“Best Team In Regular Season, But In Playoffs It’s Going to Be Different”: Alex Ovechkin Confident Capitals Can Match Panthers in First Round Series

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Michael Fleetwood
Screen cap: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals are set to begin their first round series against the Florida Panthers in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Tuesday, and while many have the Caps in for a tough task against the President’s Trophy-winning Panthers, for captain Alex Ovechkin and his club, their confidence is unwavering.

“We’ve been there [referring to winning the President’s Trophy]. It’s going to be totally different games than the regular season. They’re a very solid group of guys. Best team in the regular season, but in playoffs it’s going to be different. It’s going to be different mindset, it’s going to be different speed, it’s going to be different battle level”.

The Capitals (who have won the President’s Trophy with the league’s best regular season record) are entering the postseason as the second wildcard team in the Eastern Conference, and finished the regular season with the best road record (25-10-6), something to keep in mind when visiting Florida on Tuesday.

“We just have to play simple. I think all the teams going to play basically the same game. We just have to play the same way on the road like we play in the regular season, but how I said, everything’s changing, it’s totally different game, so I think we all excited, we all can’t wait on Game 1, and we’ll see”.

Ovechkin sat out the final three games of the regular season after exiting the Capitals’ game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 24 with an upper-body injury after crashing into the end-boards shoulder-first following a trip by Toronto goaltender Erik Kallgren that went uncalled by officials.

“Good. We’ll see [describing how he feels and his status for Game 1]. No it was the two minutes. Obviously we knew we make playoffs and just decided to take a rest [indicating he could have played at some point during the last few regular season games]”.

The Capitals and Panthers square off at 7:30 PM EST on May 3, 2022. The game can be viewed on NBC Sports Washington or ESPN2.

By Michael Fleetwood

 

About Michael Fleetwood

Michael Fleetwood was born into a family of diehard Capitals fans and has been watching games as long as he can remember. He was born the year the Capitals went to their first Stanley Cup Final, and is a diehard Caps fan, the owner of the very FIRST Joe Beninati jersey and since then, has met Joe himself. Michael joined the NoVa Caps team in 2015, and is most proud of the growth of the NoVa Caps community in that time. An avid photographer, Michael resides in VA.
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