You are reading live from the Press Box in the Verizon Center. Greetings, hockey fans, Empty Maybe here guesting for some live knee-jerk reactions to tonight's contest against the Panthers from Florida. You may notice a conspicuous lack of the word V*rsus tonight, and I'm guessing that the esteemed broadcasting partner of the National Hockey League is deeply apologetic about the Caps not being on television this evening.

Incidentally, the interior temperature of the building is chilly.

For those needing their Joe B. and Locker fix, they were in the 100s earlier tonight, giving a chalk talk to a group of season ticket holders.

If you have any questions, put them in the comments section and I'll do what I can to answer them. We'll start for real at face-off.

And there's face-off.

Ovechkin's line controls the play early, with Alex taking a long shift and playing some with Bradley and Nylander.

Alzner blocks a shot with his foot, and had a bit of alimp his first stride, but smoothed out.

Weiss beats Lepisto to the inside on the right wing to get an uncontested shot on Theodore; Theo saves.

Ovechkin with a flip onto Anderson from behind the net, Anderson steers it away.  Ballard and Ovechkin then jostle a bit at the Florida blueline.

The game is moving a lot quicker without TV timeouts.

Brashear with a big hit on Boynton on the forecheck. The Panthers then pin the Caps in their own zone for a solid 20 seconds or so (Lepisto and Morrisonn the pairing). The Caps then draw a penalty, and Karl Alzner makes a nice keep at the blueline, then pinches in, but is missed by a crossing feed.

Caps' starting PP unit - Kozlov - Backstrom - Flesichmann, with Ovechkin at one point and Lepisto at the other. Fleischmann tries to walk the puck in from the right goal-line, but is denied.

Nylander hesitates in front of the net, and is stoned. On the right goal-line, he then taps his stick loudly for the puck (second time this period). Decent power play, but Florida keeps the sheet clean.

Halfway done with the first, with the Caps carrying the play for the most part. Bouwmeester muffs a pass when he sees Ovechkin trucking for him, but recovers and moves it out of his zone. The Caps then go offsides, with Nick Backstrom taking a hit from a Florida defenseman during the whistle.

Ovechkin is pretty much shooting from anywhere this period. He sets up in the slot, but is turned away by Anderson. He then doess a pretty inside-out move to keep possession. Bryan Helmer then chips in with a shot and a nice blueline keep.

The Grind Line of Brashear - Gordon - Mink has a great cycle shift,with Brashear eventually drawing a tripping penalty.

And with a beaufitul passing play that you could see developing, Backstrom scores. Lepisto fakes the shot to the blueline, then passes to Fleischmann at the right circle. He immediately sends it down low to Backstrom at the right goal line, who then tries to send the puck cross-crease where it bounces in. initially it looked like Ovechkin scored at the left post, but the puck must have bounced in off a Florida skater or Anderson. Caps lead 1 - 0.

Jurcina commits an interference penalty, taking some of the momentum from D.C.

The Caps PPK never really gets into trouble and kill off the penalty. Tyler Sloan has a clearing attempt he probably would like back, and then has a tough shift to end the period and then gets turned inside-out by a Florida winger, giving up a scoring chance.

After one, the Caps lead by one. They carried the bulk of the play, but it hasn't been a particularly hard-hitting contest, and little jostling after the whistle.

SECOND PERIOD

A comedy of errors in front of the Caps net makes for a few harried moments for the Caps, with Sloan again being in the thick of some strange play. The Caps clear.

The Panthers seem to have turned up the effort here in the second.

Backstrom with a nice faceoff win back to Ovechkin, who puts it on net. Nylander with a solid wrister that is turned away, then more trouble around the Caps net as they have trouble clearing. Tarnasky puts down Backstrom.

Peltonen then comes in on the right side, stops quickly, throwing off Alzner, then roofs a hard wrister past Theodore. Good goal. We're all tied up.

On the ensuing Florida power play, Dave Steckel makes kind of a strange pass to the center of the ice in the defensive zone, which bounces off Alzner's skate and goes in the Caps' net. No pass for Alzner there, but Steckel's too-crisp pass was ill-advised.

The Panthers are turning up the pressure.

Boyd Gordon puts a solid hit on Tarnasky at the Florida blueline, after Donald Brashear skates the puck into the offensive zone, but is stripped.

After another shift spent largely in the Caps' end, Eric Fehr puts the puck into the stands for a penalty.

A Bryan McCabe point shot bounces off someone in front of the net, and the Panters have their second power play goal of the night. The Caps effort continues to under-impress.

The Ovechkin line brings some life back into the crowd, with two near-miss scoring chanes, with both chances being spoiled by centering feeds from behind the net going out of the zone. Kozlov made a solid play by drawing two defenders to him and passing to an all-alone Ovechkin, but Ovechkin couldn't corrall the pass in his skates.

Sami Lepisto makes a clever pass off the boards to find Viktor Kozlov and spring a scoring chance. Ovechkin later blazes into the zone with his pattented move from the left wing to the slot and unleashes a wrister, which is stop. Florida counters, but Theodore is up to the task.

It's worth noting that there gave been multple instances of the Caps making a centering feed from below the Florida goal-line that have ended up out of the zone due to the Caps not being in the slot. The defensemen also seem to be clinging to the boards more tightly than usual, and not being able to cover the middle of the ice in the offensive zone.

The ice was tilted this period, and not in the Caps' favor. The Panthers lead 3 - 1 after two.

THIRD PERIOD

The Caps' effort seems to be a bit better, as they have carried the play for most of the first few minutes. Ovechkin throws a shoulder into a Panthers to finish his shift off.

Of course, having said that, the Panthers again pin the Caps in their own zone for 30 or so seconds, receiving a Bronx cheer when they finally clear the puck. Florida again gets the puck into the Caps zone, Tyler Sloan misses his man, and the Panthers are up by three on a roofed wrister from tight in the left circle by Dvorak.

Nylander is now centering Kozlov and Ovechkin.

Anderson makes a nice save on Kozlov, who was right in front.

The Caps' power play again is solid, but Anderson is up to the task, including stopping a Fehr offering and and Ovechkin one-timer.

Ovechkin again wakes the crowd up by flattening Kamil Kreps in open ice.

He then clocks Dvorak against the boards.

The crowd, who has treated the team to boos at the end of the second period and again after the fourth Florida goal, begins to head to the exits.

Viktor Kozlov takes a drop pass from Backstrom and rifles a wrister past Anderson, Panthers lead by two.

We're wrapping up the live jerks on that note. Thanks for reading.