The Daily Faceoff Show: Are the Panthers finally in the driver’s seat?

The Washington Capitals had the Florida Panthers on the ropes Monday night. Holding a 2-1 lead late in the game, Garnet Hathaway just missed the empty net to ice the game. It proved costly, as the Panthers would rally and get a late goal from Sam Reinhart to tie it before Carter Verhaeghe would get the game-winner in overtime.

Colby Cohen made his Daily Faceoff Show debut and discussed with Frank Seravalli about whether this was a missed opportunity for the Capitals or if the Panthers are in the driver’s seat.

Cohen: “I’m definitely not confident that Florida’s in the driver’s seat, but I also thought that Florida deserved to win that game last night. As much as they had to come back, and as much as they had to fight through and score that late goal and get it in to overtime, I felt like that was their most complete effort.

And I still don’t like the way the Florida Panthers are playing, and I still feel like they just don’t look the same, they’re not skating quite the same, they’re not playing with the pace. And honestly, they just don’t look like they’re playing heavy enough along the walls.”

Seravalli: “I hear you, and I’m with you, because I don’t think the Florida Panthers are out of the woods quite yet. It feels like they got a little bit closer and took a step in the right direction on Monday night, but overall, they were still that close.

And the Caps, I’ve been saying it for the last few days, I don’t know that we’re giving them enough credit. Evgeny Kuznetsov is the perfect example with what he said post game, which was “We’re not worried about offense.” They seem perfectly comfortable putting up 16 shots on net, he said “We’ll have time for offense in the beer league in summer hockey.” That was his exact quote, and so that’s the mentality of the Caps, that’s the mentality that they probably needed to have coming into this series against a team like Florida that went through the regular season scoring at will, and this playoff postseason run so far, they haven’t been able to find it.

Really interesting for me when you take a look at the latter stages of Game 4 too, with Carter Verhaeghe scoring the OT winner. That goal that they scored with the net empty 6-on-5 was their first goal scored with the man advantage all series long.”

Cohen: “They’ve finally looked like comfortable too. They got it and they set it up, Ekblad was out on the ice for that 6-on-5. I know there’s been a lot of conversations about if he should be with that top group. You think about how Giroux and him never really got to play with each other, and Giroux plays on that half wall.

They’ve got work to do, and I’m still, in my opinion, leaning on the Caps. I think they’ve got that leadership, they’ve been more physical, you mention Hathaway, I think he’s been really effective in this series. And I’m just still kind of waiting to see guys like Huberdeau, Giroux, and Barkov wake up and take control.”

Seravalli: “Well, they’re running out of time to do that. And I thought it was a good sign for the Panthers though, that they were able to get that equalizer, and then get the OT win. It does show a bit of commitment from their part in a pressure packed situation. You don’t want to be going home down 3-1. They find a way to pull it through."

You can watch the full episode here…