GAME 66: FLYERS @ CAPITALS
In a game that means the difference between being one, two, four or five points out of first place in the Metropolitan Division, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (38-20-7 overall, 15-15-3 away) visit Todd Reirden's Washington Capitals (40-19-6 overall, 18-9-5 home) at Capital One Arena on Wednesday. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised on NBCSN. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on the
Flyers Radio 24/7 component of the Flyers Broadcast Network.
This is the fourth and final meeting of the season series between the teams, and the second and final one in Washington. The Flyers are 2-0-1 in the season series thus far.
On November 13 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers fell, 2-1, via shootout. A 35-save performance by Carter Hart and a third-period power play goal by Claude Giroux enabled the Flyers to earn a point from this game. After being outshot 16-5 in the first period, the Flyers outshot the Capitals 26-20 over the rest of the game. The Caps, who entered the game with a 13-2-4 record and a 12-game point streak (10-0-2), had not been held to fewer than three regulation goals since the third game of the season.
On January 8 in Philadelphia, the Flyers skated to a 3-2 win. Tied 2-2 at the first intermission, a shorthanded goal by Kevin Hayes with 2:01 remaining in the second period proved to be the difference maker in this hard-fought game. Hart made 26 saves to earn the win, including 20 stops over the final two periods. Travis Konecny and Robert Hägg also scored for the Flyers. This win, coming right on the heels of a dismal 1-4-1 road trip after Christmas, was the jump-off point for the Flyers' surge of the last seven weeks.
On Feb. 8, the visiting Flyers smoked the Capitals in Washington, 7-2. All eyes were on Alex Ovechkin at the start of the night, as he was red-hot offensively and needed two goals to reach 700 in his storied career. Instead, Claude Giroux stole the show with a goal and two assists to reach the 800-point mark in his NHL career. The game was tied 1-1 at the first intermission before the Flyers exploded for three goals in the second period and three more in the final frame. Sean Couturier scored twice. Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet. Brian Elliott made 25 saves.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Winners of six straight games and eight of the last 10 (8-2-0), the Flyers enter play on Wednesday one point ahead of Pittsburgh and three points behind Washington with all three teams having played 65 games to date. Philadelphia is coming off a home-and-home sweep of the New York Rangers last Friday (Philadelphia) and on Sunday (New York).
Special teams play -- three power play goals and a shorthanded marker -- and a 1-0 edge in five-on-five scoring keyed the Flyers' 5-3 win at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Hart had little to no chance on any of the three power play goals he yielded among 22 shots. Across all situations, the Flyers gave up 22 high-danger chances to the Rangers on Sunday; a number they will have to significantly reduce to beat the Capitals on road ice.
The Flyers had a
full-scale practice on Tuesday in Voorhees, will no maintenance days and all of the same forward lines and defense pairs that have been used over the last three games.
Elliott will get the start in goal in Washington, with Hart slated to start at home against Carolina on Thursday. Since earning the win over the Capitals on Feb. 8, Elliott has made just two starts. He stopped 20 of 24 shots in an aggravating 5-3 road loss to the Islanders on Feb. 11 that the Islanders pulled out in the final minute of regulation before tacking on an empty netter. Elliott then won the away half of the Flyers' home-and-home sweep of the Columbus Blue Jackets, making 28 saves in a 4-3 overtime victory.
CAPITALS OUTLOOK
On the whole, the Caps have not been at their best over the last month. They've won just four of their last 10 games including a 4-3 road win over the Minnesota Wild on Friday. It seemed for awhile that Ovechkin's quest for his 700th career NHL goal had become something of a distraction to the task at hand of winning hockey games. Since Ovechkin hit the mark, however, the team has been winning again.
Dating back to the Capitals stepping up at home to beat Pittsburgh, 5-3, on Feb. 23, the Capitals have won three of their last four games. In between the wins over the Penguins and Wild, the Caps split a home-and-home with the Winnipeg Jets. Most the Caps' recent losses have come on the road. The Capitals have not lost in regulation at home since Feb. 10 (5-3 to the New York Islanders), although they did drop an OT decision at home against Montreal on Feb. 20.
As with the Flyers, the Capitals are playing the front end of back-to-back games. Braden Holtby is the expected starter in goal against the Flyers. On Wednesday, the Capitals will be at Madison Square Garden to play the Rangers. Ilya Samsonov will get the start against the Blueshirts. Overall, the Capitals will be playing four times over the next six nights.
Last time the Capitals played the Flyers, Reirden took the nowadays rare coaching step to call timeout to publicly berate his team on the bench for how poorly they were playing and how massively the Flyers were out-competing them that night. At practice on Tuesday, several Capitals spoke to the media about being fired up to have the Flyers back in their building with a chance to push back Philadelphia's challenge for first place.
Since the Flyers last played the Capitals, Washington added heart-and-soul veteran defensive defenseman Brenden Dillon and veteran sniper Ilya Kovalchuk to the team prior to the NHL trade deadline last Monday. On his third team this season, Kovalchuk has one assist in three games this season. While with Montreal, he had a two-goal game in Philadelphia when the Habs defeated the Flyers with Alex Lyon in goal on Jan. 16.
TEAM STATS (LEAGUE RANKING, VIA NHL.COM AND NATURAL STAT TRICK)
GPG: PHI 3.31 (6th), WSH 3.42 (T-3rd)
GAA: PHI 2.85 (10th), WSH 3.03 (T-14th)
5-on-5: PHI +12 (142-130), WSH +8 (146-134)
Power Play: PHI 21.6% (9th), 20.3% (T-15th)
Penalty Kill: PHI 81.2% (12th), 83.3% (4th)
Special Teams Index: PHI 102.8 (10th), WSH 103.6 (6th)
SHG: PHI 8 (T-6th), WSH 5 (T-17th)
SHGA: PHI 6 (T-16th), WSH 9 (T-26th)
Average Shots: PHI 31.5 (T-15th), WSH 32 (T-11th)
Shots Against: PHI 28.5 (1st), WSH 30.2 (9th)
Corsi: PHI 51.53% (7th), WSH 51.49% (8th)
Scoring chances: PHI 53.85% (6th), WSH 50.86% (13th)
High-danger chances: PHI 50.79% (12th), WSH 50.35% (17th)
Expected goal differential: PHI 50.59 (16th), WSH 50.92 (14th)
Faceoffs: PHI 54.5 % (1st), WSH 48.4% (T-26th)
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 38 Derek Grant - 18 Tyler Pitlick
12 Michael Raffl - 44 Nate Thompson - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim -5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 61 Justin Braun
37 Brian Elliott
[79 Carter Hart]
Power Play 1: Giroux, Couturier, Konecny, Voracek, Provorov.
Power Play 2: JVR, Hayes, Aube-Kubel, Sanheim, Niskanen.
Scratches: 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (healthy).
LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines).
CAPITALS
8 Alex Ovechkin - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 43 Tom Wilson
13 Jakub Vrana - 19 Nicklas Backström - 77 T.J. Oshie
62 Carl Hagelin - 20 Lars Eller - 17 Ilya Kovalchuk
14 Richard Panik - 26 Nic Dowd - 21 Garnet Hathaway
4 Brenden Dillon - 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitry Orlov - 3 Nick Jensen
34 Jonas Siegenthaler - 33 Radko Gudas
70 Braden Holtby
[30 Ilya Samsonov]
Power Play 1: Backström, Vrana, Oshie, Ovechkin, Carlson
Power Play 2: Kovalchuk, Kuznetsov. Wilson, Ovechkin, Orlov
Scratches: 6 Michal Kempny (healthy), 28 Brendan Leipsic (healthy), 72 Travis Boyd (healthy).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»