March 20 vs. Philadelphia Flyers at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Philadelphia Flyers (28-33-8)
Washington Capitals (45-15-8)
The Caps continue their three-game homestand Thursday night when the Philadelphia Flyers stop by the District for the finale of the season’s series between the longtime divisional and geographic rivals.
Washington opened its homestand on a high note with a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. Logan Thompson picked up his 30th victory of the season with a 23-save performance, and the Caps turned in a solid, workmanlike effort over the full 60 minutes in the win. Tom Wilson potted his 30th goal of the season, and P-L Dubois netted the game-winning goal in the third period.
For the second time in a dozen nights at Capital One Arena, the Capitals erupted for three or more goals in the third period to wrest control of what had been a tight game against the Red Wings, one of half a dozen teams scrapping for a single wild card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
Both Dubois – for the fourth time in his career – and Aliaksei Protas reached the 60-point plateau on Tuesday. Protas entered this season with 53 career points in 169 games scattered over three seasons, and now he is the NHL’s all-time single season leader in points among Belarussian-born NHL players; he bumps Calgary’s Yegor Sharangovich (59 points in 2023-24) from the record books.
Washington has now scored three or more goals in the third period a dozen times this season, and it leads the NHL in third-period goal differential (plus-47, 95-48).
Tuesday’s game was also just the second entirely penalty-free game of the 3,947 regular season games the Caps have played in their half century history in the NHL. The only prior occurrence came in a 3-0 loss to the Bruins in Boston on March 6, 2014.
Heading into this homestand – their last multi-game homestand of the season – the Caps were looking to shore up a few areas of their game, and Tuesday’s victory was promising in that regard. Washington played a mostly consistent 60-minute game that featured more offensive zone possession time and a much better and more “on time” start than several recent home games.
“We talked about that between periods,” said Caps coach Spencer Carbery after the game. “Our [offensive] zone time was outstanding; I think we doubled them up. I think we ended with eight minutes, which will be right up there with the season high. But what you’ll notice is the expected goals; we were getting out-chanced because we weren’t quite there, attacking the net, getting pucks in there. We were moving, and we were there, but there’s another step to that; you’ve got to threaten, you’ve got to get to the inside, you’ve got to beat somebody.”
Washington did those things in the third. Dubois scored after entering with possession and firing a well-placed shot from the left dot, and doing so by going through three zones with speed and using that speed to create enough space to get the shot off.
In addition to Dubois’ game-winner and Wilson’s milestone marker, Dylan Strome opened the scoring for the Caps for the third time in eight nights, and McMichael, who was around the net all night, showed that net presence can lead to net presents; he found a loose puck in the crease and punched it in to finish the scoring and the Wings. And while it was the top six forwards doing the lamp-lighting, credit goes to Washington’ bottom six as well.
“I thought both those lines were real strong for us,” says Carbery of his team’s bottom six. “Territorial, creating good [offensive] zone time, and they were sort of getting us into it early in that game, even though they weren’t necessarily rewarded for it. Those guys don’t show up on the stat sheet, but they were strong for us.”
In the wake of a rare off night in Los Angeles last week, the Caps’ top six has now scored seven of the team’s nine goals in the two games since, combining for 16 points in the process. But the Caps bottom six has provided significantly strong shifts and driven play during those games as well, helping to set the table for the top six.
“They’ve done it all year,” says Strome. “It seems like when one line is not going, another line steps up and I think the bottom six has done a great job all year. Those guys can hold the puck and make a play. I think Lars [Eller], [Tyler Raddysh and Andrew Mangiapane] are getting some great chemistry on that third line and finding ways of playing against any line. And Carbs is comfortable putting them out there at key times, and we need that.
“And then [Nic Dowd’s] line, Dowder’s been doing it since I got here and probably before that, too. Just consistency, hard to play against, plays against other teams’ good lines, takes face-offs, and they hold the puck in the [offensive] zone. And they’re really good at changing for fresh guys once they get it in there; that’s a huge part of the game that goes probably a little unnoticed, but not to the guys in here, for sure.”
Strome’s own personal – and annual – March heater continues. He had a nine-game point streak halted in late-February, but he now has a point in seven of his last eight games (4-3-7). Strome has matched his career high (67) in points, doing so for the third time in as many seasons with Washington, and with 14 games remaining.
Thursday’s game is the second stop on a five-game road stretch for the Flyers, who were blanked 2-0 in Tampa on Sunday. Philly comes into this trip on the heels of a dismal seven-game homestand (1-6-0) in which the lone victory (over the Lightning) came in a shootout. The Flyers were outscored by a combined 30-11 on the homestand, and Carolina blanked them 5-0 in the finale.
Each of the Caps’ previous three meetings with the Flyers was tightly contested. Washington swept a home-and-home set of back-to-backs with the Flyers in late October. The Caps last saw the Flyers on Feb. 6 in Philly, when they engineered a third-period comeback to skate off with a 4-3 win.
After nipping the Jets in a 2-1 shootout decision in Winnipeg on March 1, the Flyers were four points behind Detroit, which was the occupant of the day in that coveted second Eastern wild card slot. But Philly has been mostly flailing since a modest three-game February spree, which matches their longest of the season to date. The Flyers are 2-7-1 since last month’s winning streak ended.
