Washington Capitals at Florida Panthers 5/3/22 - NHL Picks & Predictions

The Washington Capitals visit the Florida Panthers for Game 1 of their first round best of seven series in the NHL Eastern Conference. Washington finished the regular season 44-26-12 with 100 points and was the second wild card selection in the conference. The Capitals finish the regular season losing each of their final four games and five of the last six.

Alex Ovechkin is the leading goal scorer for Washington with 50 and the leader in points with 90, while Evgeny Kuznetsov is the leader in assists with 54. In goal, Vitek Vanecek is 20-12-6 with a goals-against average of 2.67, save percentage of .908 and four shutouts. Washington scores an average of 3.29 goals per game and allows an average of 2.95 goals per game. Washington's power-play scores 18.8% of the time and its penalty-kill unit is successful 80.4% of the time.

The Florida Panthers finished the regular season with the best overall record at 58-18-6 and 122 points. Florida won the Atlantic division by seven points and finished the Eastern Conference regular schedule six points ahead of the second-place Carolina Hurricanes. Florida lost three of its final four games of the regular season but had already clinched first place in both the division and the conference.

Aleksander Barkov is the leading goal scorer for Florida with 39, while Jonathan Huberdeau is the leader in assists with 85 and points with 115. In goal, Sergei Bobrovsky is 39-7-3 with a goals against average of 2.67, save percentage of .913 and three shutouts. Florida scores an average of 4.11 goals per game and allows an average of 2.95 goals per game. Florida's power-play scores 24.4% of the time and its penalty-kill unit is successful 79.5% of the time.