Caps @ Flyers – March 6, 2019
Without Voracek and Patrick, the Flyers face former champs
Over the past couple months, the Flyers have suddenly become one of the hottest teams in the NHL and surprisingly with only 16 games left this season they still have a chance to make the playoffs. However, if that were to become a reality, they would have to make every game count to finally squeeze into the wildcard spot. With several well earned victories of late the Flyers looked to maintain their red-hot pace against last years Stanley Cup Champions, the Washington Capitals
FIRST PERIOD
Starting the game without Nolan Patrick and Jake Voracek was already an issue for this team, but they never really match up well against the Washington Capitals. The Caps are able to rotate 3 full lines of scorers, that is complimented with a veteran defense core that can shut down most teams. Coming in with a injury riddled lineup, it would be easy for the capitals to match up against the Flyers top line of Giroux, Couturier, and Lindblom. First shift the capitals came out ready to play keeping them jammed in their own zone early on. Without much pushback from the Flyers, the Capitals controlled the play throughout the entire period. It began with a beautiful on the knees pass by Alex Ovechkin to charging Tom Wilson to put the caps up 1-0. Rookie defenseman, Phil Myers, did have a strong game from beginning to end. As he managed to draw a penalty making a nice move on TJ Oshie, forcing the hook. The Flyers came up empty handed on the powerplay and were not putting much sustained pressure. Late in the period Caps forward would put another ghostly like shot over Brian Elliot that fooled everyone in the build. However, after review it was counted as a goal and were going into the 2nd period down 2-0.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period did not favor the Flyers better than the first. With 3 goals against in the 2nd period. The Capitals made no mistakes on the opportunities handed to them by the Flyers poor play and took a dominating 5-0 lead in the 2nd period. Three goals only minutes apart by Ovechkin, Andre Burakovsky, and Nicklas Backstrom. Quieted the building as it looked like the Flyers game was already over. It wasn’t until very late in the 2nd that NHL rookie Phil Myers made another impression. With only 12 seconds left in the 2nd period, Myers made a rush up the ice and fired a shot through the slot to beat Brian Holty on a rush at the end of the period. It was something to build off if the Flyers had any chance to rally in the third period.
THIRD PERIOD
The third period had a whole different energy to it. Flyers scored early and in succession to cut the game to 5-2 and with all of the momentum, they continued to press. Dodging several bullets that came their way. Ivan Provorov had a goal line save to keep the game 5-2. Only a couple minutes later the Flyers scored their 3rd goal of the game off a nice redirect by Scott Laughton shot by Andrew MacDonald. Laughton suddenly put the Flyers on the board again. All of a sudden, the capitals confident lead took a hit. The Flyers continued to press and maintained pressure the majority of the game. If they would have played a more competitive two periods, this game would of been very different at this point. The Flyers finally showed the ability to move to puck well and sustain scoring chances. Ultimately, the Flyers failed short as it was too much to ask to score 4 in the 3rd. They will look to get back on the winning side of the schedule against the New York Islanders on Saturday March 9th.
| PHILADELPHIA FLYERS |
| 28 Claude Giroux – 19 Nolan Patrick – 23 Oskar Lindblom12 Michael Raffl – 21 Scott Laughton – 11 Travis Konecny25 James van Riemsdyk – 10 Corbin Knight – 38 Ryan Hartman 44 Phil Varone – 27 Justin Bailey 9 Ivan Provorov – 6 Travis Sanheim53 Shayne Gostisbehere – 61 Phillipe Myers8 Robert Hägg – 3 Radko Gudas47 Andrew MacDonald 37 Brian Elliott[33 Cam Talbot] Scratches: 19 Nolan Patrick (laceration, game-day decision), 93 Jakub Voracek (lower body, day to day), 5 Sam Morin (healthy), 72 Carter Hart (lower body), 30 Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body). |
| WASHINGTON CAPITALS |
| 8 Alex Ovechkin – 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov – 43 Tom Wilson13 Jakub Vrana – 19 Nicklas Bäckström – 77 T.J. Oshie65 Andre Burakovsky – 20 Lars Eller – 10 Brett Connolly62 Carl Hagelin – 26 Nic Dowd – 72 Travis Boyd 6 Michal Kempny – 74 John Carlson9 Dmitri Orlov – 2 Matt Niskanen44 Brooks Orpik – 3 Nick Jensen 70 Brayden Holtby[1 Pheonix Copley]Scratches: 18 Chandler Stephenson (healthy), 23 Dmitrij Jaskin (healthy), 29 Christian Djoos (healthy). |
