GAME 5 PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. CAPITALS
Returning from a nine-day, four-game road trip to begin the 2017-18 regular season, Dave Hakstol's Philadephia Flyers (2-2-0) will play their home opener on Saturday against Barry Trotz's Washington Capitals (3-1-1). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
This is the first of four meetings this season between the Metropolitan Division rivals. The clubs will rematch at the Verizon Center in Washington on Jan. 21 and Jan. 31 before the season series concludes in Philadelphia on March 18.
Last season, the Flyers were 1-2-1 against Washington.
Philly won the first game at home via shootout, 3-2, as now-former Flyers goalie Steve Mason stopped 36 of 38 shots in regulation and OT and then three of four in the shootout. The host Caps crushed the Flyers, 5-0, on Jan. 15 and then came to Philly and beat the Flyers, 4-1, in the third meeting. The season series finale in Washington saw the teams battle for two scoreless periods, trade off early third period goals and Washington's Nicklas Bäckström finally win the game on an overtime power play goal.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers
took some encouragement from their overall team performance during the four-game road trip despite returning home with a 2-2-0 record.
Over the last four season, the Flyers have the NHL's 7th-best home record but are 24th on the road; the widest discrepancy among any team in the league. Last season, the Flyers posted 55 points at home (25-11-5) but just 33 on the road (14-22-5).
Only two teams in NHL history -- the 2014-15 Los Angeles Kings (57 home points) and the 2005-06 Vancouver Canucks (56 home points) - have ever recorded more points on home ice than the Flyers did last season and still missed qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Adding further frustration to last season, the Flyers became the first team in NHL history to have a winning streak of 10 or more games and subsequently missing the playoffs that season.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a bizarre game in Nashville on Tuesday.
The Flyers trailed, 3-0, then stormed back to score five goals and take a 5-3 lead. Valtteri Filppula notched a power of power play goals, while Nolan Patrick scored at even strength for his first NHL goal. Philly also got a nifty goal by Travis Konecny when he got home free on the rush. Andrew MacDonald scored the goal that started the Philadelphia rally in the second period.
The Predators proceeded to narrow the gap to 5-4. Late in regulation, abetted by a two-minute 5-on-3 (and eventually 6-on-3) power play, the Preds tied the game on ex-Flyer Scott Hartnell's second goal of the game. Hakstol challenged the call, claiming the initial zone entry had gone offside.
The challenge was unsuccessful, and the Flyers were assessed a delay of game bench minor. Nashville did not score on the ensuing continued 5-on-3 power play but Filip Forsberg scored moments later at 5-on-4 to win the game for Nashville.
Making his first start through the first four games, Brian Elliott was not sharp in Tuesday's game in Nashville. He finished with 25 saves on 31 shots in a losing cause. On Friday at practice, Elliott worked in what is often the "starter net" for the next game but Michal Neuvirth exited the ice first while Elliott put in some additional work.
The Flyers assigned rookie defenseman Sam Morin to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday. With the team home for the next five games, the club did not recall a player from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The team for now will have 13 forwards and seven defensemen. Jori Lehterä was scratched in each of the first four games of the season while Brandon Manning sat out the last three.
Saturday's game will be the fourth and final home opener the Flyers will be involved with this season. The Flyers were the away team in their games in San Jose, Los Angeles and Nashville. The game in Anaheim was the Ducks' second home game of the season.
The Flyers will hold a 10:30 a.m. morning skate at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Saturday. The Capitals are unlikely to have a morning skate, due to their packed schedule in recent days.
Capitals Outlook
The back-to-back winners of the President's Trophy (NHL's top record in the regular season) went on to lose in the second round of the playoffs in both 2016 and 2017. While the team lost some notable players over the summer, the core group is still formidable.
The Flyers may be catching the Capitals at a good time. While the Flyers have been home since Wednesday with two subsequent practice days and three idle nights on the schedule, the Caps will be playing for the third time in four nights and in the second half of a road back-to-back.
On Wednesday, Washington dropped a hard-fought 3-2 decision on home ice to the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. On Friday, the Caps visited the New Jersey Devils and rode four power play goals to a 5-2 triumph.
Nicklas Bäckström collected a New Jersey turnover and fed T.J. Oshie for a snipe that made the game 1-0 at 14:49 of the first period. Alex Ovechkin measured and roofed a power play wrist shot from the left circle to make it 2-0 at 8:01 of the second period.
After Taylor Hall got a goal back for the Devils, Jakub Vrana tipped home an initially harmless-looked Devante Smith-Pelly offering to build a 3-1 lead in the final minute of the second period.
The Devils drew back within a goal in the opening minute of the third period as Kyle Palmieri split the defense off a stretch pass and went into elevate a shot over Braden Holtby. New Jersey seemed to be ready to generate a push to tie the game. However, a high-sticking double minor on Pavel Zacha as he clipped and drew blood on Lars Eller put the Devils back in dire straights.
On the ensuing power play, Bäckström fed Oshie for a fall-away one timer from the lower right circle that found the twine. On the second portion of the power play, Bäckström went to the net and re-directed a setup by Ovechkin to turn the game into a comfortable 5-2 lead.
Holtby, who has started all five games to date, finished with 21 saves on 23 shots to earn the win. He stopped 17 of 18 at even strength and four of five on New Jersey power plays. He enters Saturday's game with a .923 save percentage and 2.47 GAA.
It is possible that the Capitals could give Philipp Grubauer a start in Philadelphia on Saturday, although Holtby is a workhorse starter who has respectively appeared in 73, 66 and 63 games over the last three seasons heading into 2017-18. Grubauer is a very capable netminder in his own regard (13-6-2, 2.05 GAA, .926 SV%, three shutouts last season).
Veteran Caps superstar Ovechkin is off to a scorching start to the season. Through five games, he's already racked up nine goals and 10 points, including back-to-back hat tricks in the season's first two games. Only one of the goals came on the power play. Correspondingly, playmaking wizard Evgeny Kuznetsov has compiled 10 assists over the first four games. Also off to hot starts: Bäckström (two goals, eight assists, 10 points) and Oshie (five goals, seven points).
Defenseman Matt Niskanen suffered an upper-body injury (apparently to his hand) on a play in Friday's game where he got slashed. The Capitals placed him on long-term injured reserve on Saturday morning and recalled Madison Bowey from the AHL's Hershey Bears.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
Flyers
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds
22 Dale Weise - 19 Nolan Patrick - 11 Travis Konecny
20 Taylor Leier - 21 Scott Laughton - 12 Michael Raffl
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hägg
23 Brandon Manning- 3 Radko Gudas
37 Brian Elliott
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Jori Lehterä (healthy), Travis Sanheim (healthy).
Capitals
8 Alex Ovechkin - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 13 Jakub Vrana
65 Andre Burakovsky - 19 Nicklas Backstrom - 77- T.J. Oshie
10 Brett Connolly - 20 Lars Eller - 43 Tom Wilson
39 Alex Chiasson - 83 Jay Beagle - 25 Devante Smith-Pelly
44 Brooks Orpik -74 John Carlson
9 Dmitri Orlov - 55 Aaron Ness
29 Christian Djoos - 22 Madison Bowey
31 Philipp Grubauer
[70 Braden Holtby]
Scratches: Tyler Groaovac (healthy), Nathan Walker (healthy), Matt Niskanen (LTIR, upper body), Madison Bowey.
*********
PHANTOMS BLANKED BY PENS IN FRONT END OF HOME-AND-HOME
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms did not get their three-in-three weekend gauntlet off to a good start, falling 5-0 to the host Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday night. The teams will rematch on Saturday at the PPL Center in Allentown before the Phantoms wrap up the weekend on the road against the Hershey Bears.
Apart from the play of the fourth line trio of Radel Fazleev, Corban Knight and Tyrell Goulbourne and several good scoring chances for veteran Chris Conner among a half dozen shots on goal, it was a forgettable night for the Phantoms. However, Lehigh Valley generated lengthy stretches of puck possession dominance before the score got out of hand.
After playing outstanding hockey in his first two starts, Alex Lyon had a tough night in net for the Phantoms. Before getting pulled at 15:19 of the second period, he stopped just 11 of 15 shots. He was fighting the puck for much of the night, even when he did come up with the stops. In relief, Dustin Tokarski stopped eight of nine shots in his Phantoms' debut.
Casey DeSmith notched a 33-save shutout for Wilkes Barre/Scranton. The goal support came from ex-Flyers winger Tom Sestito, Daniel Sprong (power play), Frank Corrado, Jean-Sabastien Dea, and Dominik Simon.
The Phantoms went 0-for-7 on the power play, while the Penguins went 2-for-6.
Lehigh Valley got off a fast start early in the game. The Phantoms dominated the early puck possession battles and quickly racking up each of the game's first five shots on goal in the process.
Ex-Flyer Tom Sestito scored on the Pens' first shot of the game, beating Alex Lyon from in close off a pass from Thomas DiPauli. Time of the goal was 6:21 of the opening period.Phantoms center Mike Vecchione lost a coverage on the play. The pairing of Sam Morin and Phil Myers was also on the ice for the Penguins' goal.
As the opening period reached its halfway point, the Pens had two goals on three shots. Wilkes Barre/Scranton then took a 2-0 lead on the power play at 9:56. Daniel Sprong blasted home a one-timer from the left circle.
Danick Martel had a shorthanded breakaway off a Nicolas Aube-Kubel lead pass on the second Phantoms' penalty kill. He was slashed from behind by Zach Aston-Reese. The Phantoms wanted a penalty shot but instead got an eventual abbreviated power play on a slashing minor on Aston-Reese.
The Phantoms dodged a bullet in the waning seconds. Lyon misread a WB/S neutral zone dump-in and barely kept it out of the net with an awkward save. Shots were 10-9 in the Phantoms' favor in the opening period.
Lehigh Valley got off to another solid start in the second period. Their best chance was a Mark Friedman point shot nearly tipped home by Greg Carey.
The Phantoms short-circuited their early momentum as Mikhail Vorobyev took a hooking penalty on the backcheck. However, Matt Read's penalty killing work drew an even-up penalty on Dominik Simon.
WB/S built a 3-0 lead at 7:53 of the second period. A harmless looking point shot by Frank Corrado appeared to be accidentally deflected by T.J. Brennan and changed direction.
The Phantoms applied very heavy pressure on their fourth power play of the game, capped off by a one-timer by Vecchione with a good look at the net. However, WB/S survived the kill.
WB/S nearly made it 4-0 as a puck leaked through Lyon and trickled toward the goal line. Morin reeled it back and tucked it to the goalie. On the next shift, Friedman was tripped in the defensive zone by Adam Johnson.
The Phantoms did not score on the power play. Right after their PK end, the Pens generated a 3-on-2 rush and J-S Dea scored on a backdoor pass from Tom Kostopoulous at 15;19. Lyon was removed from the game at this point and Dustin Tokarski entered with the Phantoms trailing 4-0.
Late in the second period, there was a good scoring chance by the Phantoms' fourth line. The rebound of a Radel Fazleev shot caused havoc with Tyrell Goulbourne nearly potting it. The Phantoms' earned their sixth power play of the game, which carried over into the third period.
Second period shots were 15-6 in the Phantoms' favor; 25-15 overall. Tokarski did not see a shot in the period after replacing Lyon.
The Phantoms were unable to cash in on the power play and, seconds later, Myers was called for a delayed holding penalty. The penalty parade continued as the hard work of Radel Fazleev drew a Kostopoulos hooking penalty. The Phantoms eventually went onto their seventh power play, and did little with it.
DeSmith made a spectacular glove save on Greg Carey from the slot for his 30th save of the game.
Chris Conner took a high-sticking double minor with 4:36 left in the game. On the man advantage, Dominik Simon deflected home a point shot by Zach Trotman.
Final shots were 33-22 in the Phantoms' favor; 9-8 in the Penguins' favor during the third period.
PHANTOMS STARTING LINES
18 Danick Martel - 21 Mike Vecchione - 16 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
28 Oskar Lindblom - 26 Phil Varone - 22 Chris Conner
10 Greg Carey - 15 Mikhail Vorobyev - 24 Matt Read
12 Tyrell Goulbourne - 19 Radel Fazleev - 14 Corban Knight
3 Sam Morin - 5 Phil Myers
43 T.J. Brennan- 44 Reece Willcox
37 Mark Friedman - 2 Mark Alt
34 Alex Lyon
[35 Dustin Tokarski]
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