POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Caps 5, Flyers 3

Road Warriors - It wasn't always pretty, but the Caps found a way to get two points on Thursday night in Philadelphia, staging a stirring comeback late in regulation after the Flyers took a 3-2 lead - their first lead of the night - with 3:51 remaining. Garnet Hathaway scored the game-tying and game-winning goals just 105 seconds apart, and John Carlson added an empty-net goal from behind his own goal line to seal Washington's fifth straight road victory.

Going into Thursday's game with the Flyers in Philadelphia, the Caps were looking at the next six nights off from game action, and the next days off entirely. They needed to make sure they didn't underestimate the injury-riddled Flyers, who entered the game with just two wins in their previous 18 games (2-12-4). Whatever the result of Thursday's game, they'd be sitting with it for a week.
After a goal from Michal Kempny late in the first period, Washington took a 1-0 lead into the second. But the Caps came out flat in the middle frame. The two teams traded power-play goals in the middle of the second, but Travis Sanheim tied it for the Flyers in the final minute of the middle period.
Washington came out with more jump in the third, but their bid to retake the lead took a back seat to some penalty trouble in the front half of the third, when they went two men down for a span of 99 seconds. Four big saves from Ilya Samsonov and two blocked shots later, they were clear of the tall grass. But it was Philly that broke the stalemate on Gerry Mayhew's rush goal with 3:51 left, his second goal of the game.
Enter Hathaway and linemates Nic Dowd and Carl Hagelin, the Caps' most consistently productive unit at 5-on-5 of late. Hagelin set up both of Hathaway's goals; on the first one he won a multi-player puck battle in the corner and pushed it to Carlson for the point shot that led to Hathaway's game-tying deflection at 17:03, a mere 54 seconds after Mayhew put Philly on top.
If the Flyers and their faithful had visions of overtime, they vanished with 72 seconds left. Hagelin stripped Ivan Provorov of the puck behind the Philly goal line and quickly fed Hathaway in the slot, where he had more time and space than he should have had at that juncture of a tie game. He didn't miss, notching his 10th goal of the season - and his third two-goal game of the season - to restore the Washington lead.
"When you tie it up, you probably think you're heading to overtime at that point," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "And you're able to get it in regulation and the empty-netter.
"The first period was okay. I don't think that either team dominated. But the second period, we've got to have more bite to our game with the way we play. And we talked about that and going into the break, and I thought the guys responded in the third with a better period."
Carlson's empty-netter rattled the glass and bounded right into the middle of the vacated cage, but officials needed to take a long look at it on video to ensure that Hathaway hadn't inadvertently touched it with a high stick on its way to the net. Just your everyday, ordinary 183-footer, complete with a membership bounce.
"We've been playing a little up and down with our game," says Dowd. "I feel like we've been really good at times, and sometimes we've been really bad, and kind of just in the middle. We're trying to play to a consistency as a team and to our identity.
"This is a team that's in our division. I think we need to learn how to win these types of games. And it was really important too, because going into that break for seven days - three days of break and three days of practices - and to have to sit on something like that. It's a huge weight off our shoulders to know that we did our job tonight, and now we can get rewarded with a little break."
Instead of sitting with a stinging loss for a week, the Caps can bask in a late comeback and another road victory. Now, when they get back into action on Feb. 24 in New York to face the Rangers, they'll be taking aim on the all-time franchise standard for consecutive road victories. The 1983-84 Caps won six straight road games, and the 2010-11 edition matched that mark. In the decade plus since then, the Caps have now had half a dozen five-game road winning streaks.
Fourth Time Around - Laviolette put the Dowd line together quite early in his coaching tenure in Washington, and aside from some shuffling of the deck because of injuries earlier this season, the trio has remained together virtually since the outset of last season. Their primary task at 5-on-5 is to take a lot of defensive zone draws and to keep the opposition's top line in check, especially at home where Laviolette can dictate matchups. But lately, they've been a major driver of the Caps' offensive attack.
Since the start of February, Hagelin is tied with Carlson for the team lead in points with seven. Hagelin did the heavy lifting to set up both Hathaway goals, and Hathaway sang his linemates praise afterwards.
"He's had his speed, he's been fast, he's been tenacious on pucks," says Hathaway. "And I think he's had a really good stick, too. On top of that, he's been attacking the puck. He's not going to be the most physical, but he can get in there and create a lot of turnovers, too."
Dowd and Hathaway each have five points over the same seven-game span, and they're tied for third with Joe Snively and Evgeny Kuznetsov over that stretch.
Dowd and Hathaway each have five points over the same span, and they're tied for third with Joe Snively and Evgeny Kuznetsov over that stretch.
"I truly do believe that we had we probably have played better hockey than we have tonight, and in Nashville [on Tuesday] and earlier in the season, and we just weren't rewarded," says Dowd. "There were so many times where it happened, we were doing everything right, but it just wasn't going in for us. We were either hitting the post or the goalie's making a great save, or it's just bouncing wrong.
"That truly was our message to each other, just stick with it and it's going to break. Like, something's got to happen here if we just keep playing the right way. And I think we're finally seeing that break a little bit. We just tried to stay consistent, because we didn't change anything and we just kept playing the same way, and we tried to do the right things. Here and there, you get rewarded."
Dowd and his linemates aren't just supplementing the attack, they're scoring important goals at key times.
On Feb. 1 in Pittsburgh, Hagelin set up Dowd's shorthanded breakaway goal, the first goal of the game. A week later against Columbus at home, Dowd and Hagelin set up Hathaway for the game's first goal, and Hagelin helped Dowd make it 2-0 in the first minute of the second period against the Jackets. On Feb. 10 in Montreal, Hagelin scored the game-winning goal in a 5-2 win. In Tuesday's win over Nashville, Hagelin and Hathaway combined to set up Nick Jensen for the game-winning goal, a response goal that came on the shift after Nashville had tied it. And on Thursday in Philly, Hathaway and Dowd set up Michal Kempny for the game's first goal, and the line then struck for the tying and game-winning goals late in regulation.
"To be honest, it's more expected right now, just the way they play the game," says Laviolette. "They've done an excellent job the last couple of years and just they have a good identity. What you see from them as their identity, and they bring that pretty consistently on a nightly basis. And they're able to produce as well; it's not just about defense for them. They have that same identity in the offensive zone, and it generates chances."
It Took A Long Time - Kempny's goal on Thursday was his first in more than two years, since Oct. 25, 2019 in Vancouver in another wild win that the Caps somehow pulled off, a 6-5 triumph in the shootout after they trailed 5-1 in the final minute of the second period. Kempny scored a pair of third-period goals in Vancouver, but he had gone 60 games between goals before lighting the lamp on Thursday, the four-year anniversary of his last game as a member of the Blackhawks, a 7-1 win over the Caps in Chicago.
Powering Up - Joe Snively scored his first career power-play goal in the second period, becoming the 10th different Capital to score with the extra man this season and giving the team's power-play goal roll some needed diversity. Eighteen of Washington's 25 power-play goals have come from four players: Alex Ovechkin (8), Carlson (4), Kuznetsov (3) and Tom Wilson (3).
Both T.J. Oshie and Justin Schultz scored their only power-play goals of the season to date on opening night against the Rangers on Oct. 12, and Conor Sheary scored his only power-play goal thus far this season on Nov. 1 in Tampa.
Snively's goal gives the Capitals power-play goals in three straight games for first time since Nov. 24-28. Snively now has four goals and seven points in his first nine NHL games, and he skated 14:48 in Thursday's game, recording a single-game career best in that category for the second time in as many games on the trip.
Net Gain - Samsonov started his fourth straight game on Thursday and appeared in his seventh straight game. He turned in another strong performance in recording his 17th victory of the season, a career high. Samsonov went 16-6-2 as a rookie in 2019-20.
Samsonov has won four straight road decisions, posting a 2.02 GAA and a .949 save pct. in those four appearances. He has faced a heavy workload in each of those games, seeing an average of 39 shots per contest.
By The Numbers - Carlson led the Caps with 25:58 in ice time … Hathaway led the Caps with four shots on net … Kempny and Ovechkin led Washington with six shot attempts each … Wilson and Martin Fehervary had three hits each to lead the Caps … Fehervary led the Caps with four blocked shots … Lars Eller won eight of 11 draws (73 percent) … In the final season of his contract and a candidate to be traded between now and the March 21 trade deadline, Flyers captain Claude Giroux had a strong showcase game on Thursday, picking up an assist while skating 22:07 in the game to lead all forwards on both sides. Giroux was also masterful on the dot, winning 19 of 21 draws (90 percent).