POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Panthers 5, Caps 1

Hit, Git And Split - The primary goal of the team that opens on the road in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series is to get at least a split in the first two games of the series. But after the Caps came out and played a strong 60 minutes and were able to take Tuesday's Game 1 against the Panthers in Florida by a 4-2 score, they were in a position to get greedy for Thursday's Game 2, to try to keep their foot on the gas pedal in an effort to take both of the first two games of the set.

Unfortunately for the Caps, they couldn't parlay another good start into an early lead as they did in Game 1. And despite outplaying Florida in the first, they went to the first intermission down two goals and weren't able to rally back, taking a 5-1 setback in Game 2.
Knowing that the Panthers would be motivated to get their offensive mojo back after dropping Game 1, the Caps knew that weathering the first 10 minutes of Thursday's Game 2 would be important to keep the crowd from getting into the game, and to keep the Cats from seizing momentum early. Washington accomplished that mission with aplomb; the Panthers weren't able to generate much in the way of a threatening attack for the first 16 minutes of the first.
The Caps missed an early opportunity when a 3-on-1 rush for the Lars Eller line on its first shift of the night went by the wayside without a shot on net. Washington got through those first 10 minutes in excellent shape, but it went shorthanded just after the midpoint of the first. Even then, the Caps not only killed off the call without permitting any shots on net, they nearly took the lead while shorthanded. Nic Dowd took a hit to make a play to T.J. Oshie, whose backhand bid hit the post.
Aside from the game being scoreless, the Caps were in good shape and Florida still hadn't found its game.
Late in the first, Florida took a lead on a fortuitous bounce, an Aaron Ekblad shot that bounded off Washington blueliner Martin Fehervary and into the net. The Panthers doubled that lead on a much prettier forechecking goal on stellar work from each member of its top line less than two minutes later, and the Caps were suddenly looking up at a two-goal deficit despite outplaying and outshooting Florida by a fair amount in the first.
When Nicklas Backstrom scored on a Washington power play early in the second, the Cats' lead was cut to 2-1. But before the Caps could build on that and try to seize momentum in the game and potentially the series, Florida's Mason Marchment put a shot through Vitek Vanecek's five-hole. The goal came less than half a minute after Backstrom's marker, and the Panthers had their two-goal lead back.
Despite outshooting the Panthers by 15-7 before the four-minute mark of the second, the Caps were down 3-1 and in the all too familiar - and demoralizing - position of seeing a crooked number on the scoreboard for their opponent while that foe still had a single-digit shot total.
Even then, the game was far from over, and Marchment soon gifted the Caps an opportunity to climb back into the contest by taking a completely unnecessary double-minor for both slashing and roughing Caps blueliner Nick Jensen, and doing so in Florida's offensive zone to boot.
With a four-minute power play and a two-goal deficit, the Caps were presented with a potential turning point, but they weren't able to shift the tide of the game. They managed some looks and chances on the front half of the double minor but were out of synch on the back half, and the game got away from them soon after.
Florida drew momentum from its crucial penalty kill, and it began to work the Caps in their own end for the first time in the series. Washington's failure to exit its own end cleanly led to a turnover and an Anton Lundell goal, and the Cats tacked on another on their very next shot. With two goals in the first and three more in the second, the Panthers chased Vanecek to the bench and owned a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes of play, despite being outshot 24-19 to that point.
That was the ballgame.
"Probably the last seven minutes of the second period and then the third period, we didn't do anything," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "It was one of those games where the score goes to three and then four, but it wasn't a reflection - for me - of the game.
"But after that, I don't like how we played when it was 4-1. That's the problem that I have with the game."
Change Gonna Come -Caps right wing Tom Wilson suffered a lower body injury in the first half of the first period of Game 1, a shift after delivering the first goal of the series on a Washington power play. Wilson's absence forced the Caps to make a lineup change for Game 2; the Caps recalled rookie right wing Brett Leason from AHL Hershey and installed him into the lineup.
Laviolette typically likes to opt for the least amount of line disturbance in a situation where he has to make an adjustment because of injury. But Wilson is a top six winger and Leason is a bottom six winger at this early stage of his NHL career, so the Caps bench boss had to do more shuffling than he might have wanted to do.
When the dust settled, only one line was the same from Game 1, and that was the top trio of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Conor Sheary. The new line combinations didn't offer much in the way of chemistry or offensive prowess; the Caps went through Game 2 without generating any offense at 5-on-5.
Thursday's Game 2 marks the 14th time in the Capitals' last 20 playoff games than they've been limited to two or fewer goals. And given the Caps' ongoing inconsistency and uncertainty at the goaltending position, they can't count on consistently winning in the postseason with an attack that can't produce as many as three goals a game on a reasonably routine basis.
Don't be surprised to see some more lineup adjustments for Washington ahead of Saturday's Game 3.
Five-on-Five Alive -Two nights after the Caps effectively limited the Panthers' prolific offensive attack, the Cats rebounded with five goals at five-on-five. Florida twice struck for two goals on consecutive shots, doing so late in the first and late in the second for its first two and last two goals of the game, respectively. The Panthers' middle goal came 27 seconds after Washington's only goal of the game.
When it was all said and done, Florida scored its five goals on just 13 shots over a span of 21 minutes and 12 seconds of playing time, doing so after the Caps had limited them to just three harmless shots on net in the game's first 16-plus minutes.
And although they were held off the board after Carter Verhaeghe scored the Panthers' fifth goal of the game at 17:32 of the third, the Cats were far from quiet the rest of the way. Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov faced 17 shots in the third - including several that tested him - and Florida outshot Washington by a lopsided total of 20-3 after Verhaeghe's goal.
"I think our puck battles along the wall got a little better," says Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette. "Our support - as we do all year, but we didn't really do much in the first game - was much better on the puck. We were able to - as the game wore on - wear them out a little bit by winning those battles and having possession.
"I thought [Noel Acciari] had a couple big shifts where he held onto the puck and really got us going a little bit. We were stronger on the puck, which is really important and something that we're really good at, and we weren't very good at in Game 1 and early on in this game we weren't great. But we got better as it went on."
By The Numbers - The Capitals registered 60 hits in Game 2, with all 18 skaters registering at least one and with Garnet Hathaway leading the way with nine … Jensen led Washington with 22:42 in ice time … Alex Ovechkin led the Caps with five shots on net and nine shot attempts … Jensen, Hathaway, Dmitry Orlov and Trevor van Riemsdyk each blocked three shots to lead Washington.