Once already, the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Washington Capitals during the current six-game losing streak. Overall, the Flyers under Mike Yeo are 0-1-0 against the Capitals in 2021-2022. Alain Vigneault coached the last win against Washington on November 6th, 2021.
Officially a lost season, Philadelphia are searching for their identity. Recalled players have some of their best chances to earn a future role in the NHL. Yeo is coaching for an NHL role, possibly a future position with the Flyers. Playoffs aren’t a fathomable concept, but collecting the working pieces ahead of next season is.
The puck drops at 12:30 from the Wells Fargo Center.
Washington Capitals (28-16-9; 65pts)
Attempting to hold on to the seventh seed in the east, the Washington Capitals hold a one-point lead over the Boston Bruins. They’ll hope to do that today without Anthony Mantha (shoulder) and Vitek Vanecek (upper body.)
Here is the projected lineup for the Capitals:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Sheary
Snively-Backstrom-Wilson
McMichael-Eller-Oshie
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
van Riemsdyk-Schultz
Samsonov
(Copley)
Ilya Samsonov will likely start. In his career, he’s yet to lose to the Philadelphia Flyers. If Peter Laviolette chooses to rest Samsonov, Pheonix Copley will start.
Alex Ovechkin gets the player spotlight. He scored the only goal in the recent 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers. Ovechkin hasn’t registered a point against the Flyers this season. Equally, if Philadelphia continues to keep Ovechkin in check, they’ll have a chance to disrupt Washington’s playoff chase.
A Philadelphia Fly-By
Joel Farabee and Derick Brassard return to the lineup, making Max Willman and Morgan Frost healthy scratches. The Philadelphia Flyers are still without Wade Allison (MCL,) Kevin Hayes (lower body,) Sean Couturier (back,) Nate Thompson (shoulder,) and Ryan Ellis (lower body.)
Here’s the projected lineup for the Flyers:
Farabee-Giroux-Atkinson
Lindblom-Laughton-Konecny
van Riemsdyk-Brassard-Mayhew
Ratcliffe-Brown-MacEwen
Provorov-Braun
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-Seeler
Hart
(Jones)
Carter Hart will start between the pipes. He’s 2-3-1 against the Washington Capitals throughout his career with a 2.89GAA and 90.7%SV. It’ll be the first time Hart faces the Capitals this season.
Claude Giroux earns the player spotlight. In addition, Farabee rejoins on the top line. In two games against Washington, Giroux notched an assist in each. Expect him to have his fingerprints on a scoring play today.
Prediction
Losers of six straight games, the Philadelphia Flyers regain two more forwards to boost scoring. Recently against the Washington Capitals, everything fell apart in the final 3:03 of the third period.
Rasmus Ristolainen is an upgrade from Kevin Connauton. Patrick Brown supports the fourth line, but that sacrifices Morgan Frost from the lineup. This Flyers lineup is a little stronger than recently, but are they built to hand Samsonov his first loss against Philadelphia?
Flyers 2, Capitals 4
(Gavin Baker/Icon Sportswire)
