Florida Panthers

Florida (58-18-8) continued that streak after dropping a third-period lead to the Capitals (44-26-12), extending their Game 1 losing streak to five games.

He stopped 34 of 37 shots and came up with numerous big saves to keep the Panthers in the game. They did what they had to do on the road and we made some mistakes early on in the game. MacKenzie Weegar put the Panthers down 5-on-3 with a delay of game penalty 1:48 into the first period. “I think we had to figure out that this is going to be hard,” Brunette said. They picked up the lead two minutes later when Nicklas Backstrom found TJ Oshie, who deflected the feed into the net with 9:23 to go. Washington struck early after the Panthers were in penalty trouble.

Joel Auerbach/Getty Images The Washington Capitals took a 1-0 lead in their first round playoff series against the Florida Panthers, with a gritty 4-2 ...

While he left the game with an injury, Wilson’s first period goal marked his sixth consecutive postseason appearance with a goal, and his 14th overall. In Game 1, the 26-year old goalie matched his opposite Sergei Bobrovsky (who stonewalled the Caps on a number of occasions to keep the Cats in the contest) to earn his first career playoff win. His 47 career points in the Stanley Cup Playoffs lead all Danish players. T.J. Oshie scored the game-winning goal in Game 1. A number of the players in the Caps’ lineup are proven postseason performers, with remarkable consistency offensively. Some key notes from the first postseason contest from Head Coach Peter Laviolette’s club.

Aaron Ekblad will be in the lineup for the Florida Panthers when they begin the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs Tuesday against the Washington Capitals.

On Monday, Brunette said he thought Ekblad would be good to go for Game 1 and if not he’d be ready by the end of the week. Ekblad would have been able to return if the Panthers reached the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. He was never able to return during the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, though, and Florida lost its opening-round series to the eventual-champion Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.

Scouting Report (courtesy of Winners and Whiners). It's the opening game of a first-round Eastern Conference playoff matchup on the ice down in the Sunshine ...

- Game 1: Dallas at Calgary 10 p.m. ESPN2 - Game 1: Nashville at Colorado 9:30 p.m. ESPN It’s the opening game of a first-round Eastern Conference playoff matchup on the ice down in the Sunshine State. The Washington Capitals are on the road as they play Game 1 of their best-of-seven series with the Florida Panthers Tuesday night.

Hired by the Panthers in September 2020, Zito found a way to get everyone to buy into what he and his administration were proposing.

“If you put the right processes in, and you do the work the right way, then, if you are consistently underperforming or underachieving, you probably got the wrong processes,” Zito said. In the first year of his deal, he went from having 27 points in 2020-21 to scoring a career-high 28 goals and 49 points in 71 games. How did Zito find a way to get everyone to buy into what he and his administration were proposing? The Panthers have had scouting turnover in Zito’s two years, which is to be expected whenever there is a management change. This is how they won the Claude Giroux sweepstakes and now appear to have everything needed to win it all. All Montour has done in the first season of his extension is score a career-high 11 goals and 37 points in 81 games while playing on both the penalty-kill and power-play units. Zito said the story of how they signed Verhaeghe, in October 2020, was a group effort. He had the sort of two-way ability that presented the Panthers a chance to become more versatile. “I talked to Joel and said, ‘This is a guy who needs a chance and needs to know he is going to get a real chance.’ We have really good players and when you play them with those players, they can help him. You want to get the right players who are good people, good teammates and good character guys. “It was about bringing in the skill sets, the people and personalties and the player personalties that would mesh and try to create a team that shows up every night to compete to win, to work, to enjoy hockey, to have fun. Zito has to provide the context of his circumstances.

The best regular season in Florida Panthers history ended with franchise records for points, wins and goals, an offensive explosion the NHL hasn't seen in ...

By the end of the period, the game was tied 1-1 on a late goal by Bennett and Florida went ahead 2-1 in the first minute of the second period when versatile All-Star forward Claude Giroux scored on a rebound off a shot by star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. The Panthers will need to win four of the next six to avoid becoming the fifth. On the first, Ovechkin stole the puck from Weegar in the neutral zone to set up Kuznetsov for a game-tying breakaway goal with 11:46 left. In the regular season, Florida averaged 37.3 shots per game and the Panthers at least matched its opponent in shots on goal in 62 of 82 games. “It’s going to be a lot harder in the playoffs.” Now down 1-0 in the first round, Panthers still haven’t led in a postseason series since 2012 and haven’t won a Game 1 since 1997.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov (92) scores against Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei ...

The Panthers went to the Stanley Cup final that season, haven’t gotten past Round 1 since, and the high-octane offense was largely silenced in Game 1. Miami Heat captain Udonis Haslem was among those in the crowd. MacKenzie Weegar lost the puck after bouncing into Capitals star Alex Ovechkin near center ice, went down, and Kuznetsov skated in alone on Bobrovsky. He beat him to the stick side, tying the game 2-2 with 11:46 left. Claude Giroux and Sam Bennett scored for Florida, which has not won the opening game of a postseason series since 1997. There was no immediate word on the injury or its extent. Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Lars Eller also scored for Washington, which trailed 2-1 going into the third period.

The relentlessly fun hockey site, hopelessly devoted to the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin. Our goal is to make hockey as fun about as it is to ...

The Colorado Avalanche will be your 2021 Stanley Cup Champions 🏆 Like really really wrong. The predictions are wrong.

SUNRISE, Fla. - The Panthers are at full strength heading into the postseason. After sitting out the final six weeks of the regular season while recovering ...

"They're a really good forechecking team with a lot of depth forwards and good-moving defensemen," Panthers forward Patric Hornqvist said of the Capitals. "Our speed is going to be key. As it has been for the past several months, the Panthers are expecting to get a huge boost from their home fans tonight. For sure we need him as a captain, as a leader, as our goal scorer, so we need everyone, everybody healthy right now so it is good." Splitting time with Ilya Samsonov throughout the campaign, Vanecek posted a 20-12-6 record with a .908 save percentage and four shutouts. With a knack for playing on both sides of special teams, he's also expected to quarterback the top power-play unit tonight. … John Carlson has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) over his last 13 games. "It's what we've worked for all year, and now we're here," Huberdeau said. That being said, there's likely not much to be gained from looking back at those matchups given that all three took place all the way back in November. We just have to be a little bit of a parent and be aware of where he's at. Despite being limited to just 61 games, Ekblad had been playing the best hockey of his career prior to being knocked out of the lineup. He's such a competitive guy that he's going to watch to go every shift. He's a big part of our team."