Round One Recap - Washington Capitals - noles367's Blog

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Round One Recap - Washington Capitals

Posted on May 28, 2013 at 05:01 AM.

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Covering the Florida Panthers in GM Connected league ALHL2

Eastern Conference Quarterfinal vs. Washington Capitals

Panthers win series 4-0

This type of outcome was in the back of all Panthers fans' minds. Probably same goes for the Capitals fans. The Cats took care of business for four games. It wasn't always pretty, but they got the job done.

Now lets recap:

Game 1

The Caps weathered quite a storm early on. Chances everywhere for the Panthers. Joe Saunders answered a Capitals PP goal and tied it at one all in the closing seconds of the 2nd period. A few lapses in defense led to Antropov and Clarkson converting on golden chances.

Game 2

Jonathan Huberdeau. That's all that really needs said. Mueller fed Huby a pass and he buried it with 14.7 left. Another solid game from Halak.

Game 3

Another game that was as tight as balls. Just when you thought Michal Neuvirth was gonna steal a game, Sean Bergenheim batted a puck out of mid air to take the lead late in the 3rd. Cats hung on for another 2-1 victory

Game 4

Facing elimination, at home, we expected the Caps to play their best game of the series. They did for about 30 minutes. Pavelski and Huberdeau both scored on breakaways midway through the 2nd. That broke the Capitals and let to a 3rd period meltdown

Capitals Three Stars

Nicholas Backstrom

He had a power play and a shorthand goal in the series. Those 2 goals accounted for half the Caps scoring. Yikes. Still, he played well and was a force in the face off circle.

Michal Neuvirth

Don't look at the numbers. The Caps were outmatched and it showed. But he played great overall. The Panthers didnt score in the 1st period all series. He had some rough patches but was all that stood between the Capitals getting blown out 4 straight times.

We planned on doing 3 stars for each team but were stopping at 2. No reason to list anyone else here.

Panthers Three Stars

Oskar Osala

Led the team with 4 points. His goal in game 2 was huge. A lot of people were wondering what his role would be, and he seems to be a great fit on the 3rd line.

Jonathan Huberdeau

Only 2 goals, but both were game winners. He led the team in shots and generated a ton of chances. The Game 2 goal is one of the coolest moments in Panthers history. Right now he is the best player on the team.

Jaroslav Halak

He certainly justified starting in the playoffs. One goal a game for all 4 games. Sure it's the Caps, but he was solid every game. He did let in one soft goal, but it didn't matter. He will be tested a lot more in the next round, but he seems up to the challenge.

Series Goat

Alex Ovechkin

4 games. 0 goals. 0 assists. 0 points. -4. An overall disaster. The Cats smothered him all series, and it was clear they didn't want him to score. Well it worked out quite well as the other Capitals players couldn't manage much offense.

Honorable mention to Mike Green and Robyn Rehger. Both players had a bad series.

Miscellaneous

-- Caps scored 1st every game. Just bizarre. Its nice the Panthers came back every time but that needs to change

-- 0 1st period goals for the Panthers. It wasn't for lack of effort though. We'll chalk this up to a statistical anomonly.