POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Caps 4, Panthers 2

Are You Experienced? - Going into Game 1 of the opening round playoff series between the Caps and the Panthers, Washington's major advantage over the heavily favored, Presidents' Trophy-winning Panthers was in its lengthy and collective body of postseason experience - both good and bad - accumulated over the course of the last decade and a half. For one night, the Caps put that experience to work for them, and they forged themselves a 1-0 series lead with an impressive 4-2 victory over the Panthers.

"I think that was a textbook game from us," says Caps center Lars Eller. "Everybody competed, everybody chipped in in their own way, and good things happened.
"That experience comes into play when we stick with our game, even though we go down 2-1. They maybe get a little bit of momentum, but we get it back in the third, just by sticking with the game plan and believing that doing all the right things is going to lead us to getting the lead back and some scoring chances, and it did."
Every Caps player from goaltender Vitek Vanecek on out turned in a sturdy Game 1 performance. The Caps were effective at getting pucks out of their end cleanly without too much undue time in their own end, and they were also effective at limiting Florida's team speed through the neutral zone. Washington was able to spend time in Florida ice, and it created a number of strong chances, but until the third period, its finish was lacking. On some of the Caps' best scoring opportunities, pucks weren't delivered with quite enough oomph or authority to the vacant areas of the Florida net to reach twine, but not to worry, kid. The Caps got it done in the third.
Trailing the Panthers 2-1 going into the final frame, the patient Caps waited for the upstart Panthers to make some mistakes. And they did, one at each blueline. When that happened, the Caps were prepared to pounce, and this time, they brought the finish.
Alex Ovechkin picked MacKenzie Weegar's pocket at the Florida line just ahead of the midpoint of the third, enabling Evgeny Kuznetsov to tear in on a breakaway and tie the game at 2-2. Less than three minutes later, Dmitry Orlov fueled the go-ahead goal, collecting an errant Florida feed at the Washington line and sending Nicklas Backstrom off on what became a 2-on-1 with T.J. Oshie. Backstrom made one of his trademark sublime feeds to Oshie, who drove the net and redirected it home, putting the Caps on top by a 3-2 count with 9:23 left.
"I think the neutral zone is a really important zone," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "There's times where we don't play it so well and you let up too many chances. It's like the gateway to your end, or it's the gateway to the offensive zone, so you've got to make sure that you take care of it.
Speaking specifically of the play Ovechkin made to set up Kuznetsov's goal, Laviolette continued.
"He was in position and structured, and he made a nice play, and we were able to get some jump behind it with another player."
From time of Oshie's go-ahead goal to the final buzzer, Washington put on a road hockey clinic. The Caps permitted five shots on net the rest of the way, none of them threatening. They didn't allow the Panthers to get established or to forecheck or gain possession in the Caps' end, preventing Florida from getting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky off for an extra attacker as soon as it would have liked.
And soon after the Cats did get their goalie to the bench, Lars Eller alleviated the pressure with a long-distance lob into the vacant Florida cage, ensuring the Caps would claim Game 1.
"Some of it came from the neutral zone on entry, and I think our guys did a pretty good job there," says Laviolette. "We were able to get to some pucks and get some clears, I think that's always important. It's when you when you stay in the zone and you have to play defense, and your guys have been out there for a little bit that you can become a little bit more stationary and not push as much as you want defensively. So I thought we did a good job with that."
"We've been talking about this throughout the year," says Oshie, "that it's very easy for teams have a tendency to sit back once you get a lead, especially in a playoff game thinking that you've got to defend. And we've been talking about just continuing to play our game, continuing to forecheck, to hold onto the puck in the [offensive] zone, and just have a smart F3, which I think we did a good job of."
During the regular season, Florida was the best team in the NHL when trailing after two periods of play, and it was also the best team in the League when leading after 40 minutes of play. The Panthers were 39-0-1 when leading after two periods in 2021-22, for a League-topping .975 points percentage in such situations.
"I don't think it's a wakeup call, just an eye-opener a little bit for us," says Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette of the Game 1 setback. "I think we know; we've been through this before. We have a lot of guys that maybe it was their first playoff game. I'm not sure, a little tentative I think, early. And our execution wasn't as sharp as it has been. We were a little slow too much with the puck. And again, credit to them. They played really hard, they took away time and space, and we didn't battle through enough of that."
Now, the two teams will tweak and adjust and lick and treat their respective wounds and being preparation for Thursday's Game 2.
"Listen, it's one game," says Laviolette. "Our guys played hard tonight. We've got to regroup [Wednesday] and get back to work, take a look at some things we can do better and some things that worked for us, and get ready for Game 2."
When The Whip Comes Down - Tuesday was an excellent night for Washington in nearly every regard, with an emphasis on the word "nearly." Shortly after he gave the Caps a 1-0 lead with the game's first goal at 3:48 of the first frame, the Caps lost right wing Tom Wilson for the remainder of the evening.
Wilson skated only three shifts totaling 1:31 in the game, but he made his mark and his impact in that short span. On his first shift in the first minute of the game, he drew a hi-sticking penalty on former teammate Radko Gudas. On his next shift, he scored the game's first goal, putting back the rebound of an Anthony Mantha shot one second before Washington's second power play expired. And on his third shift, he suffered the lower body injury that shelved him for the remainder of the evening, possibly while putting a hit on Florida's Eetu Luostarinen.
Washington made do with 11 forwards for the rest of the game, and it managed a Game 1 victory despite missing one of their most important players for most of the night, a player whose game and style - a combination of physicality, defensive awareness and offensive ability - are essentially built for the postseason.
"There was no panic and it was a really gutsy win with Tom being out and us playing with 11 forwards for almost the whole game," says Eller. "It's a really gutsy win, and it's a big boost to morale moving forward."
Morale will get another northerly kick if Wilson is able to suit up for Game 2, but it's too soon to tell right now.
"Anytime a player doesn't finish a game, there's a concern level with it," says Laviolette. "He's getting evaluated right now, and we'll see how he is [Wednesday] and go from there."
Laviolette confirmed that Wilson's injury was not related to a high stick. Washington conducted a sparsely attended optional practice on Wednesday, and Wilson did not take the ice. According to Laviolette, the big winger is a game-time decision for Thursday's Game 2.
Special Delivery - Washington used its power play to grab the early momentum in Tuesday's series opener, and the Caps' extra-man was sharp on each of its three opportunities of the evening, putting a lot of pressure on the Panthers. The Caps had an early two-man advantage of 61 seconds in duration, and Wilson's goal came one tick before that the second penalty expired.
"It's exactly the kind of start we were talking about we wanted," says Eller. "We come out hard, but we don't take any dumb penalties. And we get some power plays early and we capitalize on it, and that's exactly the start we wanted."
The Caps were 1-for-3 on the power play, with all three advantages coming in the first period. The Caps pumped eight shots on Bobrovsky during their total of 4:58 with the extra man, and they forced Florida to lay out and block another half dozen or so of Washington's shot attempts.
On the other side of the special teams coin, the Caps were also effective, limiting the Panthers to just three shots in four minutes worth of time with the extra man.
By The Numbers - Florida outhit the Caps 56-43 John Carlson led the Caps with 25:38 in ice time … Mantha and Eller led the Caps with five shots on net each … Ovechkin led the Capitals with nine shot attempts … Mantha led Washington with 10 hits … Carlson, Orlov and Trevor van Riemsdyk each blocked two shots to lead the Caps … Eller won 10 of 15 draws (67 percent).