To avoid problems landing in the nation’s capital, the Panthers left South Florida on their charter plane a few hours early Wednesday. On Thursday, they checked out of their game in Washington early as well. Washington chased goalie Jacob Markstrom to the bench with two goals on two shots then kept the party going by beating down the Panthers 7-1 at Verizon Center. The Panthers, who played their final game in Washington as a division rival for some time Thursday, found themselves down 4-0 in the first. By the time Alex Ovechkin scored to make it 5-0 in the second, well, it meant little more than to pad his stats. “You give up two goals on two shots,” said Panthers coach Kevin Dineen, whose team’s 19 points are fewest in the entire league. “I don’t like to leave anyone out to dry, but obviously I don’t think Jacob Markstrom was ready to play tonight and the ball started to roll.” Said Markstrom: “I felt like I let the team down. I didn’t stop pucks. It wasn’t good enough.” The Panthers are probably happy to get away from Washington when the league reconfigures its divisions next year. Florida has lost seven in a row in Washington and six in a row to the Caps overall. “They’re a good team in their building,” said Jack Skille, who ended Braden Holtby’s shutout bid with 9:11 left. That made it only 6-1. “I think they smell blood when we come in here and they can get a couple early,” Dineen said. “We can talk about pushback, but we got spanked 7-1. It’s unacceptable.” Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/08/3273390/washington-capitals-punish-florida.html#storylink=cpy