Taking the early 1-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers was certainly a welcomed first step for the Washington Capitals, but they have enough experience to know that's a far cry from plotting the direction of the series.
It's the experience to know nothing's written in stone until it is, the experience of a club that's had three consecutive first round playoff exits since winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. Of a club that won the first game of its series against Boston last year before losing the next four, and the first two games in 2019 against Carolina (a series the concluded with a crushing Game 7 defeat in double OT).
"You know I've had a little experience now in the playoffs and I've won the first game before. We won the first game last year and then we lost the next four," Caps winger Garnet Hathaway told 106.7 The Fan's BMitch & Finlay, a segment presented by Lindsay Volvo Cars of Alexandria.
"We know how dangerous of a team they are," he said. "You know, they won the Presidents' Trophy — we just talked about that again. We're coming to their building where they won like 37 games or something like that, a ridiculous number like that, at home this year. And so we have to go into [Game 2] the same way we went into Game 1, if not better. Their team is going to push back and they're gonna throw even more firepower at us [Thursday] night."
Asked what worked well for them in Game 1, Hathaway replied, "A lot of things, honestly, BMitch. You know, they're such a fast team. They get so many of their goals on the transition, they get a lot of odd-man rushes, and our game plan was to obviously limit those, play a little more in their end."
"And it's so cliché," he said, "but just try and limit the opportunity they have to get behind us in our zone and they get comfortable, they get a little more confidence when they play with the puck. So skill guys like that, to be able to slow them down was a big part of our game."
To put that in layman's terms for the audience, Hathaway said, "One of the main things would be trying to get them to play in their end as much as possible. You know, that's as simple as it can be."
The Capitals return to FLA Live Arena for Game 2 Thursday night. Puck drops at 7:30. You can listen to John Walton on the hometown call right here on 106.7 The Fan.
