Caps 3, Panthers 0
Been waiting for a complete 60 minutes from the Caps early on in this 2011-12 season. Yes they entered Tuesday’s game against Florida unbeaten at 4-0. But the players themselves wanted more. They got it against a tired Panthers team with a 3-0 shutout at Verizon Center.
Other than maybe a short stretch early in the third period, Washington was in complete control. They controlled the puck. They generated chances against rookie goalie Jacob Markstrom and eventually they added two insurance tallies to put the game away. Check out our game story here.
“They had a tough schedule coming in from Tampa,” said forward Jason Chimera, who registered his fourth goal of the season. “But we played pretty complete game, we limited turnovers and kept it in their end most of the night and did a good job and [goalie Tomas Vokoun] played good again. Overall it was probably the best game of the year so far. But we still have a lot to build on.”
Vokoun earned his 45th career shutout with 20 saves on 20 shots. For a guy who is still adjusting to facing fewer shots, seeing only two in the first period must have seemed a bit ridiculous. Florida was better in the second period, but couldn’t mount much of a push late.
“It was tough for me. I didn’t face many shots,” Vokoun said. “In this thing you’re going to get all kinds of games – something I got to get used to it. This was my old team; crowd was good. I think we play solid game all through 60 minutes. You know they’re going to be a little bit tired. Second period, they travel last night – it’s a long way. They came back much better in the last two periods.”
Markstrom is from Gavle, Sweden, the same home town as Nicklas Backstrom, and is a former World Juniors teammate of Marcus Johansson. He even trains with Backstrom back home in the summer. No chirping out there, though, when Johansson snuck one under Markstrom’s pads from a bad angle for a first-period power-play goal.
“[Markstrom is] a good goalie overall. I don’t think he’s got many weaknesses,” Johansson said. “He’s a great competitor and he never quits on the puck. I got nothing bad to say about that guy.”
This is the first time the Caps have started 5-0 since they were born as an NHL expansion team in 1974-75 – 37 seasons. This early streak includes four wins against essentially four back-up goalies. But you have to win the ones in front of you. Washington posted a power-play goal for the third game in a row. That unit is humming along at 29.4% (5-for-17). The Caps are at 3.40 goals per game, second in the league. It’s early. But that’s an encouraging sign anyway. Now they’ll have to do it against Philadelphia (4-0-1, nine points) and Detroit (4-0-0, 8 points) later this week as the competition ramps up.
“These two games will be really good tests for us,” Washington forward Jason Chimera said. “I think Philly and Detroit will be two of our toughest games this year. That building is always fun to play in Philly. It’d always a raucous crowd so it’s always a good building to play in, to go in there and play.”
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