POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 3 Flyers 1

Bright Side Of The Road - With its 3-1 win over the Flyers in Philadelphia on Sunday, Washington closed out a successful five-game road trip - the longest trip the team has taken since October of 2019 - with an impressive 4-1-0 mark.

From Oct. 20-29, 2019, the Caps were on a five-game road voyage that started in Chicago, went on to three cities in Western Canada and concluded in Toronto. The Caps finished that trip with an even better 4-0-1 record, but none of those games were against divisional foes and only one - the Toronto game - came against a conference opponent.
"It was so, so huge," says Caps center Lars Eller of the team's performance on its five-game, 10-day journey. "It was a difficult road trip. I know we got two wins in Jersey, but that's a good team you can't sleep on. I think they beat Boston [on Sunday], so you can't take those wins for granted.
"But four out of five? We'll definitely take that. It's going to be a tight race, and some good teams are not going to make it. It better not be us."
Washington is 7-3-2 on the road this season. Since the start of the 2014-15 season, the Capitals own the best road record in the NHL, going 147-78-28 for a .636 points percentage; St. Louis owns the League's second best road record over that span with a .616 points percentage.
Number One - Caps defenseman Nick Jensen came to Washington in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 22, 2019. But it wasn't until Sunday night in Philadelphia that he finally notched his first goal as a member of the Capitals, doing so in his 109th game in a Washington sweater.
Early in the third period of Sunday's game, Jensen was the late guy into the zone after Washington's forwards had entered Philadelphia ice in a 3-on-3 situation. Nicklas Backstrom found and fed Jensen as soon as he crossed the Flyers' line, and Jensen did the rest, taking advantage of the time and space available to him. He moved down to the inside of the right circle before firing a shot past Flyers goalie Carter Hart, ending a personal goal drought of 165 games that stretched back to Oct. 11, 2018 when he scored for the Red Wings against Toronto.
When last season was abruptly halted and suspended in mid-March, Jensen had been among the Caps' best defensemen for several weeks leading up to that point. He has picked up where he left off this season, playing well all over the ice and defending tenaciously in his own end. But he is also tied for third in scoring among Washington blueliners with eight points (one goal, seven assists).
"I definitely think it's a good sign for sure," says Jensen of his goal and four points in his last six games. "I've always been a guy that tries to play the game the right way, and I don't typically use statistics - you know, points - as an indicator of how I'm playing. There have been times where I've played good and I'm not getting points, and I'm not going to change things just because I'm not getting points. I'm more about the process of playing just good hockey."
In his last 41 regular season games, Jensen has totaled 14 points (one goal, 13 assists). He has had a number of scoring chances this season, but he was snake-bitten until Sunday night.
"I think he's confident right now with his game," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of Jensen. "We're really happy with the way he is playing. He's skating really well, he's moving the puck, he's doing the right things. He's really strong defensively, he's good on the penalty kill and it was really nice to see him - for all the work that he does - get rewarded with a goal tonight. And it was a beauty, too, so it was nice to see for him."
King Of The Road -Caps captain Alex Ovechkin scored Washington's first goal in Sunday's game, notching his eighth goal of the season and No. 714 of his NHL career, and also the 363rd road goal of his NHL career.
With that tally, Ovechkin surpassed Hockey Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman (362) for the second most road goals by any player in NHL history. Ovechkin now trails only Wayne Gretzky (402) for the most road goals ever.
With his Sunday goal against Philly, Ovechkin inched closer to Phil Esposito (717) for sixth place on the League's all-time goals list.
On The Attack -Caps defensemen combined for two goals and four points in Sunday's game, and they've combined for 14 goals and 55 points in 24 games this season.
"The defense is a big part of what we're doing inside of the identity," says Laviolette. "And so we've got to utilize them and the defense has to execute. I don't think they executed well in the first period, but they were much better in the second and third period. And that's what we want from the identity and the attack part of the game; we want all five guys involved. It was better in the last two periods."
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears had a strong weekend in which they claimed a pair of victories on home ice. Hershey downed Lehigh Valley by a 4-1 count on Saturday afternoon at Giant Center and took a 4-3 overtime decision over Binghamton on Sunday.
In Saturday's game, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored twice and Mike Sgarbossa and Kale Kessy added single markers to support the 17-save efforts of Zach Fucale in the Hershey nets. Fucale lost his shutout bid on a power-play goal with 1:11 left in the game, but is 3-0-0-0 on the season with a 0.67 GAA and a .973 save pct.
On Sunday against the Devils, Hershey got goals from Kody Clark, Brett Leason and Garrett Pilon in regulation, and blueliner Martin Fehervary supplied the overtime game-winner. Pheonix Copley made 24 saves to earn the victory in goal, improving to 2-1-1-0 on the season.
With a 7-2-2-0 record on the season, the Bears lead the AHL's North Division with 16 points. Hershey is idle until Friday night when it faces Binghamton on the road (in Newark, NJ).
By The Numbers - John Carlson led Washington with 21:21 in ice time and three blocked shots … Ovechkin, Justin Schultz, Zdeno Chara and Carl Hagelin each had three shots on net to lead the Capitals … Ovechkin led the way with eight shot attempts … Chara led Washington with four hits.