The Flyers played a reasonably solid game against the Washington Capitals yesterday in completing a three-point weekend on the road. The single biggest takeaway from yesterday evening is that even a good penalty-killing club like the Flyers can ill afford to keep putting themselves in the box against a club with as much firepower as the Caps.
That's especially true at the end of a three-game-in-four-night stretch (and road games on back-to-back days). There were times yesterday where the energy level dropped, but the Flyers did a good job at battling through it. They controlled much of the third period.
You can never be totally happy with a game where you are unable to protect a pair of one-goal leads. At the same time, the Flyers never trailed at any point during regulation. The club hurt its own momentum with careless stick infractions and Chris Pronger's late game penalty was a killer.
As far as non-calls that went the other way, there's no use whining about it. The bottom line is that you just have to play through the calls and not do things that are going to put your own team shorthanded. That said, the unpenalized tackling of Ville Leino made it seem like the whistles had been put away, only to be quickly followed by a Philadelphia penalty. That can be frustrating, but there's nothing you can do about it.
All in all, I thought the Flyers put in a better performance yesterday than in their victory on the Island on Saturday. The next challenge is for the club to stay sharp through three non-game nights and be ready to go for a stretch of four games (two road, two home) in six nights, starting Thursday in Carolina.
*****
Last night's game was the fourth Capitals game I have seen so far this season. I must say that the club has been playing considerably better team defense so far this season than it was last year. The numbers bear it out, too. Washington is allowing just 2.43 goals against per game so far this season, which is plenty good enough for a team that has as much firepower as they do.
In the playoffs this past spring, Washington's undoing against Montreal wasn't its defense and goaltending. Rather, it was a sudden drought on the powerplay, the phenomenal play of Jaroslav Halak and some lapses of discipline as frustration set in over their inability to close out a series that once seemed well in hand.
On today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com, I took off my "Flyer blogger" hat and personal rooting interests and tried to take an objective look at the way Washington has set out to answer its critics this season. Love em or hate em, folks, give credit where it's due.
It's very early yet, but the Caps are looking more like a team capable of navigating the playoffs than a regular season powerhouse that's ripe for a fall in April.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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