The Florida Panthers Take Back Home Ice Advantage
from Samatha Pell of The Washington Post,
The whistles kept coming Monday night at Capital One Arena, the pace of play broken up time and time again as the parade to the penalty box continued.
An infraction-filled second period devolved into a special teams showcase during the Washington Capitals’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 4, and the officials had assessed 13 minor penalties by the end of the night.
In the Stanley Cup playoffs, physical play is expected, but the quantity of penalties handed out in this Eastern Conference first-round series that’s tied at two wins apiece — as well as the number of infractions being called leaguewide this postseason — may not continue to benefit a Capitals team facing the best offense the NHL has seen since the mid-1990s.
The Capitals’ penalties have yet to hurt them; the Panthers — who had the NHL’s fifth-best power play in the regular season, clicking at 24.4 percent — are 0 for 13 through four games. But penalty killing perfection for a group that denied its opponents 80.4 percent of the time in the regular season (to rank 12th in the league) is unsustainable against Florida’s talent. The Panthers had four 30-goal scorers in the regular season, and those four (Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Anthony Duclair and Jonathan Huberdeau) combined for 42 power-play tallies.
After a momentum-swinging Game 4 win, Florida may be feeling its early-series nerves starting to fade. The Panthers are one lucky bounce — or one perfect snipe — away from getting back into a rhythm on the power play.
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Game highlights are below....
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