The Washington Capitals will travel to BB&T arena to face off against the Florida Panthers Friday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30pm.
The Panthers are coming off a 3-2 shootout win over the Red Wings. In the game they were down 0-2 in the 3rd period but received goals from Nick Bjugstad and Sean Bergenheim to tie the game and force overtime. After the scoreless overtime period the two teams went to the shootout and Boyes scored the winning shootout goal for the Panthers. Boyes now has 35 shootout goals which is more then any other active player in the NHL. Tim Thomas pushed aside 24 shots in the matchup and was credited with his 3rd win in a row.
After leaving Thursday's practice early due to an unknown injury, Thomas will be a game time decision for the Panthers on Friday night. If he is unable to make the start, Panthers have called up Jakob Markstrom from AHL San Antonio to take his place against the Caps. On the season, Thomas has a 2.75 GAA and a .909 save %. The Caps have not faced Tim Thomas since the 2012 playoffs when they defeated Boston in the series. In limited ice-time, Jakob Markstrom has a 3.36 GAA and a .877 save % for the season.
The Capitals have looked very good their last three matchups and have beaten the Predators, Rangers and Lightning. In their most recent matchup against the Lightning, Holtby was pulled after giving up three goals early in the 1st period. Grubauer came to the rescue and turned aside 32 of 34 shots. Nicklas Backstrom scored the Capitals 1st goal and from there it was the Ovechkin show. Ovechkin scored four goals in the matchup, all of which Backstrom assisted, and two of the goals came on the power play. With those two power play goals, Ovechkin surpassed Peter Bondra for the most power play goals in franchise history. Ovechkin's 4th goal of the matchup came with just over 30 secs left in the 3rd period and tied the score at 5 and sent the game to overtime and eventually a shootout. Troy Brouwer notched the game winning goal for the Caps in the 5th round of the shootout. It was an absolute thrilling game to watch.
Holtby is our projected goalie for the matchup against the Panthers. On the season he has a 2.82 GAA and a .920 Save %. Hotby has been quite inconsistent this season so no one should be surprised if Oates elects to start Grubauer who is hot as of late. In limited ice-time, Grubauer has a stellar 1.36 GAA and .959 save %.
Note: Ovechkin has more goals then all 3 of the Panthers top goal scorers combined. The Great 8 now has 48 goals in his last 50 regular season games!
Zach's Three Keys to the Game:
Goaltending: If Holtby gets the start, he needs to make some critical saves. It's understandable that he'll get scored on sometimes through screens and deflections but he has outright blown some wide open saves. He needs to be better. There's nothing worse then blowing an easy save because it deflates the defensemen that are working in front of you. But hopefully Grubauer gets the start and Holtby can have some time to think about his game on the bench for awhile.
Defense: The Caps rank near the bottom of the league in shots on goal allowed. They need to block more shots, keep the pucks to the boards and stay in the chest of charging forwards. The Panther's may not be an offensive power house but they do have what it takes to score if they're given space.
Mike Green: When you have a game SO BAD that you have to apologize to your teammates afterwards, you need to go out and fix it! Green had a horrific 1st period against the Lightning when he was called for 4 different penalties for a total of 18 penalty minutes! He had a 4 minute double minor for high sticking, 2 min minor for tripping, another 2 min minor for high sticking and then a 10 min game misconduct. On top of that, his defense has been shaky all season and the goal scoring hasn't arrived. Green is an alternate captain for this team and he needs to lead by example on the ice. There are players from the Hershey Bears and even rookies who are coming in and playing better then Green. He was even benched one time this year while Steve Oleksy double shifted. Let's all hope Green can snap out of this horrible slump tonight against the Panthers!
GO CAPS!
Zach Hart
Shades of Red
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