Caps 4, Florida 1
That may have been the craziest game of the year so far. No other way to describe a night where the Caps lost three defensemen – Mike Green was injured in the first, Jeff Schultz went down in the second and Shaone Morrisonn was ejected for a boarding major in the third. Washington played the final 8 minutes, 18 seconds with just four defensemen – and that was only because natural defenseman Tyler Sloan happened to be in the lineup as a winger and could move back to his normal spot.
That led to Tom Poti playing 28:42. Brian Pothier played 25:20 and Milan Jurcina logged 23:12. Even Sloan played 18:25. Those minutes will have an affect on Saturday night when these two teams meet again. It wasn’t a season-high for Poti, who skated 29:29 in a loss to the Devils on Oct. 12. But it was just his third game with more than 25 minutes on ice. Jurcina has topped 20 minutes just three times in 15 games so far. Pothier has gone over 17:30 just twice now and Sloan played a season-high and went over 11 minutes for only the third time in eight games. The Caps do have John Erskine to plug in – he was a healthy scratch tonight – and Sloan could stay there, too.
According to Caps coach Bruce Boudreau – thanks to the Caps crack PR staff for sending along audio from Florida – Schultz has a lower-body injury and Green has an upper-body injury. Their status for Saturday is still questionable. Morrisonn had to go 15 or 20 games without a five-minute major or else he risked a suspension. So we’ll see what the NHL office does tomorrow. He was ejected for a boarding call last year, too, and was on a probabtion of sorts.
Whatever happens, at least they left Florida with a win. Goalie Jose Theodore stopped 28 shots – though he received a few fortunate breaks, too. The Panthers were certainly inept on that five-minute power play in the third. That gift came courtesy of Morrisonn, who was whistled for boarding at 11:42. That stressed an already depleted defensive corps to its limits. But the Caps somehow didn’t allow a shot during that stretch with an aggressive penalty kill. The Panthers squandered a chance to cut into a 3-1 lead. Florida still kept pushing, pulling goalie Tomas Vokoun (21 saves) with 2:32 to play, and generated some good chances in the waning moments. But even with an extra attacker on again they couldn’t beat Theodore.
Caps improved to 9-3-4 with 22 points. Florida is 5-8-1 and has 11 points. The Panthers’ three-game wining streak is history as both teams board a plane back for D.C. tonight. They play at Verizon Center at 7 p.m. Saturday. Washington managed just three shots in the third period – yet scored on two of them. Brian Pothier had a goal and two assists to match his career high with three points. Brendan Morrison had two goals – the sixth Caps player to do that through the first 16 games of the season. And Sloan – before he switched to D and played well doing so – recorded a goal for the second game in a row. Assists also went to Chris Clark, Brooks Laich, Nicklas Backstrom, Tomas Fleischmann and Mike Knuble. Brendan Morrison finished the scoring with his empty-net goal with 39 seconds left.
Florida was whistled for just two penalties on the evening. The Caps committed just one minor – an interference call on Brendan Morrison in the third – but did have to deal with Shaone Morrisonn’s mental error. He also earned a 10-minute game misconduct. Nathan Horton recorded Florida’s lone goal at 10:28 of the third during a power-play. David Steckel gave his usual strong work on the PK for the Caps, but also won nine of 11 faceoffs.
