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Wrap: Caps Pin a 5-3 Loss on Flyers

March 6, 2019, 11:39 PM ET [261 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
WRAP: Caps Pin a 5-3 Loss on Flyers

A three-goal rally by the Flyers at the tail end of the second period and into the third period did not obscure what was a poor overall performance against a high-quality Washington Capitals in a must-win game. The Capitals prevailed, 5-3.

When a team is as thoroughly outplayed as the Flyers were for nearly 40 minutes, even a great performance in goal, while it can keep them in the game until they finally get going to make a push, probably won't be enough to prevent a loss. Add a rough night for the starting goaltender into the mix -- three stoppable goals -- plus two goals in which the goalie was given no chance at a save, and the task becomes monumental.

"We watched them for 2 periods and then we started playing somewhat good hockey so you can’t do that against a team like that. They’re too good, they’re too skilled. They were skating, making plays, walking right through us and we watched them play so that’s what happens against a team like that. You can’t come back when you’re watching games like that. Not our best effort, especially at this time of year," Flyers center Scott Laughton said.

Needing a miracle comeback when trailing 5-0 isn't a recipe for success, and the Flyers fell two goals short even without the Caps being able to tack on an empty-netter. It simply wasn't good enough.

"I don’t think there was just one thing. Our pace of play, I didn’t think we did a lot away from the puck to support. Offensive zone, we had a few turnovers. Defensive zone coming back for breakouts, I thought we made it easy for them to gain the zone and attack. Missed-coverages in the slot," Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon said.

"First goal we have three guys in the area, [Alex] Ovechkin comes up with it, falling down makes a pass to the front and it goes right to their guy and they score, and we don’t get anything on it, a stick on it or anything. So, that kind of typified the first period. Then obviously in the third period, we started executing better on our break outs, and through the neutral zone and didn’t turn the puck over, and got some o-zone time, and started supporting on the puck, and it got a little bit easier."

With Wednesday's loss, the Flyers remain eight points (seven standings points plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) out of the playoffs, and now there are only 15 games left on the schedule and two idle nights on the schedule. Basically, Wednesday's game was a microcosm of the season itself: dig a deep hole, stage a valiant but late-in-the-game uphill climb and hope for a miracle. Even within the game itself, the Flyers have had too many games this season like this one (although they actually pulled out a point a couple times, including twice against Tampa Bay).

Alexander Ovechkin scored a power play goal (46th) on the third Washington tally and had a spectacular assist (31st) on the opening goal by Tom Wilson (19th). Brett Connolly (17th), Andre Burakovsky (10th) and Nicklas Bäckström (16th) also scored for Washington.

Braden Holtby earned the win in goal; the 250th of his regular season NHL career. He stopped 27 of 30 shots.

In the waning seconds of the second period, Phil Myers scored the first goal of his NHL career, assisted by Claude Giroux (52nd) and Sean Couturier (35th). Giroux tallied (20th, seventh season in his career of reaching the 20-plus goal mark) on the opening shift of the third period, with helpers to Oskar Lindblom (15th) and Couturier (36th). Scott Laughton, who had taken an unnecessary penalty earlier in the period, got the Flyers back to within two goals as he scored (10th) on a deflection. Andrew MacDonald (9th) and Michael Raffl (11th) got the assists.

Coming off a brilliant performance against the New York Islanders on Sunday afternoon, Brian Elliott had a tough night against the Caps; an abbreviated 24:18 outing that saw him give up three goals he'd liked to have had back among four goals against on 19 shots. Cam Talbot went the rest of the way. He was scored against on the first shot he saw, but it was unstoppable and the result of a major breakdown in front of him, and then stopped the rest of the shots he faced (also later getting help from Ivan Provorov to sweep a would-be goal away before it crossed the goal line).

The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play, which came in the first period. Philly went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.

With Nolan Patrick (laceration) and Jakub Voracek (lower body) out of the lineup, the Flyers went again with 11 forwards and seven defenseman. Gordon did some major line juggling throughout the game with only a trio of Giroux, Couturier and Lindblom a semi-constant (after not skating together on the game's first shift). Lindblom led the Flyers with 10 shot attempts – four shots on goal, three that were blocked and three that missed. Lindblom was a force in the third period.

In the big picture, perhaps the brightest spot for Philly was the work of Myers even apart from his goal. He also made a really nice play carrying the puck on a rush to create a scoring chance. He was credited with five hits and one block in 14:21 of ice time across 18 shifts.

The Capitals opened the scoring at 5:55 of the first period. Ovechkin made a great play to pull away a loose puck in front and, with Flyers defenders mesmerized as he was falling to the ice and made a tape-to-tape pass to an unmarked Wilson in point blank range, suddenly the Caps had a prime scoring chance. Wilson didn't miss.

The Flyers temporarily thought they dodged a bullet at 14:16 of the first period. Connolly got off a change-up of a shot from outside the dot in the left circle and the puck went off Elliott's glove, made an odd sound that didn't quite sound like it hit the crossbar, but behaved like it had as it came right out in front. The referee waved no goal. At the next stoppage, replays showed the shot, after it went off Elliott's glove, struck the camera inside the net and then exited the net. The call was reversed and it was 2-0 Caps.

" I think he shot at the same time one as our Dmen whacked sticks. It’s kind of an off-speed pitch. Heard a weird sound and I saw their reaction on the bench," Elliott said.

The gap grew to 3-0 as the Caps scored on their first power play at 2:32 of the second period. John Carlson narrowly held in a Flyers' clearing opportunity at the right point. Carlson passed to Bäckström, who went cross-ice to Ovechkin in his left circle office. Elliott was indecisive as to whether to get set for a shot or anticipate a pass. Ovechkin wristed a shot through the five hole.

"It was a broken play that we pressured on the boards and became a two-on-one pretty quick. He’s a good player. Caught me trying to read if he was going to pass or shoot, and he scored," Elliott said.

Elliott's night came to an end at 4:18 of the middle frame. This goal by Burakovsky was shot harder than Connolly's but was unscreened and released from the top of the circle; a spot where a save is reasonably expected. It beat Elliott, and brought Talbot into the game.

The gap grew to 5-0 at 5:37. The Flyers had three forwards caught up ice, including Couturier (at the tail end of a marathon-like 1:19 shift and the tank was empty, rendering him unable to backcheck). Travis Sanheim pursued Jakub Vrana behind the net. From there, with Sanheim covering Vrana, it was up to Radko Gudas to cover any trailers. Instead, he was rooted to the spot and Bäckström had a cavernous lane right down Broadway to take a pass-out from Vrana, pick a spot, and score from prime range in the slot.

The Flyers got a flicker of life at 19:48 of the second period. Myers took a drop pass from Giroux and, with his mometum going forward, fired off a shot from just above the hash marks that he buried in the back of the net to make it 5-1.

Philly cut the deficit to 5-2 just 10 ticks into the third period. Lindblom set up Giroux in close and the captain finished it off.

After talking a retaliatory penalty away from the puck at the 2:29 mark, Laughton redeemed himself at 7:48 with a high tip of a MacDonald left point shot that re-directed past Holtby. The gap was now down to one. Philly didn't lack for subsequent scoring chances but drew no closer. Fourteen of the Flyers' 30 shots came in the third period.

The Flyers will practice in Voorhees on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, they play the Islanders in Uniondale.
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