Laviolette laments blown lead to Panthers: 'We're just feeding them'

Washington Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette had mixed criticism for his team following Wednesday's 5-3 loss against the Florida Panthers.

"There's two games that were played. There was the game to push it to 3-0 where I liked everything we did, including the power play, the penalty kill, and the five-on-five play," Laviolette said postgame. "And then there's the game that took place after that where if you play against a team like Florida that is a high-octane team, we're just feeding them, and we can't."

Washington took a commanding 3-0 lead against the Panthers in Game 5 but surrendered five unanswered goals to lose the pivotal matchup. The team was also minutes away from winning Game 4 before allowing a late equalizer that led to an overtime loss.

T.J. Oshie, who scored two goals Wednesday, also wasn't happy that his team couldn't hold on to such a big lead.

"Giving up a three-goal lead, I don't know how many times we've done that this year," Oshie said. "But in the playoffs, it should be easier to keep playing the same way and getting pucks deep and all that. But this swings momentum."

Despite now being on the brink of elimination, Oshie still took some positives from the club's play and is looking ahead.

"We gotta reset here. Obviously, you don't want to be down 3-2, especially when we felt like we had a chance to go up 3-1 in the last game," Oshie said. "You just gotta regroup. We got a veteran group in there, a bunch of guys with a lot of great character, and we'll be a little pissed off here tonight, wake up tomorrow and head home and get back to work."

The Capitals take on the Panthers in Game 6 on Friday in Washington.

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