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Flyers Gameday: 3/13/21 vs. WSH; Phantoms Update |
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GAME 25: FLYERS vs. CAPITALS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (13-8-3) are home on Saturday to take on Peter Laviolette's Washington Capitals (16-6-4) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The Flyers are 1-2-0 against the Capitals this season, with a 7-4 win in Washington on Feb 7, a 3-1 loss at home on March 7 and a 5-3 loss at home on March 11.
On Thursday, Alex Ovechkin (9th goal of the season) opened the scoring off a Flyers' turnover after a chip pass by goalie Brian Elliott eluded Ivan Provorov's stick and was taken instead by the future Hall of Famer. Travis Konecny (power play, 7th) briefly tied the game but another Flyers turnover -- this one caused by an ill-advised play by Nicolas Aube-Kubel high in the offensive zone -- resulted in a Conor Sheary (6th) counter-attacking goal less than two minutes later.
The only scoring in the second period came from Washington. A Jakub Voracek turnover and a late-to-arrive backcheck resulted in John Carlson (6th) joining a counterattack and scoring point blank. Later, Nic Dowd (4th) beat Travis Sanheim off the rush and parlayed a lucky bounce off Shayne Gostisbehere's skate into a 4-1 Washington lead.
The Flyers made a push in the third period. Ivan Provorov (3rd) scored a 4-on-4 goal early in the third period before Scott Laughton (7th) got the team back within 4-3. Philly got little sustained pressure thereafter before Dowd (5th of the season, 2nd of the game) scored a long-distance empty net goal.
Elliott stopped 17 of 21 shots in a losing cause. Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves on 33 shots. The Flyers went 1-for-2 on the power play, and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers have lost four of their last six games, with every loss coming in regulation. Although the club has done a better job of late in generating shots and has been excellent on faceoffs, continued problems with puck management, defensive coverages, giving back a goal right after scoring one, failures on both sides of special teams, and some stoppable save opportunities that have gone in their net have turned winnable games into losses.
Philadelphia, in the midst of a stretch of eight games in 13 days, took an off-day on Friday. The team will hold a morning skate on Saturday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Lineup projections will be updated thereafter.
Phil Myers was a healthy scratch on Thursday in favor of Erik Gustafsson (17:18 TOI, 25 shifts, 1A, E (+1, -1), 2 SOG on 4 SAT, 1 giveaway, 2 blocks). Gustafsson will celebrate his 29th birthday on Monday. Andy Andreoff, who dropped the gloves with Garnet Hathaway in the first period of Thursday's game (just the team's second fight this season), skated on the fourth line in the game.
Capitals Outlook
The Caps are 4-1-0 to start March, and 8-1-1 in their last 10. With the regulation wins over the Flyers on Sunday and Thursday, they've opened up a seven-point cushion on Philadelphia and are two points behind the division-leading New York Islanders with one game in hand.
Tom Wilson will serve the fourth game of his seven-game NHL suspension for a head-high check that hospitalized Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo.
Last season, the Flyers held Alex Ovechkin without a single point in the four-game season series. It's been a different story this season with Ovechkin racking up six points (4g, 2a) in the three games played to date between the teams.
Shortly before Thursday's game, the Caps learned they would be without third-line center Lars Eller, who returned to DC to deal with a family matter. The Caps dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen, double-shifting T.J. Oshie at center as well as extending the work of their three available pivots. Seventh defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler skated only a single shift in the game; the final one after Dowd's empty netter.
Projected lineups (Will be updated, subject to change)
FLYERS (Thursday's lineup)
25 James van Riemsdyk - 14 Sean Couturier - 86 Joel Farabee
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jake Voracek
23 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Nolan Patrick- 10 Andy Andreoff
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 39 Nate Prosser
37 Brian Elliott
[79 Carter Hart]
PP1: Giroux, Couturier, JVR, Farabee, Gostisbehere.
PP2: Voracek, Hayes, Patrick, Konecny, Provorov.
Scratches: 12 Michael Raffl (hand), 8 Robert Hägg (healthy), 56 Erik Gustafsson (healthy).
Injured reserve: 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
CAPITALS
8 Alex Ovechkin - 19 Nicklas Bäckström -77 T.J. Oshie
13 Jakub Vrana - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 10 Daniel Sprong
73 Conor Sheary - 20 Lars Eller - 14 Richard Panik
62 Carl Hagelin - 26 Nic Dowd - 21 Garnet Hathaway
4 Brenden Dillon - 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitry Orlov- 2 Justin Schultz
33 Zdeno Chara - 3 Nick Jensen
30 Ilya Samsonov
[41 Vitek Vanecek]
PP1: Ovechkin, Bäckström, Oshie, Vrana, Carlson
PP2: Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Sheary, Sprong, Schultz
Scratches: 34 Jonas Siegenthaler (healthy), 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk (healthy).
Injured reserve: 6 Michal Kempny (Achilles tendon repair surgery), 47 Beck Malenstyn (Achilles tendon repair surgery), 35 Henrik Lundqvist (open heart surgery).
NHL suspension: 43 Tom Wilson (game 4 of 7, eligible to return March 20).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
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Phantoms Game Postponed
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms were slated to host the Binghamton Devils today at the PPL Center in Allentown. However, in the wake of Wednesday's game between the teams in Newark that saw the league suspend play with the score tied at 1-1 at the first intermission due to a Devils player on the game roster entering COVID-19 protocol, Saturday's game in Allentown has been postponed "out of an abundance of caution."
The game with Binghamton in Allentown has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 11, 2021, at PPL Center with a 5:05 p.m. start time. Binghamton will also play their next game on the Phantoms home ice on Wed. March 17 at 7:05 p.m. ET.
Binghamton was supposed to play the Hershey Bears on Friday night, but that game, too, was postponed. The Phantoms will play the Bears in Hershey on Sunday.
On Friday, the Flyers announced that rookie power forward Wade Allison, who was shut down a few days into training camp in January due to a nagging ankle injury that required surgery, has been assigned to the Phantoms. Goalie Alex Lyon, who was in net for the suspended game against Binghamton (his first bonafide game action in 364 days), was recalled on Thursday to the Flyers' Taxi Squad with goalie Felix Sandström returning to Lehigh Valley from the Taxi Squad.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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