The Washington Capitals were steamrolled by the Florida Panthers 5-1 in Game 2 Thursday night. Florida’s vaunted top-ranked offense woke up, scoring five goals on their first 18 shots.
The Panthers’ win now evens the best-of-seven first-round series at one a piece. After the game, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin had a perfect NSFW reaction to the disappointing loss.
“S*** happens. Move on 1-1. How I said, it’s a good scenario for us,” Ovechkin said, per Samantha Pell of the Washington Post.
Ovechkin is right. It’s a best-of-seven series. The Capitals accomplished its goal per say as the lower seed. Washington won one of two games in Florida. Now the Capitals get the next two games in their home arena.
They’ll have a huge opportunity to take a 3-1 series lead before the series shifts back to Florida.
“We knew it was going to be a tough, long series,” Ovechkin said. “Now we go home and play in front of our fans. Nothing we can do right now, but move on and forget about it.”
The Capitals do have some concerning issues. Their goaltender situation unraveled with Vitek Vanecek’s struggles being laminated during the Panthers’ onslaught in Game 2.
Also, there’s the Tom Wilson injury. The star forward missed Game 2 with a lower body injury that he suffered in Game 1.
Either way, Ovechkin understands the team must push the good and bad of the first two games to stay focused. Hopefully, the Capitals are able to take care of business starting with Saturday’s Game 3 at Capital One Arena.
