Colby Guy
There are very few things you can rely on these days. One thing you can count on, though, is when the Florida Panthers play the Washington Capitals, something strange is probably going to happen.
Between big trades coming before a game, the NHL’s longest shootout and playoff spots on the line, Washington and Florida have put on a show over the years.
The two former division rivals — Florida and Washington were part of the Atlantic Division from the Panthers’ inception in 1993 until both moved to the Southeast Division from 1998-2013 — square off for the third and final time this regular season Tuesday night in Sunrise.
The teams have already had a couple of odd games this month with both taking a spin on the goalie carousel in their two games against each other.
But that only pales in comparison to some of the crazy things which have happened when these two have played in the past.
In the first meeting this season on Nov. 4, the Capitals swapped Ilya Samsonov for Vitek Vanecek in the second period. Sergei Bobrovsky left that game with an upper-body injury after the first period.
The game saw all four rostered goaltenders in a 5-4 Panthers overtime win.
Last Friday, the two sides faced off again and it was Florida’s turn to ride the carousel.
After Tom Wilson ran into Bobrovsky, Spencer Knight took over 2:50 into the second period while he was being evaluated.
Bobrovsky returned quickly after being cleared medically, but something was “lost in translation,” as Florida interim coach Andrew Brunette said following the game.
NHL officials called down and demanded Bobrovsky leave the game for a second time, bringing Knight back in.
“Originally, it was concussion protocol from the spotter,” Brunette said. “He went in and he was evaluated by their physician to go back and play.
“I’m not sure what happened after that. We were told he wasn’t evaluated or wasn’t past the protocol, so I don’t know. It kinda got gray there for a while.”
Bobrovsky returned to the game again and ended the night with 19 saves on 22 shots.
“Those are things that are out of our control,” Sam Bennett said. “It’s just trying to stay focused and control what we can control and don’t let those little things distract us and bother us.”
This was far from the first abnormality in the history between these two teams.
In 2015, the game was delayed about 20 minutes because there were no paramedics on site.
The Sunrise crew ran into a car accident on their way to the arena and stopped to assist; the game couldn’t start until a new unit arrived at BB&T Center.
One that made national headlines was when Jaromir Jagr was traded from Washington to the New York Rangers just hours before the Capitals were set to face off against the Panthers in Sunrise on Jan. 23, 2004.
“It’s never a nice situation when someone gets traded,” Capitals forward Robert Lang said afterward. “We’re losing a friend and a great player. It’s tough on everybody.”
Florida won that game 4-1 on the strength of two Donald Audette power play goals. Those two goals got Audette to 500 career points.
The Panthers had 11 total power play opportunities in that game, which was tied for the most in franchise history at the time.
Perhaps the most memorable Florida-Washington game came almost seven years ago.
On Dec. 16, 2014, the two teams took part in the longest shootout in NHL history — a 20-round shootout that ended in a 2-1 Florida victory.
“I remember that shootout, it was pretty crazy,” Jonathan Huberdeau said on Monday.
“That was a long time ago, so right now we’re just focused on getting the win,” he said. “We won one at home, we lost in their building, so we just have to play a better game and take advantage of being at home.”
It was pretty crazy.
Because the shootout went past 18 rounds, it was the first to have players get a second chance.
Tied at 5, captain Willie Mitchell went last for the Panthers in Round 18 and was stopped by Braden Holtby; Jussi Jokinen went next for the Panthers and was stopped after scoring in Round 4.
In Round 20, Roberto Luongo stopped Alex Ovechkin allowing Nick Bjugstad to step in and finally end things.
Which he did.
“The pressure wasn’t really on me, which was nice, because I didn’t have to score,” said Bjugstad, who stopped short on his drive to the net and froze the Washington goalie.
“I don’t know, I kind of relaxed, took a deep breath and tried going in there with confidence and it worked out.”
Said Luongo: “I’ve never seen anything like that. I don’t know how many times our guys had to bail me out and score after they scored. But they did every time. It’s amazing. … It’s not the way you draw it up.’’
From the Files of the Miami Herald: The full 20-round shootout against the Capitals
This was not the first long shootout between the two teams.
The three longest shootouts in Florida’s history have all come against the Capitals.
Florida has won them all.
On Nov. 28, 2007, the Panthers won 2-1 in an 11-round shootout which was won by Stephen Weiss.
The Capitals had a chance to force a 12th round, but Tomas Vokoun stopped Brian Pothier to end it. Olli Jokinen, Nathan Horton and Kamil Kreps also scored for Florida in that shootout.
In the 2013-14 season — a year before the 20-round epic — Florida and Washington went 10 rounds.
Tomas Kopecky won this one by beating Phillip Grubauer to give the Panthers a 3-2 win.
When it came to bad blood in the old Southeast Division, the Panthers certainly had more for Carolina than they did for the Capitals — and that came to a head in the 2007-08 finale.
In 2008, the Carolina Hurricanes were a win away from winning the Southeast Division championship and a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Panthers spoiled that with a 4-3 win in Raleigh as Craig Anderson relieved Vokoun and made 26 saves in the final 40 minutes.
Carolina still had hope of winning the division even though its season was over.
The Hurricanes needed the Panthers to beat the Capitals in Washington the next night.
Florida, which had not won in Raleigh in six years before beating the Canes on a joyous Friday night in Carolina, felt its work was done.
The Panthers didn’t much like Carolina back then.
Beating the Capitals just so the Hurricanes would make the playoffs instead of joining the Panthers for an early summer was not much of an incentive.
“We control everything now,” Nathan Horton said with a grin. “They are going to be watching and wondering what we’re doing.”
Washington was able to celebrate its first divisional championship since 2001 by beating Florida 3-1 to complete a dramatic turnaround.
That November, the last-place Capitals fired coach Glen Hanlon a few days after losing to the Panthers.
They replaced him with Bruce Boudreau.
This would be the first of many trips to the playoffs for the Caps.
“This is one of my dreams,” Ovechkin said as the Panthers were packing up for home. “Now we’re there. It’s only one step. Now we can think about playoff games.”