Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers Give Capitals Too Many Chances. It Cost Them
On Thursday, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice warned that teams cannot give Washington free chances because “they capitalize on their opportunities — pardon the pun.”
He was not wrong.
Saturday night, the Capitals did exactly that, taking what the Panthers gave them in a 6-3 win at Capital One Arena.
The Capitals had one odd-man rush after another on Saturday, scoring on three of them.
Although Florida matched the Capitals goal-for-goal in a wild opening period, they did not in the second when Washington scored twice in the opening minute had added its final goal before the 6-minute mark.
Surprisingly enough, that was all the scoring in this one as the two teams did not score in the final 34 minutes of play after combining for nine in the first 26.
“We had a real hard time with some of our rush reads,” Maurice said after the game. “Fast team and they made us pay pretty quick. It was tough to come back.”
Sam Bennett had two big scoring chances early and tied the score at 1 off a nice pass from Mackie Samoskevich at 6:35.
Florida never had the lead Saturday — but tied the score three different times in the first period.
That’s the first time a Florida team had ever done that.
Tied at 3 going into the second, Tom Wilson got loose off the opening faceoff and walked in on Vitek Vanecek to make it 4-3.
The Panthers had no more answers.
“We gave up too many rushes,” Bennett said. “They were coming through the neutral zone with speed and too many times, we let them get in. We can’t let that happen. That’s a real good team that plays with a lot of speed. They like to do that. A couple of times, we either missed our man or let them get behind. We just have to regroup, reset, and move on.’’
The Panthers went 2-4 on this road trip coming off a six-game winning streak and try to get their home mojo working again tonight when they welcome the rejuvenated Pittsburgh Penguins to Sunrise.
After playing three games in four nights twice in the past two weeks, the Panthers will not play again until Friday night.
“They came out hot in that second period and I guess we weren’t ready,” said Jonah Gadjovich, who made it 3-3 in the first. “We have another game tomorrow. We will reset and be ready.”
ON DECK: GAME No. 71
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS at FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Sunday, 6 p.m.
- Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
- Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
- Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
- Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- Season Series (Tied 1-1) — At Florida: Panthers 3, Penguins 2 SO (Jan. 13); Sunday. At Pittsburgh: Penguins 5, Panthers 4 OT (Dec. 3).
- Last Season: Panthers won 3-0
- All-time Regular Season Series: Penguins lead 57-39-8, 4 ties
- All-time Playoff Series: Florida d. Pittsburgh 4-3, 1996 Eastern Conference finals
- Up Next for the Panthers: Friday vs. Utah Hockey Club, 7 p.m.
