Panthers at Capitals
The Florida Panthers look to avoid a fifth straight loss to open the season when they visit the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals on Friday night. The Panthers, who came into the season with high expectations after finishing 2017-18 with a 25-8-2 record over the last 35 contests, have dropped all four games by a goal - two in shootouts.
“It’s going to happen. We just got to stick with it,” Florida coach Bob Boughner told reporters after a 6-5 shootout setback at Philadelphia on Tuesday. “But we’ve got some things to clean up. We scored five goals on the road, we won the special teams battle and I thought we were more desperate. … There’s a lot of good, but there’s still some bad in our game we have to eliminate.” The Panthers have to get their power play going (1-for-15) and must deal with a Washington man-advantage unit that has converted nine of 23 opportunities in the first six games. Evgeny Kuznetsov has recorded all of his four goals on the power play and captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice with the man advantage in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime victory over the New York Rangers. “In order to completely take (Ovechkin) away, other guys are just too open, and they’re good enough to score,” Washington defenseman Matt Niskanen, who scored the winner Wednesday, told reporters. “. … Our power play is set up well with what hands guys are and their skill sets, so we have a lot of different options. Guys are good at reading what’s open. It’s pretty lethal.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TVA, FS Florida, NBCS Washington
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (0-2-2): Forward Frank Vatrano scored his first two goals of the season at Philadelphia on Tuesday to share the team lead with captain Aleksander Barkov and Evgenii Dadonov. Aaron Ekblad, the first-overall pick in the 2014 draft, seeks his first point of the season Friday while fellow defenseman Keith Yandle has four assists in the early going. Goalie James Reimer, who was rested Tuesday in favor of Michael Hutchinson, is expected back in net after allowing eight goals on 62 shots in the previous two contests.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (3-2-1): Washington’s top performers are all off to strong starts with Kuznetsov leading the way at 10 points while Ovechkin (six goals), Nicklas Backstrom and defenseman John Carlson have each contributed nine. Carlson, who is coming off his best season in which he produced 15 goals and 68 points, has registered four multi-point performances in the first six contests. Sixteen players have notched a point for Washington, but forward Andre Burakovsky (50 career goals, 120 points career) has yet to find the scoresheet and owns a minus-4 rating.
OVERTIME
1. Ovechkin has 232 power-play goals, tied for ninth in NHL history with Dino Ciccarelli and two behind Marcel Dionne for eighth.
2. Florida D Mike Matheson will serve the second contest of a two-game suspension for an illegal hit Saturday.
3. Backstrom had a pair of assists Wednesday and needs two to become the first Capital to reach 600.