NHL Thursday: Captials outlast Flyers in physical Game 1

Which is great. Because that’s the kind of passion and intensity required of any Stanley Cup playoff game. But that means players are quickly getting a lesson in when physicality becomes unnecessary or even detrimental to their teams.

But Tavares also represents the other side of that playoff coin we saw on Thursday: pure skill and thrill you get only come playoff time. Tavares was sensational, not only the best player on the ice in Sunrise, Fla., but perhaps the pest individual to touch the ice in any game on Friday. He got pummeled, dished it out some himself and shrugged the rest off to create highlight-worthy scoring chances that helped his team win.

Pavelski had two goals in the win, and Sharks goalie Martin Jones had 21 saves on 24 shots.

You get the idea: it was a busy few minutes.

Dubnyk would finish with 28 saves on 31 shots.

And then John Tavares took over. His assist on Frans Nielsen’s late goal in the first period has to be an early contender for the year’s best playoff goal. And after the Panthers regained the lead again in the second period, Tavares scored his first career road goal to tie the game yet again.

Teddy Purcell scored early on Thursday to give the Florida Panthers a 1-0 lead. It was a nice goal.

You know what makes that goal 10,000 times better? Watching it with the call from the ESPN Deportes announcers.

John Tavares is a very good hockey player.

A loss by the Islanders meant a matchup with the division champion Panthers, which is exactly what happened after the Isles sat some key players in the finale. However, New York downplayed that they had a preference of opponent.

“You can’t really choose,” forward Cal Clutterbuck told the Associated Press on Sunday. “It’s a slippery slope when you start choosing opponents and looking ahead. I think it’s important to stay in today and do what’s best for the team. [Resting players] was what was best for us today. Now we’ve got Florida and tomorrow morning we’ll start thinking about that.”

The Capitals cruised into the playoffs at just 4-3-3 in their last 10 games, though still finished 11 points better than the second-best team in the NHL (Dallas), and 16 points better than second-best in the Eastern Conference (Pittsburgh).

With that best record in the NHL also came the best home record at 29-8-4, though the Capitals were just 1-2-2 in their final five home games of the regular season.