Florida Panthers Try to End Losing Streak Tonight Against Capitals

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers will try and end a three-game losing streak tonight against the Washington Capitals come to town.

With their dads and mentors on this trip, the Capitals will not be an easy out as they try to avoid a losing streak of their own.

Paul Maurice’s message on Monday was that the Panthers need to simplify things.

Too many attempts at fancy plays are not Florida’s game, yet, against the Avalanche on Saturday, the Panthers were trying too many of those which led to the puck flying up the ice the other way.

“I think we can move together better,’’ said Maurice, whose team has lost five of six. “That would be the general idea of what we’re doing. We haven’t moved the puck particularly well. We’re not a seam team or seven-pass team going up the ice. … I’m not looking for us to change what we do. Our execution has been off.”

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Following Saturday’s loss, captain Sasha Barkov told FHN that the Panthers recent slide could end up being beneficial in the long run.

“Tough stretches? You never want to get in them,’’ Barkov said.

“But every team goes through them at some point. We just have to find our way out of it. Usually, we learn from tough moments and they make us stronger and a better team. All we can do is concentrate on the next game, work harder, be smarter.”

Maurice echoed those thoughts on Monday.

If teams did not go through these rough patches during the regular season, they will never learn from their mistakes when they eventually pop up.

“Every team has to go through these stretches,” Maurice said. “If you don’t, you have a 130-point season and the first bad thing that happens to you in the playoffs, you are in trouble. We are in one right now.”

— The starting goalies: Spencer Knight will go for the Panthers, with Logan Thompson starting for the Capitals.

Maurice said this was a planned start for Knight.

“That decision was all but made two weeks ago,” he said, “and we did not feel there was a need to change it.’’

— Do the Panthers prep for the Capitals any different without Alex Ovechkin in the lineup?

“I have not Washington enough, but less than it use to,” Maurice said. “Washington plays a different game now, a different team game. In the past, you felt if you could get close to Ovi or eliminate that, you had a really good chance of winning that game. I don’t think that’s true of the way they play. They play a really good team game.’’

— Jonah Gadjovich was in a no-contact jersey Monday with Maurice saying he tweaked something Saturday night. He is considered day-to-day.

— The Capitals have their dads and other mentors with them on this trip, which includes Jeff Chychrun and Trevor Duhaime, two former youth coaches here in Broward County.

Both were at the Fort Lauderdale IcePlex for the first time after spending so many years coaching Jakob and Brandon in Coral Springs and other rinks around South Florida.

“I was talking to (defenseman Jakob) Chick about growing up here and spending a lot of time in Florida,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “It’s nice for them to come back close to home and play a couple games with their mentors in attendance.”

ON DECK: GAME 22

WASHINGTON CAPITALS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Monday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/FTM)
• 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
• Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-180); Puck line (-1.5, +130); Over/Under 6 (-110/-110)
• This Season — At Washington: Feb. 4; March 22. At Florida: Monday.
• Last Season: Panthers won 3-0
• All-time Regular Season Series: Washington leads 67-48-13, 9 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Wednesday vs. Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (12-8-1) LINES

17 Evan Rodrigues // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 25 Mackie Samoskevich

10 AJ Greer // 94 Tomas Nosek // 70 Jesper Boqvist

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

88 Nate Schmidt // 26 Uvis Balinskis

30 Spencer Knight

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Scratched: Adam Boqvist

Injured: Jonah Gadjovich (UBI)

PROJECTED WASHINGTON CAPITALS (13-6-1) LINES

21 Aliaksei Protas // 17 Dylan Strome // 43 Tom Wilson

24 Connor McMichael // 80 Pierre-Luc Dubois // 16 Taylor Raddysh

29 Hendrix Lapierre // 20 Lars Eller // 88 Andrew Mangiapane

22 Brandon Duhaime // 26 Nic Dowd // 63 Ivan Miroshnichenko

42 Martin Fehervary // 74 John Carlson

38 Rasmus Sandin // 3 Matt Roy

6 Jakob Chychrun // 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk

48 Logan Thompson

79 Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: Dylan McIlrath, Alexander Alexeyev, Jakub Vrana

Injured: Alex Ovechkin (lower body), Sonny Milano (upper body)