WASHINGTON — The Florida Panther’s quest for their first win of the season brings them to Washington on Friday night to face the Stanley Cup champion Capitals.Florida (0-2-2) lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 6-5 in a shootout Tuesday to match the franchise record for futility to start a season
Jordan Schroeder Jersey Womens , which was set in 2000-01. The Panthers endured a five-goal second period but rallied to earn a point.“We scored five goals on the road. We won the special teams battle and were the more aggressive,” coach Bob Boughner told the Miami Herald. “So, there’s a lot of good, but still some bad in our game we’ve got to eliminate.”Article continues below ...The Panthers trailed 5-2 late in the second period before Mike Hoffman scored his first goal with Florida. Evgenii Dadonov and Aleksander Barkov scored third period goals, but the Flyers scored twice in the shootout off of Michael Hutchinson (21 saves) and the Panthers managed only one tally.“I had the game in my hands to put us in another round of the shootout, and obviously it doesn’t go in, so going to kick myself a little bit about that,” said Panthers forward Frank Vatrano, who scored two goals in regulation. “We got another game coming up on Friday that we want to get two points.”The Capitals stopped a two-game skid with a 4-3 overtime win against the visiting Rangers on Wednesday night. Alex Ovechkin scored twice on the power play and Matt Niskanen swatted a rebound past Henrik Lundqvist for the game-winner.Washington (3-2-1) has scored nine power-play goals in six games
Matt Calvert Jersey Womens , but have scored just two five-on-five goals in their last three games.Both Ovechkin’s goals came from his ‘office,’ in the left circle and even though teams know what’s coming, the penalty killers can’t overplay Ovechkin with the likes of T.J. Oshi and Nicklas Backstrom on the ice. Ovechkin now has 232 career power play goals, tied for ninth all-time.“To completely take him away, other guys are just too open and they’re good enough to score,” Niskanen told the Washington Post. “Are you going to leave (Oshi) open in the slot from the hash marks to cover Ovi? … Guys are good at reading what’s open. It’s pretty lethal.”Rangers coach David Quinn came away impressed by Washington’s power play.“It’s amazing watching them, how calm they are. They don’t get rattled,” he told nhl.com. “There’s a confidence to them and a swagger to them, which they should have. They’ve been playing together a long time
Cale Makar Jersey Womens , and they’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, so they should play with a swagger.”John Carlson had a goal and two assists, Backstrom had two assists, and Braden Holtby made 29 saves for Washington.Holtby is 10-2-1 with a 2.36 goals-against average (GAA) and .920 save percentage against the Panthers. James Reimer gets the start for Florida and is 4-4-2 with a 2.16 GAA and a .937 save percentage versus the Capitals.Ovechkin has 36 goals and 40 assists in 60 games against Florida. Nicklas Backstrom has 11 goals and 36 assists in 48 games.Against the Flyers, Barkov moved past Pavel Bure for 10th in points in Florida history (252). WASHINGTON — Less than a week after losing in a shootout, the Buffalo Sabres will seek a measure of revenge Friday when they return to D.C. to face the Washington Capitals.In that 4-3 defeat on Dec. 15, Buffalo couldn’t figure out a way to slow Alexander Ovechkin, who netted the tying goal and registered the shootout winner. Stopping the Capitals’ veteran would again seem to be the primary goal for Buffalo, which is coming off a 5-2 loss to the Panthers in which they lost for the first time all season when leading after two periods.“I really liked the way our guys played
Riley Nash Jersey Womens ,” Sabres coach Phil Housley told reporters after practice Thursday about the recent meeting with Washington. “Obviously, that’s a very good team, a physical team, a heavy team. But we played them with speed and pace. We had an opportunity to win a game and that breeds confidence within our group.”Article continues below ...Buffalo continues to battle through injuries, with defenseman Jake McCabe and Lawrence Pilut returning to the ice for practice Thursday, though their status remains unclear for Friday. Winger Jason Pominville left the Panthers game after an on-ice collision, and Housley said his status was “day-to-day.”In addition, Buffalo announced Wednesday that center Patrik Berglund was placed on unconditional waivers with the intent to terminate his contract. The veteran, who was having a disappointing season
Martin Hanzal Jersey Womens , was indefinitely suspended when he didn’t show up for the Sabres’ flight to Washington last week.“I’m not going to comment on that,” Housley said. “It’s an unfortunate situation, but we’re focused on the guys in that room.”The Capitals are coming off a hard-fought, 2-1 loss to rival Pittsburgh on Wednesday that ended their five-game winning streak. But Washington’s players felt like they did enough in the loss to carry some positive momentum into the game against Buffalo.“We’ve played some good hockey here, a good stretch,” forward Tom Wilson told reporters. “We’ll regroup here and get back after it.”Ovechkin saw his 14-game point streak come to end in the loss to Pittsburgh, but in 46 games against Buffalo, he has 47 points, including 30 goals. And with Wilson
Anton Khudobin Jersey Womens , Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom all having solid years, the Sabres are aware of the dangers when facing the Capitals.“They’re so skilled over there — they have so many good players,” Buffalo’s Jack Eichel told the team’s website. “They generate a lot of really grade-A chances and they play well together.”Washington likely will go with starter Braden Holtby between the pipes as they head toward the holiday break. He is 8-3-0 since Nov. 19.“For us, moving forward, we’ll push into these final two games before we get a much-needed break,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden told reporters. “I like a lot of things we’ve done. I want to win every single game, and we’ve been doing a good job of trying to win most of them.”
