Washington Capitals weekend preview

The Washington Capitals begin a home-and-home series tonight in Florida against the Panthers at the BankAtlantic Center at 7:30 PM.  The back end will be at Verizon Center on Saturday night at 7:00 PM.

While the Caps sit at #2 in the Eastern Conference standings, their Souteast division rival Panthers sit at #13, but the two teams have been heading in different directions as of late.  Florida has won their last three games while Washington has gone 0-1-2 in their last three.

Compounding matters further for the Caps is NHL goal scoring leader Alexander Ovechkin is likely to miss his second straight game with an “upper body injury”.  Ovie did practice Thursday but was wearing a different color jersey than his teammates (which usually signifies a “no contact” player).  When Ovechkin scored a goal he seemed to be favoring his left shoulder when he went to raise his arms but could not.  Ovechkin will almost certainly miss the entire weekend set with the Panthers.

There is no doubt that the other Capital players not only miss Ovechkin’s presence and contributions on the ice, but they also face an entirely different look defensively when the opponent’s game plan does not revolve primarily around shutting down #8.  The room that is normally there for other scorers to get into open lanes for quality scoring chances are now taken away as teams can put their top shutdown guys on Alex Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and even defenseman Mike Green.

One way that Washington can help stop the recent slide is to be more disciplined, especially late in games.  In their most recent loss to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, the Capitals took all four penalties in the third period of a game that was 1-1 entering the period.  The Devils scored two power play goals to take a 3-1 lead and held on for a 3-2 victory.

In the previous game, a loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the game in which Ovechkin was injured, the Capitals held a 4-3 lead late in the third period.  But Mike Knuble took an undisciplined slashing penalty at 17:36, and the ensuing Columbus power play pressure resulted in a Raffi Torres goal one second after the Knuble penalty expired with only 23 ticks left on the clock.  Defenseman Brian Pothier then was penalized for interference in the overtime and it only took R.J. Umberger 12 seconds to cash in the game-winning power play goal.

The good news for Coach Bruce Boudreau is that he does have plenty of fire power in the lineup even without Ovechkin.  Boudreau just needs to make sure that his team gives a sustained effort over the course of an entire game, that they play a more disciplined game and cut down on penalties.  And if they do take a penalty, they have to come up big and kill it off.   The team has been steadily plummeting in the PK rankings and currently stand at #20 of the 30 NHL teams, killing off only 78.6% of opponents power plays, and only 72.2% on the road.  Something that may help the beleagured Washington penalty kill is that Florida has the #28 ranked power play unit in the league, operating at a paltry 12.3%, which includes 16.7% at home and a league-worst 7.4% on the road.  Add in the fact that the Panthers will be missing offensive catalysts David Booth (concussion) and Radek Dvorak (torn ligament in left knee).

And so it begins in South Florida tonight.  It will be interesting to see how the Capitals handle themselves as they have a good opportunity to get back on the winning track this weekend and hit their stride as they await Alexander Ovechkin’s return to the lineup.