Caps Face Flyers in Finale of Five-Game Trip

March 7 vs. Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center
Time: 7 p.m.
TV:NBCSW
Radio: Capitals Radio 24/7, 106.7 FAN
Washington Capitals 13-6-4
Philadelphia Flyers 12-6-3

Washington concludes a five-game road trip on Sunday night in Philadelphia against the Flyers. Sunday's game is the first the Caps will play this season with fans in the building; the Flyers are cleared to have as many as 3,100 fans in attendance for Sunday's meeting with Washington.
"It's going to be exciting," says Caps right wing Garnet Hathaway. "It's been a long time, almost a full calendar year. There's not many better road rinks or road fans to play against to get you excited for the game. It's going to be a different atmosphere, but it's going to be one that we're all looking forward to getting back.
"The fans in the NHL are a huge part of what makes the NHL what it is, and how exciting the games are and the intensity. We're all looking forward to it and - even more than that - taking two points from them, especially with their fans in the building."
The Caps are coming into Sunday's game on the heels of a 5-1 beating at the hands of the Bruins in Boston on Friday night. Down 1-0 after a strong first period, the Caps crumbled in the second, yielding three goals in less than nine minutes to fall into a 4-0 ditch, the biggest deficit they have faced in any game this season.

Nicklas Backstrom's 700th career assist came late in Friday's loss when he set up Jakub Vrana's third-period goal. Backstrom is just the 25th player in NHL history - and only the second among active players - to reach that milestone in fewer than 1,000 games played; he reached the plateau in his 979th contest in the League.
Aside from that momentous milestone, Friday was a forgettable game for the Caps, a speed bump in an otherwise excellent five-game road trip. Washington will aim to finish with a flourish in Sunday's trip finale in Philly, but it also awaits word on the status of right wing Tom Wilson, who had a hearing with the League's Department of Player Safety in the wake of a first-period hit on Boston defenseman Brandon Carlo in Friday's game.
Carlo had to be helped off the ice after the hit, and he was taken to an area hospital for observation and subsequently released. No penalty was called on the play.
"To me, it was a hockey hit," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "If this was a suspendable play, then really all hitting is going to probably have to be removed because he didn't take any strides, he didn't target the head. The player was up against the boards, he was upright, and Tom hit him hard, and I hope the player is okay. But for me, I think the call was correct on the ice [Friday] night. And this hit happens so many times through the course of the game, where somebody hits somebody against the boards. I think we're still hopeful that Tom will be available to us."
Even after Friday's setback in Boston, the Caps are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. Through most of those 10 games, the Caps have been stingy defensively. They've allowed an average of just 25.4 shots on net per night over that span, the lowest in the league. Washington has also largely limited high danger scoring chances during most of that stretch, aside from Friday night.

"We weren't good," says Laviolette of Friday's game. "We talked about it today and we'll try to be better. Again, it wasn't a volume thing. It's not like they had 80 [shot] attempts and they had 30 scoring chances. I think there are things that are controllable where we had been, and [the Bruins] upped their game from game one [on Wednesday night] to game two, and we didn't match that. We talked about some things [before Saturday's practice] and we'll be ready to play [Sunday]."
The Caps believe they have a handle on the issues that led to Friday's defeat, an outlier of a game on their recent résumé.
"We lacked a little structure in our [defensive] zone," says Hathaway. "I think we spread out a little bit in the neutral zone and we played a little more perimeter than we have been to be successful. It's one of those where there's a lot of teaching points from the game, a lot more negative than positive clips to look over."
While Washington was conducting an optional practice on Saturday afternoon at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers were in action on the road, taking on the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh prevailed in that one, winning a 4-3 decision over its cross-state rival. Jared McCann scored midway through the third to snap a 3-3 tie and tilt the scales for the Pens.
Philly has won four of its last six games overall, but has yielded a dozen goals against in its last three games after back-to-back 3-0 shutouts of the Sabres in Buffalo last weekend. The Flyers occupy fourth place in the East Division, five points behind the second-place Capitals but holding two games in hand on Washington.
Sunday's meeting is the second of eight this season between the Capitals and the Flyers; the two teams met a month ago in Washington on Super Bowl Sunday, with the Flyers taking a 7-4 victory on the strength of a Scott Laughton hat trick in that one. The Caps will be back in Philly later this week, facing the Flyers here on Thursday and Saturday.