Panthers have no answers for Capitals in Game 3

An impressive 6-1 Capitals win in Game 3 doesn’t automatically confirm that the Panthers can’t convert their high-octane regular season style to the playoffs. But it adds an unusual level of certainty after the Panthers absolutely tore through the regular season for their first-ever Presidents’ Trophy win.

If there’s an underrated part of the Florida Panthers’ stellar regular season, it’s how seamlessly Andrew Brunette took over after Joel Quenneville resigned in disgrace. Uncomfortably, this series represents the first real hiccup for the rookie head coach.

Brunette and the Panthers need to find answers, and fast. Fast is also not how you’d describe these Cats for significant chunks of this series.

Scrolling through social media, you’d think that the Capitals just eliminated the Panthers from the playoffs. To be fair, it’s difficult not to feel some awe with how decisively the Capitals beat the Panthers to take a 2-1 series lead.

After Jonathan Huberdeau sprung loose for an early 1-0 lead, the Panthers rarely solved the Capitals mix of forechecking and trapping. During the rare moments when Florida did break through, Ilya Samsonov was sharp.

There were a few pivots where the Capitals really pulled away from the Panthers in Game 3:

While the Panthers broke through in a Game 2 win, the Capitals did a good-to-great job locking things down in both Game 1 and 3. First, consider some 5-on-5 facts from Natural Stat Trick.

One can take a limited level of solace from the level of play being more even than Twitter hot takes might indicate.

Then again, if things keep trending in this direction, the Panthers might need to truly dominate the Capitals at 5-on-5 to overcome a special teams disparity.

In Game 3, the Capitals went