's last three games with an upper body injury, but after a couple of good days of practice and a proclamation from the captain himself that he would have played those last three games if they had been playoff contests, he looks like a virtual lock to be on the left side of his team's top line on Tuesday.
Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad won the Calder Trophy as an 18-year-old defenseman in 2014-15, and he has been the cornerstone of the Florida blueline since. Ekblad averaged over 25 minutes per night last season and was just a shade under that figure this season, but he missed 21 games in both campaigns.
Last season, a fractured left leg caused him to miss the final 21 games of the season as well as all six of Florida's postseason contests. This season, he suffered a lower body injury early in a March 18 game in Anaheim and has been sidelined since. Florida managed a 16-5-0 record in the 21 games Ekblad missed this season. He had 15 goals and 57 points in 61 games in 2021-22, hitting career highs in assists (42) and points and missing his career high in goals by one, despite missing a quarter of the season.
The last time the Caps opened up a Stanley Cup playoff series on the road was 2012, when they faced the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in the first round. As was the case that spring, they'll enter these playoffs with a Game 1 goaltender who has yet to win his first career Stanley Cup playoff game. The Caps went on to win that 2012 first-round series in seven games on the strength of rookie Braden Holtby's goaltending and some timely secondary scoring; all seven games were decided by a single goal. Joel Ward supplied the game-winner in overtime in Game 7, doing so after he scored just six goals in 73 games during the regular season.
As we've seen countless times over the years, anyone can be a hero in the postseason, and anything can happen.
"I always feel that the playoffs are wide open," says Laviolette. "Any team that gets in there, if they get everybody playing well, anything is possible."
