Caps 5, Panthers 2
One more game left and then the Capitals’ redemption tour begins in earnest. Maybe it will be the Rangers. Maybe the Habs or the Sabres. One thing is for sure – Washington is a point away from securing home-ice advantage for the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, at least.
Wasn’t the best performance against the Panthers. Hard to say that after a 5-2 win – and one in regulation no less! Nine of the previous 17 games had gone past regulation. But coming off a game last night in Toronto there wasn’t much jump early. Still, the Caps took advantage of two early goals, settled down in the second period and played pretty well until some late hiccups.
Washington (48-22-11, 107 points) now needs a single point at Florida in the regular-season finale on Saturday night to earn the No. 1 seed. Even with a loss to the Panthers on Saturday they could still clinch if Philadelphia (46-23-11, 103 points) fails to win both of its remaining games. The Flyers do hold the tiebreaker. With Wednesday’s victory Washington clinched at worst the No. 2 seed.
And they did it tonight without Alex Semin, Jason Arnott and Scott Hannan. Semin was a game-time decision and didn’t post. Arnott has been dealing with a lower-body injury for a while, missed six games last month and may have just needed an extra day of rest. Bruce Boudreau said as much for both Hannan and Arnott.
“I didn’t ask them. I just thought they needed it,” Boudreau said.
No word on who will get some rest on Saturday night. Most of that depends on how Philadelphia does in its game with Buffalo on Friday night. But Boudreau used Brooks Laich on the power-play against the Panthers as a way to get John Carlson some rest. If he and Karl Alzner look that tired at this point they would be two obvious candidates to sit. Mike Green returns on Saturday, remember, and presumably Hannan, Tyler Sloan, Sean Collins, John Erskine and Jeff Schultz could go. No inside scoop there. Just speculating based on Boudreau’s comments on Carlson, who still saw 24:24 of ice time. Alzner played 23:50.
The Caps were 2-for-4 on the power play and have scored on five of their last nine man-advantage chances and are 9-of-33 (27.3%) overall since March 13th.
“We could have had another one or two, I thought. That’s what we’re accustomed to. It’s just like we took a year off. The great thing about our team last year was we could put that fear, where they didn’t want to play their physical game because our power play is good. If we can ever get that to work on a consistent basis like it was in Toronto [Tuesday] night or like it was here tonight then I think it gives you another element.”
Washington is now 19-4-1over its last 24 games. On Feb. 25 the Caps were the No. 5 seed and trailed then-No. 1 Philadelphia by 12 points in the standings. The Flyers, however, are 8-9-6 over the last 23 games.
Lots of credit to Semyon Varlamov. He likely won’t get the start in the playoffs. But he made 18 stops in the first period, kept the Caps ahead and didn’t allow a goal until the final 6 minutes, 16 seconds. Still have a lot of confidence in the young Russian if they need to turn to him early in the postseason. But I’d be shocked at this point if Michal Neuvirth doesn’t get the No. 1 job for Game 1 next week against…well, against some to-be-determined opponent.
“We can put one of three guys in and I know we’re going to get a good game,” Boudreau said, adding Hershey’s Braden Holtby to the mix. “It may not happen. But that’s the way I feel.”
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