Slumping Panthers Fall 4-1 to Ovechkin-less Washington Capitals

“There’s a piece of our game missing and we’re going to have to find it,” coach Paul Maurice said. “

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers still cannot find a way to win.

Their Stanley Cup hangover is starting to look like a Stanley Cup bender after they dropped their fourth consecutive game and their sixth in their past seven games — a 4-1 dud to the Alex Ovechkin-less Washington Capitals on Monday night.

Florida found itself on a 5-on-3 penalty kill early in the third, Boca Raton native Jakob Chychrun cashed on it, and that was that.

The Panthers were chasing the game from there but could not generate much of anything, going without a shot from the 49-second mark of the third period up until there was 12:24 to go in the game.

Spencer Knight did his best to keep Florida in it — stopping 11 shots in the third period and 27 of 29 overall, but it was not enough.

“There’s a piece of our game missing and we’re going to have to find it,” coach Paul Maurice said. “

Monday’s effort was an improvement from the 7-4 walloping the Panthers took from the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

They played that game on their terms at times, leading seven minutes in when Niko Mikkola jumped up into the rush via a feed to the slot from Sam Bennett and beat Logan Thompson for his first of the year — but they did not play to their standard nearly enough.

Lars Eller tied the game up at 1-1 with 2:11 to go after Chychrun dissected Florida’s defense to find him up front and the game was deadlocked from there.

That was a style of game Florida liked playing, but struggles on the power play and some penalties taken out of pent-up frustration led to the offense stagnating, and eventually, Chyrchrun’s go-ahead goal 1:18 into the third period.

“I think you need a little bit of emotion in the game, and I think that’s usually a good thing,” Mikkola said. “But it doesn’t come easy and we just need to find a way.”

After the Panthers failed to generate much of anything offensively in the third, the Capitals salted away the game with two empty-net goals.

And that was that.

Florida now finds itself in a 1-6-0 stretch heading into a match-up with the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.

Oddly enough, even amid this stretch, the Panthers still find themselves three points out of first and a point ahead of the rest of the field for second in the division. It serves as a serious chance to right the ship and get themselves back in the right mindset.

There has been a lot of talk of that from the defending Stanley Cup champions — a lot of talk about how they know what they are capable of when they turn it on — but something is preventing them from doing it right now.

They are going to need to find it soon.

“There are going to be good games and bad games,” Knight said. “I think it's just trying to find ways to give your team a chance to get into it. I know we have a lot of tremendous players that when they flip the switch, they’re almost impossible to stop. I see it every day in practice how good they are. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that these guys are going to turn it around. It’s unbelievable watching them.”

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