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Flyers Playoff Gameday: ECQF Game 2 @ WSH |
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GAME 2 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ CAPITALS
Needing a victory to achieve a split and bring the series to Philadelphia tied at one game apiece, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers are in DC on Saturday to take on Barry Trotz's Washington Capitals. Game time on Saturday is 7 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
In Game One on Thursday, the Flyers were the better team in the first period but let three consecutive power plays go waste. They also wasted stellar goaltending by Steve Mason (29 saves on 31 shots). As the game progressed, the Flyers got into severe penalty trouble with six minors over the final 37:03 of the game. The Flyers went 5-for-6 on the penalty kill but it was still costly and draining, especially in combination with going 0-for-4 on the power play.
By virtue of the Flyers spending so much time killing penalties, Philly got outshot by a 23-8 margin after the first period (31-19 overall) and barely tested Braden Holtby (19-save shutout). On Washington's third power play, a somewhat controversial delay of game call on Brandon Manning coming just 34 seconds after the second Capitals power play expired, they scored to take a 1-0 lead late in the second period.
John Carlsson's power play point shot double-deflected off Philadelphia's Chris VandeVelde and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and then, skittering unpredictably, bounced along the ice past Mason. Late in the third period, a Jakub Voracek turnover in the neutral zone became a counterattacking goal for Jay Beagle. Marcus Johansson assisted on both Washington tallies.
Game one was, as expected, a physical match with a lot of heavy bodychecks (26 credited to the Flyers, 29 for Washington) and shot-blocking (21 for the Flyers, 23 for the Capitals). The Capitals were not pleased with the aggressiveness of Flyers' forward Brayden Schenn (six credited hits, two shots) while the Flyers were upset with the Capitals'l Tom Wilson boarding defenseman Andrew MacDonald at 13:07 of the third period.
Flyers power forward Wayne Simmonds defended MacDonald by fighting Wilson. While Simmonds won the bout decisively, it was a bad exchange. Both players received seven minutes in penalties, canceling out a would-be Flyers power play and removing the Flyers' top regular season goal scorer for the rest of the third period in what was then a one-goal game.
By comparison,the Capitals were glad to trade off Wilson. He is a comparable player to former NHL (including Flyers) forward Ben Eager. Both were former first-round draft picks with fourth-line skill sets. Both were big-framed forwards whose role was to throw their weight around. Both could be effective when they played with a semblance of discipline. Both too often tended toward recklessness and seemingly operating on their own agenda.
Flyers Outlook
Over the course of any playoff run, attrition is inevitable. It didn't take long for injury adversity to strike the Flyers in this series. Sean Couturier went down with an injured left shoulder or arm midway through Game One after getting checked into the boards by Washington superstar Alex Ovechkin.
On Friday, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall announced that Couturier will be out for two weeks, making the all-situations center and top defensive forward unavailable to play for the rest of the series. During the regular season, the Flyers were 35-18-10 with Couturier in the lineup. Without him, they went 6-9-4. However, the team fared better during a second-half absence than went he went down with a concussion earlier in the season.
During the regular season, Couturier played in 63 games. He chipped in 39 points (11 goals, and a career-high 28 assists), while averaging 18:36 of ice time per-game. His point-scoring output matched a career-best set 2013-14 season when he dressed in all 82 games.
In the absence of Couturier, second-year pro Scott Laughton will rejoin the Flyers' lineup. It remains to be seen whether he will play center or wing, and who his linemates will be. Hakstol indicated on Friday that Laughton would likely see some penalty killing ice time and that the secondary power play unit will work around Couturier's spot with other personnel.
Apart from Couturier's absence, much of Friday's talk focused on power play adjustments and generating more attack time on the man advantage. In Game One, the Capitals heavily focused on shutting down Claude Giroux's side of the ice and crowding Shayne Gostisbehere (seven attempted shots but only one on net).
In Game Two, the Flyers will try to generate better offensive zone entries both on the power play and at even strength. They'll also try to run more plays through Jakub Voracek's side of the ice and for Gostisbehere, usually a shoot-first player, to look to distribute a little more.
Defensively, the Flyers did a good job overall at five-on-five and their latter game penalty kills were strong after over-relying on Mason to bail them out of trouble time and time again until the double-deflection goal -- which is the potential downside of a heavy focus on shot-blocking.
While the Flyers' power play is criticized for predictability, it has been a 20-plus percent success most years in recent seasons and finished a shade below 19 percent this season. Moreover, the Capitals have perhaps the NHL's most predictable power play -- option A is always to funnel the puck to Ovechkin for one-timers and, almost inevitably, he'll find the net with one or more.
On Thursday, the Flyers did about as good of a job as any team can do in containing Ovechkin. They blocked 5 of his 11 shot attempts -- a painful proposition because of how hard he shoots -- and Mason robbed him a couple times in addition to one shot hitting the post and going over the safety netting. Philly could do a better job of checking dangerous center Evgeny Kuznetsov, who was held off the scoreboard mostly by Mason. He had seven shots on goal, and two of them required outstanding saves to keep out of the net.
Capitals Outlook
There isn't too much that the Capitals need to adjust between Games One and Two. They were back on their heels and seemingly a bit jittery in the first period but were the better team in the second and third periods.
Once the Capitals got going in Game One, the Flyers found it tough at times to get out of their own zone. In the defensive end, Washington did a good job at boxing out and protecting Holtby. They defended Flyers rush attempts well after the first period, often forcing dump-ins by shutting off opportunities to carry the puck into the offensive zone. Philadelphia only had a couple odd-man rushes in the game.
On the power play, the Capitals looked fearsome on all but a wasted four-minute advantage in the third period. They generated clean entries, moved the puck at will and created most everything they wanted but the payoff -- until the seeing eye goal off two Flyers gave Washington the first self-made "lucky break" of the series.
In net, likely Vezina Trophy finalist Holtby was very sharp. The Flyers only had one truly notable second-chance opportunity -- a Schenn left hash marks shot that rebounded diagonally to Voracek at the bottom of the right circle but Holtby made the second save as well.
The Capitals may try to get Mason moving laterally a little more in Game 2, but will also continue to try to generate shots through traffic with their bigger forwards in front -- the Flyers goalie had to contend with several of those in Game One and found the pucks but repetition is the key to getting one or two through. On the finesse side, look for Kuznetsov to use the back of the net as a shield and either set up chances with pass-outs or make a tight circle to cut out in front and look for stuff-in opportunities.
Twice this season against Philly, Nicklas Bäckström created goals by cutting into the right circle and electing to shoot. Teams tend to think pass-first with the playmaking forward.
Key team stat comparisons
Regular Season (overall NHL ranking in parenthesis)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.57 (22nd), Capitals 3.02 2nd)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.59 (T-13th), Capitals 2.33 (2nd)
5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 133/130, Capitals 166/128
Power play efficiency: Flyers 18.9% (T-11th), Capitals 21.9% (5th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 80.5% (T-20th), Capitals 85.2% (2nd)
Shots per game: Flyers 31.0 (5th), Capitals 30.6 (T-7th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 30.7 (23rd), Capitals 28.4 (6th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.0% (6th), Capitals 49.6% (19th)
Series to date
Goals per game: Flyers 0.00, Capitals 2.00
Goals against per game: Flyers 2.00, Capitals 0.00
5-on-5 GF/GA ratio: Flyers 0/1, Capitals 1/0
Power play efficiency: Flyers 0.00% (0-for-4), 16.7% (1-for-6)
Penalty kill efficiency: Flyers 83.3% (5-for-6), 100% (4-for-4)
Shots per game: Flyers 19.0, Capitals 31.0
Shots against per game: Flyers 31.0, Capitals 19.0
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 54.4% (31-for-57), Capitals 45.6% (26-for-57)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
Flyers
93 Jakub Voracek - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl - 10 Brayden Schenn - 89 Sam Gagner
21 Scott Laughton - 52 Nick Cousins - 24 Matt Read
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - 25 Ryan White
47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Evgeny Medvedev (healthy), R.J. Umberger (healthy), Jordan Weal (healthy), Sean Couturier (upper body), Michael Del Zotto (wrist surgery).
Capitals
8 Alex Ovechkin - 19 Nicklas Bäckström - 77 T.J. Oshie
65 Andre Burakovsky - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 14 Justin Williams
25 Jason Chimera - 10 Mike Richards - 90 Marcus Johansson
26 Daniel Winnik - 83 Jay Beagle - 43 Tom Wilson
27 Karl Alzner - 2 Matt Niskanen
44 Brooks Orpik - 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitri Orlov - 88 Nate Schmidt
70 Braden Holtby
[31 Philipp Grubauer]
Scratches: Taylor Chorney (healthy), Stanislav Galiev (healthy), Michael Latta (healthy), Mike Weber (healthy).
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