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Flyers Playoff Gameday: ECQF Game 5 @ WSH |
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GAME 5 PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. CAPITALS
Needing a win to stave off playoff elimination and send the series back to Philadelphia, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers are in DC to face Barry Trotz's Washington Capitals in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on Wednesday night. Game time at the Verizon Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia and NBCSN.
The Flyers have played strong first periods in all four games to date but it took until Game 4 for Philadelphia to take a lead to intermission. A power play goal by Shayne Gostisbehere through a Wayne Simmonds screen in front broke the Flyers' 0-for-13 schneid in the series and provided a 1-0 lead.
In an evenly played middle frame, Andrew MacDonald established Philadelphia's first multi-goal lead of the series. The third period was all Caps, as Washington attacked in waves after T.J. Oshie potted an early rebound goal to cut the deficit to 2-1. Michal Neuvirth (31 saves on 32 shots) stepped up the rest of the way. Braden Holtby finished with 23 saves on 25 shots.
For the first time in the series, the Flyers won the special teams side (1-for-2 on the power play, 2-for-2 on the penalty kill). Just as important, they stayed out of the penalty box as much as possible after getting picked apart in Games 1 through 3, even including a 5-for-6 showing in Game 1 in which the Caps just as easily could have gone 4-for-6.
A horrifying moment took place at 16:11 of the first period. Jockeying with Capitals defenseman John Carlson deep in Washington territory as the puck went around the wall, Flyers forward Scott Laughton wiped out and crashed awkwardly into the lower part of the end boards, laying face down and motionless on the ice in the trapezoid behind the Washington net. He was stretchered off on a gurney with his head and neck immobilized and taken to Jefferson Hospital for testing and overnight observation.
Laughton was released from the hospital on Friday but will not join the team in DC.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers' challenge remains the same as it has all series: Make the most of their chances when they get them, stay out of the penalty box and at least make special teams a wash, and do not "gift" goals to a Caps team than can earn them just fine on their own. For the goaltender, the challenge is to not give up anything counterpart Holtby typically would not.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare served a one-game suspension in Game 4. He will return to the lineup for Game 5. Colin McDonald, who brought an effective "heavy game" in Game 4 will remain in the lineup, although he might move to a different line with Bellemare rejoining Ryan White and Chris VandeVelde.
Neuvirth's lone mistake in Game 4 was leaving out a bad point-shot rebound on the Oshie goal. He was otherwise excellent and will likely get the nod again in Game 5.
Prior to the Ed Snider memorial at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday, Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said that he liked the physical element that Brayden Schenn brought to the Flyers top line in Game 4 after moving back to the wing (he'd centered the second line in Games 2 and 3) and switching lines with Jakub Voracek.
Capitals Outlook
Other than improved first periods and establishing more of a 5-on-5 advantage, there really isn't too much that Washington needs to be concerned about at this point even after losing Game 4 by a narrow 2-1 margin.
The bottom half of the blueline bears some watching, though. John Carlson has been dominant and Karl Alzner has been his usual steady self. The usually reliable Matt Niskanen had turnover issues in Game 4 and the fourth, fifth, and sixth spots were ordinary.
Playing without injured shutdown defenseman Brooks Orpik, the Caps had a little less success in the trenches than they had in the games where he was available. Moved up to the second pairing, Nate Schmidt struggled with giveaways and decision-making. Sixth defenseman Taylor Chorney, playing his first game of the series after Orpik's injury, was spotted in 12:10 of ice time by Capitals coach Barry Trotz, taking a bad penalty that led to the Gostisbehere goal. There were also times when Dmitry Orlov was mistake-prone under pressure.
Goaltender Holtby left the ice favoring a leg after a collision with a teammate at Wednesday's practice. He played in Game 4 and played well, although MacDonald's goal was not unstoppable.
The Capitals have been very patient offensively during the series. They've hit some posts and missed the net on a few point blank chances in each game but it has never been cause for alarm because they'll eventually get another, similar chance if they wait out of the Flyers.
Up front, after being relatively quiet in the first three games, Andre Burakovsky began to assert himself in the third period of Game 4. Veteran superstar Alex Ovechkin came within a whisker of scoring a game-tying goal in the third period from virtually the same perimeter spot above the right circle from which he'd beaten Steve Mason in Game 3. In Game 4, however, he used a scorching slap shot rather than a wrist shot and the puck whistled barely wide of the long side rather than going in the net.
On the power play, despite the high volume of Philadelphia shot blocks, the Caps have done as they've pleased in terms of puck movement and traffic. Philly only had one full two-minute kill in Game 4 plus an abbreviated one later. The Flyers pressured the high man in Game 4 after being very passive in previous games. The sample size was too small to declare it a successful adjustment for Philadelphia. Right now, the power play remains the Caps' biggest weapon and there are no changes on the PK that have to be made.
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 1.00 (0,1,1,2), Capitals 3.25 (2,4,6,1)
Goals against per game: Flyers 3.25, Capitals 1.00
5-on-5 GF/GA ratio: Flyers 3/5, Capitals 5/3
Power play efficiency: Flyers 6.67% (1-for-15), 42.1% (8-for-19)
Penalty kill efficiency: Flyers 57.9% (11-for-19), 93.33% (14-for-15)
Shots per game: Flyers 29.5 (19,42, 32, 25), Capitals 28.25 (31, 23, 27, 32)
Shots against per game: Flyers 28.25, Capitals 29.5
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.3% (120-for-234), Capitals 48.7% (114-for-234)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
Flyers
10 Brayden Schenn - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
93 Jakub Voracek - 12 Michael Raffl - 89 Sam Gagner
24 Matt Read - 52 Nick Cousins - 36 Colin McDonald
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Ryan White
47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
30 Michal Neuvirth
[35 Steve Mason]
Scratches: Evgeny Medvedev (healthy), R.J. Umberger (healthy), Jordan Weal (healthy), Sean Couturier (upper body, left shoulder), Michael Del Zotto (wrist surgery), Scott Laughton (upper body), Anthony Stolarz (healthy), Davis Drewiske (healthy), Mark Alt (healthy), Robert Hägg (healthy), Samuel Morin (healthy), Chris Conner (healthy), Taylor Leier (healthy), Cole Bardreau (healthy).
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
88 Nate Schmidt - 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitri Orlov - 4 Taylor Chorney
70 Braden Holtby
[31 Philipp Grubauer]
Scratches: Taylor Chorney (healthy), Stanislav Galiev (healthy), Michael Latta (healthy), Mike Weber (healthy), Brooks Orpik (upper body, suspected concussion).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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