Caps Face Flyers in Philly
Caps visit Philadelphia for first time this season - and first of two times this month - on Thursday
The Caps finish up the front half of a four-game road swing on Thursday night when they make the first of two trips to Philadelphia this month. The Caps face the Flyers in Philly on Thursday, and they'll be back on Feb. 26 for a Saturday matinee match here.
Washington comes into town on the heels of a 4-1 win over the Predators in Nashville on Tuesday night. The Caps nursed a 1-0 lead into the third period of that game against the Preds, only to see Nashville knot the score early in the third period. Washington bounced back to regain the lead on a Nick Jensen goal in the next shift of the game, and the Caps added a big insurance strike on the power play soon after, Alex Ovechkin netting his 30th of the season on a one-timer from his left dot office.
The Caps' penalty killing outfit came up with a key kill in the final four minutes to hold the lead at two, and Ovechkin buried an empty-netter from distance to seal the deal and give Caps coach Peter Laviolette the 700th victory of his regular season NHL coaching career. For the second straight game, the Caps scored on the power play and were perfect on the penalty kill, and it was good enough for two points, and Washington's fourth consecutive road win.
"Really good response," says Laviolette of the shift that produced the Jensen goal. "That line went out and they had a real good shift. They put it behind them and they went to work and were able to get that lead back really quick. And we got the power-play goal after that, just to give us a little bit of a cushion. But that shift after by the [Nic] Dowd line was really good."
The Caps played the final 40-plus minutes of the game without defenseman Justin Schultz, who left late in the first period with an upper body injury. The remaining five defensemen combined to absorb a total of 17 hits from Predators skaters who routinely finished their checks.
"That was a huge win," says Jensen. "I think all five defensemen, we played hard and did everything we could. The forwards started picking up any slack we were leaving, and some of the time we were getting pretty tired so they were doing a good job.
"I know the second [period] wasn't exactly what we wanted; we gave up a few too many chances but I think we tightened up really well in the third. Outside of the first couple of minutes, I think we played really well in that third period and everyone just worked for each other. That was a great win."
The Caps are now 8-2-2 in their last dozen road games, and their 15-5-4 road record for the season is second best in the NHL from a points pct. (.708) standpoint. With 3.38 goals per game on the road, the Capitals rank fifth in the League, and their rate of 2.46 goals against per game is third-best in the circuit.
Tuesday's game in Nashville starts a stretch of four straight road games for the Caps, who will be idle for the next six nights following their Thursday game against the Flyers. Washington will take to the road again in the middle of next week to play the back half of that four-game swing, a journey to Manhattan to face the Rangers on Feb. 24 and the aforementioned matinee here in Philadelphia two days later.
Thursday's game is the make-up of a postponed game from Dec. 21. The Caps traveled to Philly the night before to face the Flyers, but the game was postponed soon after the morning skate that day, the first of three straight postponements for the Caps in late December.
The lone meeting between these two Metropolitan Division rivals came back on Nov. 6 in Washington when the Flyers eked out a 2-1 win over the Caps. In the wake of that loss, Washington won a season-high four straight games, and it went 9-1-1 in its next 11 contests.
Meanwhile, the Flyers struggled. Their win in Washington over three months ago left them with an impressive early season record of 6-2-2, but they would go more than a month before winning consecutive games again, and six straight regulation losses right after Thanksgiving spelled the end of Alain Vigneault's tenure behind the Philadelphia bench. The Flyers were 2-8-2 in their last dozen games under Vigneault, and they are 7-14-5 since Mike Yeo took over in early December.
Last season, it was the Flyers' defense and goaltending that caused the team to stumble after a swift start. This season, Philly's forward corps has been ravaged by injuries. The Flyers needed 36 players to get through last season's 56-game schedule, and they've used 35 players to get through the first 48 games this season.
