Washington has lost eight of nine while Florida is riding a season-best five-game winning streak
The Florida Panthers will close out the away portion of their regular season schedule on Saturday night with the finish line coming into sight.
Florida will take the ice in Washington holding a Wild Card spot, and a win will keep them in control of their own destiny, regardless of what any other teams do.
They’ll face a Capitals squad that has seen its season go from promising to purgatory in less than two months.
As recently as mid-February the Capitals were the team in the driver’s seat, holding the top Wild Card spot with a four-point edge on the tenth place Panthers.
Since then, Washington has played 24 games and won six of them.
The Panthers, meanwhile, are peaking at the right time.
Florida has gone 11-4-1 since early March and climbed over every team previously ahead of them in the Wild Card race.
All they have to do is keep winning and the Panthers will remain on top of the postseason waiting list.
STREAKING CATS
Several Panthers players are riding their own respective hot streaks, fueling the impressive run that has, at least until now, saved Florida's season.
- Sam Reinhart has nine goals and 19 points over his last 14 games.
- In the short term, Matthew Tkachuk has four goals and eight points over his past four games. Zooming out a bit, Tkachuk has logged 11 goals and 26 points in 16 games since March 4.
- Alex Lyon has won five straight starts, surrendering just seven goals during that span. Lyon is carrying a goals against average of 1.40 and a .960 save percentage, stopping 172 of 179 shots during his incredible run.
- Defenseman Brandon Montour has his own five-game run going, racking up two goals and eight assists. In 17 games spanning March and April, Montour has scored five goals and dished out 18 assists. That’s 23 points in 17 games. For a defenseman. Yeah.
What about the team captain? So glad you asked.
- Since the beginning of March, a span of 16 games, Sasha Barkov has 25 points. He’s currently riding a five-game points streak in which he’s put up two goals and seven assists.
LINEUP UPDATES
The Panthers will roll with the same lineup in Washington that they've thrown out over the past several games.
That means Lyon will start in goal and Sam Bennett will remain out.
In terms of lines and pairings, no changes are expected for Florida when they line up against the Caps.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Givani Smith on the Panthers getting on the same page: “As we get closer to the end of the season and the playoffs, everyone is really buying into the program here.”
Carter Verhaeghe on facing the Capitals: “It’s always a good game against these guys. They’re a big physical team. We’ve had some really good matches over the last couple years. It’s a lot of fun, for sure.”
Paul Maurice on facing a struggling Caps team: "Different situations. You can usually come into games and have a pretty good understanding of what you’re going to see. They’ve just recently been eliminated, that’s a new situation for them, they’ve been such a dominant team. If they were a young team there could possibly be a letdown, but veteran guys find reasons to play."
Verhaeghe on Florida’s recent surge: "It’s fun winning. We’re back in a playoff spot and that was our goal. We’re finding different ways to win, and we’re still finding ways which is always good to see."