In a grueling 82-game season, nights do not go much smoother than this one.
Playing for the first time since Nov. 14, forward Alex Semin registered four points, forward Matt Bradley scored a shorthanded goal and goalie Semyon Varlamov stopped 26 of 28 shots as the Capitals crushed the Florida Panthers, 6-2, on Thursday night at Verizon Center.
Recommended Stories
Washington (17-5-6, 40 points) won its fourth game in a row and remains tied with Pittsburgh (20-9-0, 40 points) for the most points in the Eastern Conference. The Caps led 2-0 after the first period, 4-0 after the second and 6-0 after a pair of power-play goals early in the third. They completely took advantage of a Panthers team playing for the third time in four nights.
It took just 11 shots – and goals by Semin and Tomas Fleischmann – for Florida to pull goalie Scott Clemmensen (nine saves). AHL call-up Alexander Salak took his place as starter Tomas Vokoun recuperates from the cut ear he suffered at the hands of teammate Keith Ballard on Monday. Salak didn’t fare much better (29 saves on 33 shots), though.
“I like the way we followed the gameplan in the beginning,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “We thought they’d be tired so if we attacked them early they might not have the strength to come back. It worked well.”
That’s an understatement. Semin (wrist) had missed the previous seven games with a wrist injury. Boudreau said prior to the contest he didn’t know what to expect from his mercurial winger. But Semin was on from the start. He now has 11 goals – second on the Caps only to Alex Ovechkin – and also 10 assists thanks to helpers on goals by Nicklas Backstrom and Brendan Morrison. That’s 21 points in just 19 games – exactly the kind of production that turns Washington from a good offense to an elite one.
“[Semin] was well rested,” Boudreau said. “He should have had a lot of energy.”
The game took a bizarre turn in the third period when Washington forward Alexandre Giroux laid a hard – but obviously clean – check on Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov. Rookie Mike Duco – playing in just his second NHL game – flew off the bench on a line change and jumped Giroux, pummeling him with punches. A pile of players formed in front of the penalty boxes and Caps captain Chris Clark screamed at Duco, who earned a whopping 27 minutes of penalties on the play, including a game misconduct. Florida defenseman Bryan Allen took an elbowing penalty moments later. Giroux claims he’d never heard of Duco during their time in the AHL and that they had no prior history.
“[Duco] does it because it’s a spark for his team. No matter what happens they know he’s going to play his heart out,” said Clark. “For us we were ready to back up our teammate and go for it from there. I think we did well with it.”
Washington made the Panthers pay with power-play goals by both Morrison and Semin to make it 6-0 and complete the rout. The Panthers spoiled Varlamov’s shutout bid after late goals by Stephen Weiss and Allen. But by then it was far too late for Florida.
“It’s almost what the game has come to. You get a good hit — and not a hard hit – and you take exception to a hit” Boudreau said. “Hockey used to be you hit a guy hard and that’s what it’s all about. Now you hit a guy hard and you think you have to retaliate on that. It’s stupid. It was a dumb thing and he took their team totally out of a chance to win the game.”
