The Philadelphia Flyers produced a mere 18 shots and goal in losing, 4-1, to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center. Two shorthanded goals by Washington's Nic Dowd and Andrew Mangiapane in the first period against the Flyers' second power play unit dug a deep hole for Philly.
In the second period, the Flyers generated a mere three shots on goal despite several looks at the net. One of the shots was a low percentage shot when there was a wide open teammate cruising to the net on the other side.
The Flyers, who got shut out by Vancouver in the home opener on Saturday, finally scored their first home goal of the season as Travis Sanheim wired home a goal at 4-on-4 early in the third period. Cam York and Matvei Michkov nicely assisted on the tally. Now it was a 2-1 game with most of the third period remaining.
Unfortunately, with the teams still skating 4-on-4, the Caps grabbed the two-goal lead right back. A Jamie Drysdale turnover resulted in a John Carlson goal (originally credited to Dylan Strome but changed after the game). Strome was instead ultimately credited with an assist for his initial takeaway from Drysdale down the ice.
The Flyers' noticeably sagged after the third Caps goal. Later, Jakob Chychrun added an extra insurance goal for the Capitals at 14:07.
Samuel Ersson (25 saves on 29 shots) took the loss. Charlie Lindgren saw just 18 shots for the game, stopping 17.
Additionally, the Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play including the two shorthanded goals they allowed. They were 5-for-5 on the PK. While the penalty kill (as with last season until the very late portions) has been a main positive for the Flyers, the team is taking way too many penalties through the first six games. Travis Konecny alone had three minors on Tuesday, although one was a coincidental roughing minors with Chychrun at the end of the second period.
The Flyers had a couple of near-miss opportunities that did not count as shots on goal. Sean Couturier hit the crossbar on the second shift of the game. Owen Tippett and Michkov narrowly missed a second-period connection that nearly produced a slam dunk for Michkov.
Would have, could have, should have... bottom line is it didn't. Meanwhile, the Dowd shorthanded goal came off a breakaway after a puck hopped past Egor Zamula at the point. The Magiapane SHG started with a Bobby Brink turnover high in the attack zone and Zamula being redundant coverage to Couturier's check on the sequence.
As the game moved along, the Flyers kept forcing more and more "hope passes" into to slot with only Capitals players in the vicinity. The Flyers were charged with 15 giveaways in this game. Active sticks by the Caps also produced an additional 11 Flyers turnovers via takeaways credited to Washington players (three to Connor McMichael, who also had two assists and earned Second Star Honors).
For more on Tuesday's game, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
The scene will shift on Wednesday to Capital One Arena in DC for the home-and-home rematch. There could be more changes in the Flyers' starting lineup. There were line juggling as Tuesday's game progressed -- head coach John Tortorella has serially jumbled combinations so far this season but little has clicked.
Tuesday's starting lineup was as follows but only stayed together for the penalty-filled first period, which saw a combined 11 minutes of special teams play out of the 20-minute frame.
74 Owen Tippett - 14 Sean Couturier - 39 Matvei Michkov
21 Scott Laughton- 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee- 25 Ryan Poehling - 10 Bobby Brink
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 27 Noah Cates - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler - 9 Jamie Drysdale
5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
33 Samuel Ersson
[82 Ivan Fedotov]
PP1: Drysdale, Tippett, Frost, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Zamula, Farabee, Poehling, Couturier, Brink
Wednesday's rematch will be nationally televised on TNT.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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