With an eye on the out-of-town scoreboard, the Penguins will play the Detroit Red Wings at 1 p.m. ET, while the Islanders will face off against the Philadelphia Flyers later at 7:30 p.m. ET.
While some help would be nice, the Panthers are still in control of their own playoff destiny.
"It's fun winning," said Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe, who leads the team with a career-high 40 goals. "We're back in the playoffs, and that was our goal. We're finding different ways to win. We're not at our best every night, but we're still finding ways. That's good to see."
Backstopping the Panthers to wins in each of the last five games, Alex Lyon, the team's surprise late-season star, will make his sixth consecutive start in Washington. During that winning streak, the 30-year-old goaltender has stopped 172 of 179 shots for an amazing .961 save percentage.
Setting a new franchise record for the most saves in a game that ended in regulation, Lyon is riding high after stopping 56 of 58 shots in a 7-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.
Under fire all game, Lyon made 22 saves in the first period before going on to stop 18 in the second and then 16 in the third. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, he finished the game with 17 high-danger saves. Over his last two starts, he's stopped 35 of the 37 high-danger shots he's faced.
Working his way back from a non-COVID illness, Sergei Bobrovsky will back up Lyon tonight.
"The guy's unbelievable," Panthers forward Givani Smith said of Lyon, who's posted a strong 8-3-1 record in the NHL this campaign. "He's insane. He's him, you know? He's a great goalie."
Putting on a show for the home crowd at FLA Live Arena, the Panthers also showcased their offense and ferocity against the Senators. In addition to 10 different Panthers making a dent on the scoresheet, the two teams combined for a whopping 166 penalty minutes.
Earning his second four-point game of the season, Brandon Montour became the first defenseman in franchise history to eclipse 70 points in a season. With two assists, Matthew Tkachuk increased his team-high point total to 105, which is one more than the previous career-high 104 he posted in 2021-22.
Gustav Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov also all had multiple points.
"That game was a fun game," Smith said. "Everyone's buying into the program here."
Eliminated from playoff contention with a record of 34-35-9, the Capitals have lost eight of their last nine games and are mired in a five-game skid. Surrendering at least five goals in each of their last three contests, they suffered a 6-2 loss at Montreal in their last outing on Thursday.
During that five-game skid, Washington has been outscored 21-9.
Alex Ovechkin leads the Capitals in goals (42) and points (74), but will be a game-time decision to play against the Panthers due to an upper-body injury, according to The Athletic's Tarik El-Bashir.
In other injury news, Anthony Mantha, who's tallied 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 67 games, will sit out with a lower-body injury. Also possibly out, T.J. Oshie, who's scored 19 goals this season, has missed Washington's last two games while dealing with an upper-body injury.
While Darcy Kuemper has started each of the last six games for the Capitals, backup Charlie Lindgren was reportedly the first goalie off the ice this morning, which means he could get the nod. In 29 appearances this season, Lindgren has posted a 13-9-3 record with a .898 save percentage.
"It's always a good game against these guys," Verhaeghe said. "They're a big physical team. We've had some really good matches over the last couple of years. It's a lot of fun, for sure."
Facing off for the third and final time this season, the Panthers have won each of their two previous meetings with the Capitals by a combined score of 11-5. After winning 5-2 at home on Nov. 15, the Panthers filled up the back of the net again in a 6-3 victory on the road on Feb. 16.
Despite the Capitals not having anything to play for the in the standings, the Panthers don't expect their opponent to take this game lightly. After all, it was the Panthers that eliminated them in last year's playoffs, so you have to imagine the Capitals would love to play spoiler.
"You can usually come into games and have a pretty good understanding of what you're going to see," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "They just being recently eliminated, that's a new situation for them. They've been such a dominant team. I think if they were a young team, possibly there'd be a letdown. But veteran guys find reasons to play. Pride alone, how they got here, I expect they're going to push hard."
