Hello All,

The Washington Capitals defeated the Florida Panthers in game one of their first round matchup in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Capitals played fantastic against the Panthers head-to-head in the regular season and continued that last night. If you missed my blog last week, I took a deep dive in the numbers head-to-head and the numbers favored the Caps. Here it is: https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Brian-Sickles/Breaking-Down-Washington-vs-Florida-Regular-Season-Head-to-Head-Stats/282/117210

Last night, the Caps battled back in the third period and found a way to come from behind. If you look at the entire body of work from the game, the Capitals objectively were the better team and deserved to win. This is reinforced from moneypuck.com:

Capitals with a deserving winhttps://t.co/nLgFDor6DY pic.twitter.com/ulVN1n06iL

— MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) May 4, 2022

Here are the stats from the game:

Shots on Goal:
WSH – 38
FLA – 32

Shots on Goal (5v5):
WSH – 26
FLA – 25

Corsi For %:
WSH – 50.83%
FLA – 49.17%

Corsi For % (5v5):
WSH – 46.67%
FLA – 53.33%

Power Play:
WSH – 1/3
FLA – 0/2

Hits:
WSH – 43
FLA – 56

Blocks:
WSH – 12
FLA – 11

Scoring Chances For:
WSH – 30
FLA – 23

Scoring Chances For (5v5):
WSH – 23
FLA – 20

High Danger Chances For:
WSH– 13
FLA – 8

High Danger Chances For (5v5):
WSH – 9
FLA – 7

xGF:
WSH – 3.71
FLA – 2.01

xGF (5v5):
WSH – 2.19
FLA – 1.3

My Takeaways:

Vitek Vanecek - During the season, Ilya Samsonov started all three games against the Florida Panthers. For this series, Vanecek got the nod for game one and I couldnt have been happier with the decision. Vanecek gives them a better chance to win a grind it out playoff series. Last night, he looked pretty solid! Here are his stats:

Saves: 30/32
Goals Allowed: 2
Low Danger Saves - 17/18
Medium Danger Saves - 6/6
High Danger Saves - 3/4

I thought Vanecek made some key saves early in the game to help him get the confidence going. All-in-all, I give him a B+ on the night.

Defensive Structure - The Caps seemed intent on forcing the Panthers to dump n chase the puck. Overall, the defensive and neutral zone structure for Washington was top notch. Rarely did we see any odd man rushes for the Panthers last night. Maybe a couple wonky 4-on-3's but I can't recall seeing a dangerous 2-on-1's all night. Please correct me if I am wrong, I wont take offense. The Panthers struggled to get anything going. This is a team that averaged 37.3 shots/game and 4.11 goals/game in the regular season. The Caps shut them down last night.

Sergei Bobrovsky - I gotta give credit where credit is due. Bob played fantastic last night. If It it werent for Bob, the Caps would have won this game by three or four goals. He kept the Panthers in this game in the first and second periods when the Caps were surging their hardest. Bob made 100% of the saves he faced that were considerd low danger and medium danger. No softies! He gave the Panthers a chance to steal game one (relative to how it was being played) but the Caps seized the opportunity that was in front of them.

Tom Wilson - Wilson scored the opening goal but left later in the first after delivering a hit behind the play. He did not return. I have not seen any update but this would be a massive loss if he cant go the rest of the series.

Hits - The hits were 56-43 in favor of Florida. That surprised me as Washington held a significant hit advantage in the head-to-head matchups of the regular season. Maybe Florida made it a point to be extremely physical in game one. Hey, that is right up our alley if you ask me. Anthony Mantha led the Caps with a team-high 10-hits. Would love to see him get on the score sheet but he was still noticeable on the ice all night imo.

Panthers Crowd - The crowd was booing the Panthers PP in the 2nd period. It is game one in the 2nd period and they are already booing the team. The expectations are HIGH for this club. The Caps are already in the crowds head

Honorable Mention - The Caps PK killed off both Panthers power plays. This was massive for a PK that really struggled down the stretch. To get those kills will also give them great momentum and confidence moving forward this series.

That is all for today! Next game is Thursday at 7:30pm. I might be at the game Saturday at 1pm in DC if anyone wants to meet up. GO CAPS

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Stats/Facts/Video Clips Provided By:

nhl.com/stats
hockey-reference.com
naturalstattrick.com
moneypuck.com
hockeyfights.com
@CapitalsPR Twitter page
@Capitals Twitter page
@HerseyBears Twitter page
>>>Follow me on Twitter @HB_Capitals<<<

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