Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press
It’s hard to believe that the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers, who were division rivals from 1993-2013, are now only facing off in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time.
There hasn’t been much of an opportunity since the Panthers have made the playoffs just eight times in 28 seasons. That’s quite the contrast from Alexander Ovechkin’s Capitals, who have been a playoff fixture, if not contender, over the last 14 seasons.
Yet it is Florida that enters this matchup as the heavy favorite. Jonathan Huberdeau broke out with 115 points, while Aleksander Barkov did his thing with 88 points. Anthony Duclair (30 goals) and Carter Verhaeghe (24) proved that 2020-21 wasn’t a fluke, and the team got massive performances from down the depth chart in rookie Anton Lundell and late bloomer Mason Marchment.
Florida’s lethal offensive group was then supplemented at the trade deadline by Claude Giroux, who recorded 23 points in 20 games.
Defensively, the Panthers made notable gains. Aaron Ekblad flirted with the Norris Trophy conversation until an injury took him out of the race. Gustav Forsling and MacKenzie Weegar, who were major surprises last season, thrived again this year.
The big difference was at the end of the depth chart, as declining veterans Anton Stralman and Keith Yandle were replaced with a battalion of journeymen who didn’t sink the team.
The Capitals, meanwhile, look like a shell of the team that won the 2018 Stanley Cup. They ranked 10th in the league in goals scored—good production but still far removed from the behemoth of firepower that used to give goaltenders nightmares. The power play in particular, ranked 21st by goals per 60 minutes, has fallen immensely.
Defensively, the Capitals were around league average, while head coach Peter Laviolette constantly rotated goaltenders Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov, practically begging one of them to earn the starter’s spot for good. Both had some good moments throughout the season but were overall below-average.
Nonetheless, the Capitals have a couple of narrow paths to victory. Their power play (and offense) struggled largely because key players such as Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, and Anthony Mantha each missed roughly half of the season.
And while Sergei Bobrovsky was a lot better this season than in the prior two, he’s still proven mortal in ways he didn’t during his Vezina campaigns. If the Capitals’ top weapons can get hot at the right time and/or Florida’s goaltending implodes, both easily imaginable scenarios, they could potentially steal this series. Otherwise, the Panthers should win a playoff series for the first time since 1996.
Prediction: Panthers in five
– Adam Herman
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