The Washington Capitals were back in Florida after a quick trip up to Raleigh to beat the Carolina Hurricanes. The back-to-back Stanley Cup champion defending Panthers stood in their way of starting a winning streak.
Brandon Duhaime stayed red hot and got the Capitals on the board first with a deflection. Evan Rodrigues responded less than two minutes later to tie the game back up. Cole Schwindt found a deflection goal of his own, and Sam Reinhart added a power-play tally to put the Panthers up two.
Justin Sourdif burned his former team to get the Capitals back within one. Florida responded quickly again through Reinhart’s second of the game. Seth Jones added another power-play goal. Rasmus Sandin drew the Caps back into the game with a blast from the point. Eetu Luostarinen empty-netter.
Panthers beat Capitals 6-3.
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The Capitals beat the Hurricanes and seemingly absorbed their powers as they recorded 17 shots in the first period alone, the most they have put up in an opening frame this season. However, the defensive effort was lacking, as although the Panthers only had six shots of their own, they actually came out of the first period up 6-4 in high-danger chances. Logan Thompson had to be sharp.
Brandon Duhaime, a Florida man in his own right, opened another game’s scoring to give him goals in three straight games, a feat that he had never before achieved in the NHL. Rasmus Sandin, who I think has been brilliant lately, recorded the assist on the goal, the 100th helper in his career.
Really good to see Jakob Chychrun quickly return to the ice after he took a shot off the leg early in the contest. The 27-year-old blueliner is on pace to set another new career high in scoring this season, coming into Thursday night’s game with 11 points (4g, 7a) in 16 games.
Per @NHLPR, Duhaime is the sixth Capital to open the scoring in three consecutive games, joining Andre Burakovsky (4 GP in 2016-17), Dylan Strome (3 GP in 2022-23), Alex Ovechkin (3 GP in 2019-20 & 2018-19), Jeff Halpern (3 GP in 2000-01) and Dino Ciccarelli (3 GP in 1991-92). https://t.co/SXmgm45BMf
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) November 14, 2025
The Capitals were better defensively in the second period, yet came out of it down two goals. That’s just hockey sometimes. Unfortunately, that sort of hockey has been happening way too often this season, and it’s likely an indicator that the team needs an offensive injection somewhere. I think Chris Patrick needs to find this team another top-six forward, which is something we also said over the summer, but never happened.
Logan Thompson got outplayed by Daniil Tarasov. Thompson was giving up rebounds left, right, and center, while Tarasov seemingly didn’t give up a rebound the entire game. The Russian netminder came into the night 0-3-1 with a 2.50 goals-against average and a .891 save percentage, so, of course, he decided to have the game of his life.
Brutal time for that too many men on the ice penalty to come. The Capitals got called for that what felt like a billion times last year, so they should have a better handle on it.
Ryan Leonard was all over the ice creating offense. I really think he needs to play more and with more experienced linemates. However, it’s not as if those more experienced names, such as Aliaksei Protas, Connor McMichael, Alex Ovechkin, etc., are exactly lighting the world on fire right now.
Simply brutal lack of discipline was a major factor in this loss. The bad too many men on the ice penalty, and then Nic Dowd with just a terrible hooking foul in the offensive zone, which he made doubly worse by earning an additional unsportsmanlike minor for his reaction. The Capitals killed the first off but not the second.
Aliaksei Protas has not been good for multiple weeks now. I don’t know what’s up with him. Maybe that foot cut from last season is still limiting him in some way? It was Protas’s hospital pass to Tom Wilson that led to Sam Reinhart’s second goal, which proved to be the backbreaker.
The penalty kill is still out to lunch. I have no idea why they make it so easy for other teams to get set up, and then the rotations in zone are so bizarre to me. Just feels like way too many moving parts for no reason. I don’t recognize it from last season’s, but that may just be my brain being results-oriented.
The Capitals will have Friday off as they travel back home to the DMV. They’ll be on the ice next against the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena on Saturday night.