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Game #16: Washington Capitals |
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Aside from the game against Calgary this Thursday, tonight is my most anticipated tilt of the young season because we get to see those sweet new Reverse Retros make their debut.
Hampered by injuries and looking to get trending in the right direction, the Washington Capitals make their way to South Florida to clash with a Cats team that’s coming off a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday; a game they most certainly could (and should) have won.
Despite being led by superstar Alexander Ovechkin (with NHL records in his crosshairs), the Caps find themselves in strange territory thus far as they sit in 6th place of the Metropolitan Division with a 7-8-2 record. Even stranger is seeing the Penguins in 7th of the Metro with a 6-6-3 record…
This will be the first time the Cats and Caps (not confusing at all) will face off against one another since the first round of the 2021-22 playoffs, where Florida narrowly escaped to the second round thanks to the heroics of Carter Verhaeghe. In fact, Verhaeghe currently leads the Panthers in goals (8) and will most likely carry his (near) point-per-game magic over to tonight.
In totally random news, I saw that Sonny Milano was working next to Ovi and Evgeny Kuznetsov on the top line during practice at FLA Arena. I say this because I thought he was a young, up-and-coming guy, and was surprised to suddenly see him bouncing around teams on PTO’s the past couple months. Wasn’t he the guy who scored the infamous Zegras goal that was flipped over the net? Just goes to show that persistence can pay off. One day you’re not sure if you’re going to have a job, the next you’re getting a shot to play alongside one of the best in league history.
Even though they did a good job on the kill against EDM - allowing the Oil to go only 1/5 - the Panthers need to tighten things up and not give Washington too many chances on the man advantage. Can’t continue rolling the dice multiple times a game against teams with high caliber talent.
We’ll see if Florida can use this game to get into the “rhythm” a home that they have been talking about wanting to do:
Ekblad looked pretty good in his return from injury. It’s a tough task to contain McDavid and Draisaitl, but I thought Ekblad and the defense did a pretty good job. They were just flat in certain spots of the game and Edmonton took advantage with guys from the point.
Curious to see what #5 looks like tonight now that the first game back is under his belt.
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Go Panthers!
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