GAME 13: FLYERS vs. CAPITALS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (7-3-2) begin a back-to-back set against Peter Laviolette's Washington Capitals (6-2-1) at the Capital One Center in DC. Game time is noon. It will be televised nationally on NBC.
This is the first of eight meetings between the East Division teams this season. The teams will rematch in Washington on Tuesday. Thereafter, the next four games will be at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia: March 11, March 13, April 17 and April 27. The season series (and the regular season itself) concludes on May 7 and 8 back in DC.
Last season, the Flyers played some of their best hockey against the Capitals. Despite being at a fatigue-factor disadvantage in two of the games, the Flyers went 3-0-1 against the Caps in 2019-20. Philly also beat the Capitals during the round robin phase in the Bubble in Toronto. One season earlier, though, the Capitals swept the season series with four regulation victories.
For a look at the history of the Flyers-Capitals rivalry and a look (written before the season) at the Washington offseason and roster analysis,
click here.
Flyers Outlook
Coming off back-to-back blown third period leads in home losses to Boston (one in overtime, one in regulation), the Flyers are trying to emphasize the positive. Except for a disastrous 27-second span that saw Boston score twice to turn a 1-0 Flyers lead into a 2-1 Bruins advantage, the Flyers played one of their best games of the season. One game earlier, for a 40-minute span in between a very poor start and a self-destructive finish, the Flyers elevated their game.
On Saturday, Sean Couturier, Phil Myers, Oskar Lindblom and Carter Hart were all back at practice. Couturier and Myers are officially day-to-day, although some signs seemed to point toward him playing on Sunday. Hart will start in goal on Sunday and Lindblom is fine.
Capitals Outlook
The Capitals split
CAPITALS
The Caps split their two games with Boston last week, winning 4-3 in overtime and then seeing a 3-1 third period lead go by the wayside in a 5-3 loss. On Thursday, the Capitals lost a 4-2 road decision to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Per Caps' PR, today marks the 13th consecutive season the Capitals will host a game on Super Bowl Sunday.
Projected lineups (Wednesday's lines, will be updated)
FLYERS (Saturday practice lines)
25 James van Riemsdyk - 14 Sean Couturier -93 Jakub Voracek
28 Claude Giroux -19 Nolan Patrick - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom -21 Scott Laughton - 86 Joel Farabee
12 Michael Raffl - 13 Kevin Hayes - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov -53 Shayne Gostisbehere
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
8 Robert Hägg - 56 Erik Gustafsson
79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]
PP1: Giroux, Couturier, Voracek, JVR, Provorov
PP2: Patrick, Hayes, Konecny, Gustafsson, Gostisbehere
Scratches: 14 Sean Couturier (IR, rib, day-to-day), 3 Mark Friedman (healthy), 5 Phil Myers (upper body, day-to-day), 8 Robert Hägg (possible healthy scratch if Myers is able to play), 82 Connor Bunnaman (likely healthy scratch if Couturier can play), 48 Morgan Frost (IR, dislocated shoulder).
CAPITALS
8 Alex Ovechkin --19 Nicklas Backstrom -- 43 Tom Wilson
14 Richard Panik -- 20 Lars Eller -- 28 Daniel Carr
62 Carl Hagelin -- 26 Nic Dowd -- 21 Garnet Hathaway
16 Philippe Maillet -- (TBD or 11/7 F/D) -- 10 Daniel Sprong
33 Zdeno Chara - 74 John Carlson
4 Brenden Dillon - 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk
9 Dmitry Orlov - 3 Nick Jensen
34 Jonas Siegenthaler (if 7D)
41 Vitek Vanecek
[31 Craig Anderson]
PP1: Ovechkin, Bäckström, Wilson, Eller, Carlson
PP2: Panik, TBD, Sprong, Chara, Orlov
Scratches: 2 Justin Schultz (facial injury), 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov (unavailable, Covid protocol), 30 Ilya Samsonov (unavailable, Covid protocol), 77 TJ Oshie (upper body), 13 Jakub Vrana (unavailable, Covid protocol).
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