After two-straight lossees, the Washington Capitals start the week of the Thankgiving holiday with a tough test against the Florida Panthers — the defending Stanley Cup champions.
The Capitals offense, which has only combined for three goals over the last two games, has looked mostly listless without Alex Ovechkin, so Spencer Carbery is putting his lines in the blender. Logan Thompson will get the start in goal. Meanwhile, the Panthers will counter with Spencer Knight.
The Capitals-Panthers game is on Monumental Sports Network. Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin have the call. Puck drop is shortly after 7:00 pm. Tonight is the start of the Capitals’ mentor trip.
Lines
Washington Capitals
Florida Panthers
Tunnel shenanigans
1st Period
Puck is dropped.
Only two shots through the first 6:12. And Florida owns both of them.
And on Florida’s third shot…
🚨 1-0 Florida Panthers. FLA Goal: Niko Mikkola (1). Assists: S. Bennett (10), C. Verhaeghe (10). Time: 07:00.
Mikkola scores from no angle down the left wing, beating Thompson far side from just outside the crease.
McMichael finds Raddysh just outside the crease for a one-timer but Knight makes a point-blank save.
Carter Verhaeghe is robbed by Thompson.
The Panthers are playing at a pace that the Capitals are struggling to handle.
Lars Eller for cross-checking at 10:06. Panthers to the power play. The Caps have to survive this kill.
🚨 1-1 tie. WSH Goal: Lars Eller (5). Assists: J Chychrun (4), H. Lapierre (4). Time: 17:49.
Pierre-Luc Dubois with a huge block in the final seconds of the period though he’s hobbling a bit.
At intermission: The Capitals outshot the Panthers 9 to 4 and out-attempted them 21 to 12 at five-on-five. But the pace the Panthers played at seemed to really give the Capitals trouble.
2nd Period
Puck is dropped.
Rasmus Sandin bails out Thompson and stops a gimme wraparound attempt by Florida.
Matt Roy to the box for cross-checking.
TVR deflects a pass into Anton Lundell’s face. Lundell is off the ice for repairs four minutes into the period.
A referee just took a fuck to the face.
A few minutes later, a puck deflects into TVR’s face. He’s holding the left side of his jaw as he skates off.
Matthew Tkachuk checks Martin Fehervary hard to the ice. And now he’s holding him down to the ice. Fehervary punched him in the back of the head and now both guys are off for roughing.
