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Flyers Gameday: 1/21/17 @ WSH |
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GAME 47 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ CAPITALS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (22-16-8) are back in action on Sunday afternoon, visiting the District of Columbia to take on Barry Trotz's Washington Capitals (28-15-4) at Capital One Arena. Game time is 12:30 p.m. ET. The game will be nationally televised on NBC.
This is the second of four meetings this season between the Metro Division rivals, and the first of two in Washington. The clubs will rematch in DC on Jan. 31 before the season series concludes in Philadelphia on March 18.
Back on Oct. 13 -- the Flyers' home opener -- a rested and energetic Flyers team caught a weary-legged Capitals team. Washington was playing for the third time in four nights and in the second half of a road back-to-back. The result, with backup Caps goalie Philipp Grubauer in net, was an 8-2 blowout win for the Flyers.
Jakub Voracek (three assists, and a hit crossbar on a 2-on-1 rush) shredded Capitals defenders repeatedly. Linemates Sean Couturier (two goals, one assist) and Claude Giroux (two goals, two assists) reaped the benefits during the night as did Wayne Simmonds (one goal, one assist) on a power play goal set up by Voracek. Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere collected three apples of his own. Scott Laughton scored a shorthanded goal.
This time around, both teams are playing for the third time in four days but a slight "potential fatigue factor" edge favors the Capitals.
Washington has been home since Friday and had an idle day on Saturday. The Flyers are playing for the third time in less than four nights and the second end of a home-and-road set of matinee back-to-back games with a train ride to DC in between. The Caps were on the road in Newark on Thursday, hosted the Montreal Canadiens on Friday and had an off-day on Saturday.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The Flyers are 3-1-0 since their bye week, and 14-5-1 since their 0-5-5 swoon that has the club still below the playoff cutoff line in the Eastern Conference dogfight for postseason positioning. The Metro Division race is so tightly pack that the Flyers could be in last place by Tuesday with a regulation loss against the Caps but with a win of any kind on Sunday could be within two points of second place (a first-round home ice spot).
Philly enters this game coming off a 3-1 home over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. The Flyers built a 3-0 lead in the first 13 minutes of the game and the lead was never in severe jeopardy as Philly navigated the crossroads on special teams in a helter-skelter second period and then did a good job of finishing out the game.
Travis Konecny (7th goal of the season), Valtteri Filppula (10th) and Ivan Provorov (9th) scored for the Flyers. Shayne Gostisbehere (24th assist of the season), Scott Laughton (7th assist of the season), Michael Raffl (7th assist), Radko Gudas (6th assist), Konecny (12th assist) and Claude Giroux (41st assist) contributed helpers.
Michal Neuvirth got the start in goal for the Flyers for the second straight game. Although he didn't have to be as spectacular as he was in the third period of Thursday's win over Toronto, the goalie made timely saves and a few tough ones. Overall, he finished with 28 saves on 29 shots.
The Flyers are 9-8-4 on the road to date this season. Most of the team's recent surge has been due to a 9-2-0 run in their last 11 home games as well as a 3-0-0 road sweep of a Western Canada trip that initially put the 10-game winless skid in the rearview mirror. However, although the team is just 2-3-1 in their last six road games, the two wins came at the expense of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Devils.
For the season, the Flyers have scored 2.93 goals per game (14th in the NHL) and have a team 2.83 GAA (17th). At five-on-five, the Flyers have scored 83 goals (tied for 20th) and yielded 70 (tied for 2nd fewest).
On the power play, the Flyers rank 11th at 20.6 percent (33-for-160) with seven shorthanded goals yielded (tied for fourth most). On the penalty kill, the Flyers rank 29th (108-for-144, 75.0 percent). Laughton's goal in the home opener against Washington stood as the lone SHG for the Flyers until Simmonds bagged one against Toronto on Thursday.
CAPITALS OUTLOOK
The Capitals are the only Metro Division team that has any breathing room at all in the playoff race. The first-place team holds a four-point edge on New Jersey (albeit with the Devils holding two games in hand) plus a four ROW tiebreaker edge. There's a seven-point cushion between where Washington currently sits and the lower wildcard cutoff point.
Not even Washington can affford to get too comfortable, however. The team, which is 18-7-0 on home ice this season and 6-2-2 in its last 10 games, is 0-1-1 since its bye week and 1-2-1 overall in its last five games. The club dropped a 4-3 road OT verdict in New Jersey on Thursday and then lost at home, 3-2, to Montreal on Friday.
Veteran superstar Alex Ovechkin leads the Capitals with 28 goals and 50 points in 47 games. He's followed by other familiar names: Evgeny Kuznetsov (13 goals, 30 assists, 43 points), Nicklas Bäckström (just nine goals to date, but 30 assists), defenseman John Carlson (six goals, 30 assists, 36 points) and T.J. Oshie (11 goals overall with seven on the power play, 28 points in 41 games). Veteran forward Lars Eller has 10 goals and 22 points, while Brett Connolly (12 goals in 38 games) and Jakub Vrana (10 goals, 17 points) have also tallied in the double digits.
Veteran defenseman Matt Niskanen, a frequent nemesis of the Flyers, paces the club with a plus-17 rating in just 33 games played. Meetings with the Capitals often mean hostilities with Caps forward Tom Wilson, who has already racked up 107 penalty minutes and is one goal and four points away from matching his full-season career highs of seven goals and 23 points.
Frequent Vezina Trophy candidate Braden Holtby has made 34 starts this season to 13 stars (plus three relief appearances) for Grubauer. Holtby has had better statistical seasons in recent years than this year's campaign to date but still brings a 24-9-1 record into this game, with a 2.70 GAA and .916 save percentage. Grubauer was not sharp in the blowout loss to the Flyers back in October but has otherwise had a good statistical season (2.56 GAA, .917 save percentage, one shutout) despite a 4-6-3 record.
The Capitals are tied for the NHL's ninth-most potent offense (3.02 goal average) and are 16th in team GAA (2.83). At 5-on-5, the club has scored 94 goals (tied for 7th) and yielded 81 goals (11th).
The Washington power play, usually at or right near the top of the NHL, ranks 16th so far this season at 19.2 percent efficiency (28-for-146) with six opposing shorthanded goals yielded. On the penalty kill, the Caps rank 19th at 79.4 percent success (127-for-160) with three shorthanded goals scored. Wilson, Jay Beagle and Alex Chiasson have one SHG apiece.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 19 Nolan Patrick - 17 Wayne Simmonds
56 Tyrell Goulbourne - 21 Scott Laughton - 15 Jori Lehterä
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
47 Andrew MacDonald -3 Robert Hägg
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
37 Brian Elliott
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: 6 Travis Sanheim (healthy), 20 Taylor Leier (healthy), 22 Dale Weise (healthy).
CAPITALS
8 Alex Ovechkin - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 43 Tom Wilson
65 Andre Burakovsky - 19 Nicklas Bäckström - 77 T.J. Oshie
18 Chandler Stephenson - 20 Lars Eller - 10 Brett Connolly
13 Jakub Vrana - 83 Jay Beagle - 25 Devante Smith-Pelly
29 Christian Djoos - 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitri Orlov - 2 Matt Niskanen
44 Brooks Orpik - 22 Madison Bowey
70 Braden Holtby
[31 Philipp Grubauer]
Scratches 4 Taylor Chorney (healthy), 39 Alex Chiasson (healthy).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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