The Florida Panthers defeated the Washington Capitals on Friday night in Game 6 of their series to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 1996.
Washington tied the game late in the third period on the powerplay to force overtime, but in the extra frame,
Claude Giroux made a great pass to the red-hot
Carter Verhaeghe, who scored the game winner.
This is now Washington's fourth straight first round series loss, as they haven't won a series since the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.
After the game, captain
Alexander Ovechkin talked with reporters and was pretty blunt about his team's performance.
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"I think you see how we played against the best team in the regular season. We have it, but we just blow it away. It is on us. It is on me, on Backy, on Osh, on Carly. It is on everybody. Kinda fucked up situation," Ovechkin said according to Samantha Pell of The Washington Post.
It will be interesting to see what the Capitals decide to do this summer. The biggest question is in net. Are they confident in
Ilya Samsonov as their goaltender? Will they do another 1A/1B situation with Samsonov and
Vitek Vanecek? Or will they go out and add a proven veteran netminder?
The Capitals' window will be closing within the next couple of years, and if they want to get Ovechkin and Backstrom another Stanley Cup, they'll need to act now.
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