Florida vs Washington: The Capitals will have a lot of trouble battling Sergei Bobrovsky

Florida, losing their first game of the season in Boston, will host Washington. The Capitals also lost on the eve of the Sunrise meeting, failing to break the resistance of a resurgent Tampa Bay. Who will manage to recover in a head-to-head battle? Let’s pick a few options to bet on at once.

Still, Boston are Boston. Bruce Cassidy’s team squeezed out more than they could squeeze out in a meeting at the home TD Garden if that were possible. The game followed a similar pattern to the recent encounter in Sunrise. Boston had an excellent first period but could offer absolutely nothing against speedy Florida in the second and third periods.

In Boston, the Panthers also missed first near the end of the first period but were close to shutting down the Bruins in the second period with a close bench. They took a 2-1 lead but did not manage to catch up, hitting the wall of goalie Linus Ullmark and missing just a few minutes before the final siren. Boston took the final victory in a shootout. Trailing 2-3, the Panthers were back to their eight straight wins from the start of the season. Be that as it may, the club record had been updated.

Well, that’s understandable. The Capitals experienced huge problems against the best goalie of the modern era, Andrei Vasilevskiy. Like the rest of Tampa Bay, the Russian goalie came alive and repelled 31 shots from Alex Ovechkin and company. Ovechkin had no scoring chances, Evgeny Kuznetsov assisted Conor Sheary, and 23-year-old forward Brett Leason scored his first NHL goal. The Lightning responded to the Capitals’ two goals with three and inflicted their 1st loss in regulation time of the season. Before that, Washington had only lost three times outside of the 60 minutes. Peter Laviolette’s team has 5 wins in 9 games. That’s all very well, but the loss to the Lightning illustrated why Washington could not currently be called a real Stanley Cup contender.

Despite the tradition of head-to-head encounters in recent years, we shouldn’t expect a feast of goals in the upcoming game. The reason is Sergei Bobrovsky. The Russian finally settled down in Florida. This season reminds him of his Columbus days when the Blue Jackets demolished the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs and won their first league title a year later. In 6 games in the 2021/22 championship, Bobrovsky has 6 wins, over 94% shooting protection, and a passer rating of just 1.81. The Russian super goalie is once again incredibly difficult to beat.

We predict that Florida will concede the minimum and find and implement their chances at the other side’s goal. The Capitals, with the Vanecek-Samson brigade, can only dream of a Bobrovsky-level keeper.

• W1 for 1.68;
• W1 in regulation time for 2.00;
• Individual Total 2 Under 1.5 for 4.10.