Brad Marchand continues to defy Father Time.
Marchand, the 37-year-old Florida Panthers forward, has scored at least one goal in five straight games. He will hope to keep that streak going Thursday night as Florida plays host to the Washington Capitals in Sunrise.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice, whose team just completed a 2-2-0 road trip, is glad Marchand is on his side.
“He’s special,” Maurice said. “His hands are so quick.”
With 11 goals and 18 points, Marchand has carried a Panthers team that is 5-1-1 at home but just 3-6-0 on the road.
“We’ve looked cold the past four or five games,” Maurice said.
Much of that frigid play can be blamed on the absences of star forwards Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, who have yet to play this season due to injuries.
That may be affecting Panthers forward Sam Reinhart, who had 81 points in 79 games last season and 94 points in 82 games in the previous season, both of which culminated in Stanley Cup championships.
This season, Reinhart has just nine points in 16 games.
Florida has gotten solid work in net from Sergei Bobrovsky, who is 8-4-0 with an .893 save percentage and a 2.68 goals-against average. However, backup Daniil Tarasov has lost all four of his starts (0-3-1, .891 save percentage, 2.50 GAA).
Meanwhile, the Capitals are coming off a 111-point regular season in 2024-25 and excelled in October with a 6-2-0 start.
But over their past eight games, the Capitals won just twice, although one victory came on Tuesday as they defeated the host Carolina Hurricanes 4-1.
“I thought we played a well-rounded game,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said.
For the season, Tom Wilson leads Washington in goals (nine) and points (16). Dylan Strome tops the team with 10 assists, and defenseman John Carlson is second with nine. Carlson also has a four-game point streak that includes two goals and four assists.
Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer, netted the 901st of his career Tuesday but is off to a slow start with just four goals in 16 games at the age of 40.
Last year, Ovechkin missed 16 games due to a broken leg and still led the Capitals with 44 goals. That was his 14th 40-goal season.
Although Ovechkin and Carlson, 35, are still around as the team’s top veterans, the Capitals are getting younger. T.J. Oshie retired in June, and Nicklas Backstrom is now playing in Sweden.
Washington’s impressive starting goalie — 28-year-old Logan Thompson — is part of that youth movement. He is 7-4-0 with a .935 save percentage and a league-best 1.56 GAA. Last season, he finished fourth in the voting for the Vezina Trophy, and he signed a six-year, $35.1 million contract extension.
Brandon Duhaime, a 28-year-old forward, snapped a slump by scoring in Washington’s last two games.
“I had a pretty slow start this season,” said Duhaime, who didn’t score in the first 14 games. “It’s good to get rolling.”
–Field Level Media
