Preview: Washington Capitals Finish Off Homestand vs. Florida Panthers On Wednesday

Photo: Monumental Sports

The Washington Capitals will host the defending Eastern Conference Champion Florida Panthers for the lone time this regular season on Wednesday night (7:30 PM ET, TNT). Florida swept the three-game set between the two teams last year, has won six straight overall against Washington dating back to the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoff first-round series, and has won five of the last six regular-season meetings.

Schedule

Florida: plays fourth road game (2-1-1) in five before going home for two straight

Washington: finishes five-game homestand (3-1-0), which is tied for their longest this season, before taking a road trip to the Tri-State Area this weekend

How Each Team Is Doing

Florida: is 3-1-1 since a 2-3-0 start

Washington: has won four of their last five since starting the season 1-3-1

Standings

Florida: 6-4-1 (.591 points percentage — fifth in Atlantic Division, tied for eighth in Eastern Conference with New York Islanders); tied for second wild-card spot but New York has game in hand

Washington: 5-4-1 (.555 points percentage — fifth in Metropolitan Division, 10th in Eastern Conference); two points back of Florida (with a game in hand) and New York (one after Tuesday night)

Team Leaders

The following graph shows each teams’ player leaders. Florida right-wing Sam Reinhart and Washington center Dylan Strome are both off to hot starts this season.

Team Statistics

The first graph shows Florida and Washington’s rates per game entering Wednesday’s contest.

The second graph examines both teams’ underlying statistics at five-on-five so far this season.

Injuries/Illnesses

Florida

D Brandon Montour (shoulder)
D Aaron Ekblad (shoulder)
RW Patric Hornqvist (concussion)
C Sam Bennett (lower-body)

Washington

C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
D Joel Edmundson (upper-body)
LW Max Pacioretty (Achilles)
C Nic Dowd (upper-body)
D Trevor Van Riemsdyk (lower-body)
C Evgeny Kuznetsov (illness)

Projected Lines

Florida

Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe — Anton Lundell — Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen — Kevin Stenlund — Nick Cousins

Ryan Lomberg — Steven Lorentz — William Lockwood

Forsling — Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov

Josh Mahura — Mike Reilly

Bobrovsky

Anthony Stolarz

Scratched: LW Rasmus Asplund, C Kevin Stenlund, D Uvis Balinskis

Washington

Ovechkin – Strome – Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano – – T.J. Oshie
Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Anthony Mantha
Beck Malenstyn – Hendrix Lapierre – Matthew Phillips

Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin – Hardy Häman Aktell
Alexander Alexeyev – Nick Jensen

Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: D Lucas Johansen