The Washington Capitals (7-8-2, 16 points, T-5th Metropolitan) take to the ice on Tuesday in South Florida when playing the Florida Panthers (8-6-1, 17 points, T-3rd Atlantic). Washington was defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3 on Sunday night after defeating the Lightning on Friday 5-1. Florida was defeated by the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday 4-2 which snapped a two-game winning streak for the Panthers. Washington's injury list is lengthy and includes Nicklas Backstrom, Connor Brown, Carl Hagelin, TJ Oshie and Tom Wilson amongst others. Anthony Duclair is the only player on Florida's injury list.
The Washington Capitals are scoring an average of only 2.88 goals per game which is 22nd in the NHL. The Capitals are averaging 28.2 shots on goal per game which is 30th in the league. Washington's power play is successful 22.4% of the time which is 15th. Alex Ovechkin has a team best 8 goals while Connor Sheary has scored six. The leader in assists is Evgeny Kuznetsov with 11. Ovechkin Is the points leader with 14 and Kuznetsov is second with 13. Washington has scored only 13 power-play goals in 17 games.
The Capitals are allowing an average of 3.06 goals per game which is 15th in the NHL. Opponents are averaging 31.1 shots per game versus Washington which is 12th in the NHL. The Capitals have the sixth best penalty-kill unit, successfully holding opponents scoreless 83.3% of the time the Capitals are short-handed.& #xA0; Goalie Darcy Kuemper is 5-7-1 with a 2.63 goals-against average and .911 save percentage. Backup Charlie Lindgren is 2-1-1 with a 2.98 goals-against average in .915 save percentage.