POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Panthers 6, Caps 5 (SO)

Seven In The Books -When you boil down the Caps' Friday night performance in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers, it's quite a mixed bag. Washington's start was subpar, and an ugly final four minutes or so of the first period left the Caps looking up at a 4-1 deficit after 20 minutes.

Washington netminder Braden Holtby was pulled in favor of Pheonix Copley at that point, but the Caps responded well in the early stages of the second. They scored twice before the Panthers could record their first shot of the frame, and managed to get the game tied up at 4-4 on a Devante Smith-Pelly goal with 6:45 remaining in the second.
But once again, the Caps got in their own way in the final few minutes of the period, taking three minor penalties in a span of less than three minutes. Florida regained the lead on a 5-on-3 power play in the final minute of the second, and the Caps trailed 5-4 heading to the third.
Late in regulation, the Caps drew a power play and were again able to get the game tied up and into overtime, pulling Copley for an extra skater and getting Nicklas Backstrom's tying tally in the 6-on-4 situation with 1:25 left.
But a late tripping penalty on Matt Niskanen put the Caps down a man to start the overtime, and they spent most of the first two minutes of the extra session killing it off. At night's end, the Panthers finally had their first win of the season and the Caps had to be happy that their comeback was spirited enough to earn them a point.
"The first period was not our best," says Backstrom, "and we weren't happy with the way we played in the first. It was 4-1, but Holts made some great saves there, so it could have been a lot [worse]. But we battled back and got a point. We should be happy about that there."
Seven games into the new season, the Caps are 3-2-2, which is a point better than they were at the same stage last season (3-3-1). They're averaging a league-leading 4.14 goals per game, but they've also permitted an average of 3.86 goals per game, 28th in the league. They've lost two games - earning a point in each - in which they've scored five or more goals.
Any seven-game snapshot of any NHL team can show any number of trends, strengths or deficiencies, but it's always dangerous to try to read too much into short sample sizes. Less than four months before they won the Stanley Cup last spring, the Caps yielded an average of four goals a game over a nine-game stretch in February, hardly an indicator of what was to come later in the spring.
That short sample caveat is even truer early in the season when the short sample size is also the entire sample size. Fans who've followed this team over the last decade will surely recall the Caps roaring out to a perfect 7-0 start seven games into the 2011-12 season. Just over a month later, they fired then-coach Bruce Boudreau.
"There have been some signs of some good things," says Caps coach Todd Reirden, "and some signs of some things that definitely need some work. And that's where we need to continue to develop our identity that we had at the end of last year. To expect that it starts at that same spot is not really all that achievable."
Secondary Steps - Entering Friday's game against Florida, the Caps had been lacking secondary and five-on-five scoring. They were able to get four goals at five-on-five, and three of their five goals - from Brett Connolly, Jakub Vrana and Smith-Pelly - came from secondary sources. For both Connolly and Smith-Pelly, the goals were their first of the season.
"It's always cool to score," admits Smith-Pelly. "But we didn't win, and I'm not really about personal numbers or anything like that. But it did feel good to get one, and to get on the board."
Killing With Kindness -While Washington's power play ranks second in the league with a lusty 38.5% conversion rate through seven games, the team's penalty killing outfit has struggled. Friday night's game against Florida marked the second time in as many games and the third time this season that the Caps have yielded two power-play goals in a game.
On the season, the Caps rank 22nd in the circuit with a 72.4% kill rate.
"We have room for improvement for sure," says Reirden. "It's a new system with the way we're killing, it's new personnel who are learning, it's missing a key guy like Tom [Wilson] on that [unit] as well.
"It's not easy either when you're five-on-three and they've got talented players that can convert in that spot. But it's definitely a work in progress. I didn't expect it to go smoothly to start with; that's one of the areas that we knew was going to be new to our team this year. It's going to continue to take some work, and it's definitely a work in progress."
Helping Hands -Caps center Lars Eller recorded three assists in Friday's game, a single-game personal best for his NHL career. Eller has had two assists in a game on 15 occasions during his NHL career.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears were on the road on Friday night, facing the Checkers at Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte. Despite being outshot 33-13 on the night, the Bears scraped a point out of the evening with a 4-3 shootout loss.
All three Hershey goals came on the power play as the Bears went 3-for-7 with the man advantage. The Bears scored once in each period, and each goal was the scorer's first of the season. Brian Pinho notched his first pro goal at 12:56 of the first with help from Connor Hobbs and Aaron Ness.
In the second, Shane Gersich netted his first pro goal at 7:36, getting help from Riley Barber and Lucas Johansen. At 10:34 of the third, Johansen scored to tie the game at 3-3, Michael Sgarbossa and Gersich assisting.
Making his second consecutive start in goal, Vitek Vanecek (1-2-1) stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced in the Hershey nets. The Bears face the Checkers in Charlotte again on Saturday in the sixth game of a seven-game road excursion.
By The Numbers -John Carlson led the Caps with 29:28 in ice time … Carlson, Niskanen, Smith-Pelly and Dmitry Orlov each had four shots on net to lead the Capitals … Alex Ovechkin led Washington with 10 shot attempts … Brooks Orpik led the Caps with five hits … Orpik, Orlov, Carlson and Michal Kempny aeafh had two blocked shots to lead the Caps.