Four-ida – As they conclude a two-game tour of the Sunshine State on Saturday against the Panthers in South Florida, the Capitals are also seeking to extend their modest winning streak from three to four games tonight, and if they are successful in doing so, it would mark their longest winning streak since Nov. 10-22, when they strung together five straight victories, their longest spree of the season to date.
Florida is obviously a formidable foe; the Panthers are 10-2-0 in their last dozen games, and they just had a six-game winning streak snapped in a 1-0 loss to the Hurricanes on Thursday night in Raleigh. The Caps have faced the Panthers twice previously this season, losing a third-period lead at home in a 4-3 overtime loss to Florida on Nov. 8, and falling here in South Florida by a 4-2 count on Feb. 8, a game that was all even until the last half of the third period.
That loss here just over two weeks ago was Washington’s sixth straight (0-5-1), but the Caps have successfully steered out of that skid with a 4-1-1 run since. As they prepare to take on the Panthers for the third and final time this season, the Caps’ overall team game is in a good place.
“Obviously when we came in here last time, we hadn’t won in a while,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome. “We’ve just got to find a way to ride his momentum. When your team is going good and guys are scoring and feeling good, you’ve got to take advantage. We’ve scored 15 goals in our last three games, and I’m sure we haven’t had a stretch like that this year.
“We’ve got to find a way to keep going and keep the pressure on, and that first goal is always huge. It’s nice to play with the lead, and hopefully we can do it again [today].”
Sleepers Awake – As Strome mentions, the Caps have piled up 15 goals in their last three games, and that’s three more than Florida has managed over the same span. The Panthers had a nine-goal game – a 9-2 over the Lightning in Tampa – within their last three games, too.
Ten different Caps have combined to score the team’s last 15 goals in those three games, with Connor McMichael putting together consecutive two-goal games; he and Alex Ovechkin (eight goals in his last nine games, plus a 10-game point streak) have had hot hands of late while both Strome and Anthony Mantha have continued to consistently produce offense, as they’ve done virtually all season long. The Caps got Sonny Milano back in their lineup after a lengthy injury absence three games ago – and he has a goal and an assist since returning – but they’ve also lost Nic Dowd and T.J. Oshie to upper body injuries.
What the Caps have been able to do over the life of their short winning streak, over the last six games, and in the eight games since the midseason break is to play more connected hockey as a five-man unit in all three zones. They’ve been efficient and clean at exiting their end for the most part, and they’ve been able to establish a strong forecheck that has produced some chances, some zone time and some goals of late.
“I think they are both connected to us being able to exit,” says Carbery of the Caps’ forecheck. “And I think we’ve been better at finding our exits, communicating our breakout reads and touches, and then also off of situations that are unpredictable and unscripted, of finding a way to get the puck and advance it when we don’t have a great option. I feel like we’ve done a way better job of that, and then that gets us out of our zone more often.”
Against the Panthers’ relentless forecheck, however, getting out cleanly and consistently is going to be a much stiffer challenge for the Capitals.
“They dump a puck in as much as any team in the National Hockey League, them and Carolina,” says Carbery of the Cats. “So everything is going to get deep. If, in a typical game, you break the puck out 50 times, get ready to break it out 80 times tonight. What that does is the volume; just every single time you go back on a puck, it’s got to be done with the utmost detail, communication, and our reads have to be good because it’s relentless. And it comes shift after shift after shift after shift.
“That’s where I feel like they can put teams in trouble, because they don’t crack. It just constantly comes at you, and they’re just waiting for that one or two or three mistakes that you make, and now they’re getting a Grade A off of that. So we just have to be consistent with our breakout routes, our communication, all the little details that we’ve worked really, really hard on of cleaning up on our breakouts, and frankly off our [defensive] zone exits. That’s off some [defensive] zone play, if the puck goes to the corner, we have to be able to exit in those situations.”
Clean, quick and efficient exits will be needed today as the Caps seek to extend their winning streak to four against one of the best and hottest teams in the League. If those exits can be managed well, the Caps will seek to stoke their own forecheck, which has been more formidable of late.
“We’ve talked a lot about being predictable to each other, and whether that’s having a chance on the rush and reading each other, or the predictable play is obviously to just get it deep and read off each other [on the forecheck],” says Strome. “We’ve talked about that, not to put a guy offside and to get it deep so that guys are skating on to it.
“Nobody likes to go back there and get hit, and obviously we’ve got some guys who can throw their weight around, [Beck Malenstyn] and [Tom Wilson], for example. Teams don’t want to have to go back and get the puck against those guys, and we’ve got to put that to our advantage. I think we’ve been doing a good job of that, and obviously getting out of the zone is a main part of it. We’ve been getting out of our own zone clean and then getting it deep. We’ve had a good little run of that.”
Dubé Debut – Recalled from AHL Hershey just ahead of the Florida trip, winger Pierrick Dubé was scratched on Thursday in Tampa Bay, but he will make his NHL debut tonight against the Panthers.
Dubé, a native of Lyon, France, was leading Hershey with 24 goals in 50 games at the time of his recall, and he was tied for second in the AHL in goals at that point. Now in his second season as a North American pro, the 23-year-old has netted 40 goals in 94 AHL contests since the start of last season.
“I just want to see a young player go out there and compete, show what he does well,” says Carbery of the newest Capital. “He’s got good speed, he can shoot the puck, go out there and compete. This is as competitive a team as there is in the League, so it’s a great challenge for him from a heaviness standpoint, wall play, puck battles, forecheck.
“He’s earned this opportunity to now be able to go in and play a National Hockey League game against the best team in the NHL, and go out there and compete, and show his speed and energy. I’m looking forward to watching him.”
When he steps on the ice today in South Florida, Dubé becomes the 14th French-born player in NHL history, and the third to play for the Capitals. When Washington began its NHL existence on Oct. 9, 1974 against the New York Rangers at Madison Squqre Garden, Andre Peloffy made his NHL debut in that same game. Peloffy, a native of Sete, France, skated in nine games with Washington that season, becoming the first French-born player in League history.
The 1,400 Club – Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin is slated to skate in his 1,400th career NHL game today, becoming the 41st player to reach that milestone. Among all active players in the League, Ovechkin ranks second behind only Dallas defenseman Ryan Suter (1,420).
Ovechkin carries a 10-game point streak (eight goals, six assists) into tonight’s game, his longest scoring spree since 2018 and the 13th scoring streak of 10 or more games by a player aged 38 or older. Martin St. Louis was the last 38-year-old to string together 10 or more straight games with a point, doing so in 2013-14.
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren gets his third straight starting assignment today in South Florida. In his last four starts, Lindgren is 3-1-0 with a 2.27 GAA and a .927 save pct. He takes aim on his 13th victory of the season today, and if he succeeds, he will match his single-season career high established last season, and he will vault into the Caps’ team lead in that department in 2023-24.
Lifetime against the Panthers, Lindgren is 2-3-0 with a 2.95 GAA and a .910 save pct. in five appearances (four starts).
For Florida, Anthony Stolarz gets the Saturday evening home start. On the season, he is 9-5-2 with a 1.97 GAA and a .926 save pct. in 17 appearances. He has won three of his last four starts (3-1-0) and is coming off a 45-save shutout of the Sabres in Buffalo on Feb. 15 in his most recent start.
Stolarz will be making his first career appearance against Washington today.
All Lined Up – Washington did not conduct a morning skate today ahead of the unique 6 p.m. start time, but here’s our best guess at how the Caps and the Panthers might look on Saturday evening at Amerant Bank Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 24-McMichael, 96-Aubé-Kubel
39-Mantha, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
67-Pacioretty, 23-Sgarbossa, 15-Milano
47-Malenstyn, 21-Protas, 72-Dubé
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Edmundson, 3-Jensen
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Injured/Out
19-Backstrom (lower body)
26-Dowd (upper body)
42-Fehervary (lower body)
77-Oshie (upper body)
92-Kuznetsov (NHL/NHLPA player assistance program)
Scratches
25-Bear
29-Lapierre
FLORIDA
Forwards
17-Rodrigues, 16-Barkov, 13-Reinhart
23-Verhaeghe, 9-Bennett, 21-Cousins
27-Luostarinen, 15-Lundell, 67-Lockwood
12-Gadjovich, 18-Lorentz, 94-Lomberg
Defensemen
42-Forsling, 5-Ekblad
77-Mikkola, 62-Montour
91-Ekman-Larsson, 7-Kulikov
Goaltenders
72-Bobrovsky
41-Stolarz
Injured/Out
19-Tkachuk (undisclosed)
67-Lockwood (concussion)
82-Stenlund (illness)
Scratches
28-Mahura
