The Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers meet Wednesday in game 5 of the East First Round NHL Playoffs at the FLA Live Arena. The Washington Capitals look for their second road win to take a 3-2 series lead. The Florida Panthers look for back-to-back wins to go up 3-2.
The Washington Capitals are averaging 3.25 goals per game and are scoring on 29.4 percent of their power play opportunities. TJ Oshie leads Washington with 3 goals, Nicklas Backstrom has 4 assists and Alex Ovechkin has 14 shots on goal. Defensively, the Washington Capitals are allowing 2.75 goals per game and are killing 100 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Vitek Vanecek has given up 7 goals on 51 shots faced, and IIya Samsonov has allowed 4 goals on 79 shots.
The Florida Panthers are averaging 2.75 goals per game and are scoring on zero percent of their power play opportunities. Carter Verhaeghe leads Florida with 3 goals, Aaron Ekblad has 3 assists and Aleksander Barkov has 15 shots on goal. Defensively, the Florida Panthers are allowing 3.25 goals per game and are killing 70.6 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Sergei Bobrovsky has given up 11 goals on 110 shots faced.
The Capitals are 1-5 in their last 6 games playing on 1 days rest and 2-6 in their last 8 overall. The Panthers are 47-11 in their last 58 home games and 42-15 in their last 57 overall. The under is 4-1 in Capitals last 5 overall. The under is 9-3-4 in Panthers last 16 overall. The Capitals are 2-5 in the last 7 meetings in Florida.
It’s hard to get a feel for this series because neither team has been able to sustain success. The Washington Capitals have done a great job of slowing down the Panthers offense, getting physical and preventing an offensive explosion that we saw all regular season. With that said, that game 4 comeback from Florida and then winning in overtime was massive and swings the series back in the Panthers favor. At home, where the Panthers have been a buzz saw all year, this could be the breakout game. I don’t like to step in front of the Panthers at home. Give me Florida and the PL for max betting value.