Slow Start Dooms Caps in 2-1 Loss

A slow start proved to be too much for the Capitals to overcome on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. They fell behind early and dug the hole a bit deeper before finally getting their game on track in the second period. But it was too little and too late as a beleaguered Flyers' squad eked out a 2-1 win on the strength of 20 strong minutes early in the game.

Saturday's victory ended a six-game Philadelphia losing streak (0-4-2) in which the Flyers yielded four or more goals against in all six games.
"The first period we were lousy; no excuse for it," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "I thought we got better in the second and third period, but now we're chasing the game, which is where we've been for the last month and a half, we're just chasing games. So we needed a better start."
The afternoon started inauspiciously for the Capitals. Eleven seconds into the first period, they were looking at a scoreboard deficit. Flyers captain Claude Giroux whipped a wrist shot past Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov from the high slot, giving Philly an early 1-0 lead.
Nineteen seconds later, Washington went on the game's first power play. The Caps put three shots on net, but they weren't able to come up with the equalizer on the man advantage, and they would need more than 10 minutes to muster their first shot on net at even strength.
Things didn't get any better as the period wore on. With 3:30 left, the Caps had a second power play opportunity when Philadelphia's Zack MacEwen incurred an additional roughing minor in a fight with Caps winger Tom Wilson, putting Washington on the power play once again.
Again, the Caps didn't score. But Philly got an odd-man rush when Derrick Brassard stepped out of the box after serving the MacEwen minor, and longtime Caps killer Cam Atkinson scored on that rush to make it 2-0 for the Flyers at 18:38 of the first.
Washington yielded a goal in the first minute of the opening frame, and another during the penultimate minute. And Philly owned a lopsided 26-9 advantage in shot attempts at even strength in the first 20 minutes.
"That first period is something we want back," says Washington winger Carl Hagelin. "We can't let that happen. They dominated us in the first."
In the second, the Caps warmed to the task. They went on their third power play of the game early in the middle frame, and 14 seconds later they halved the Philly lead. From the inside of the right circle, T.J. Oshie took a half-wall feed from Nicklas Backstrom and drilled it past the outstretched glove hand of Flyers goalie Carter Hart to make it a 2-1 game at 6:53 of the second.
Soon after the Oshie goal, the Caps found themselves in some tall penalty grass, facing a two-man advantage of 49 seconds in duration. The Caps held firm, preventing the Philly power play from getting any pucks to the net during its 3:11 with the man advantage, including the two-man advantage.
The Caps largely turned the territorial tables on the Flyers in the second, holding Philly without a shot on net for over 11 minutes, a span that included the aforementioned power play time.
In the third, the Caps again had the better of the play but they couldn't get the game tied up. Again, they permitted little to nothing in the way of offense for the Flyers, who went 11:29 into the final period before finally recording their first shot on net, a 183-footer from defenseman Travis Sanheim.
With Samsonov pulled for an extra attacker in the final two minutes, the Caps had plenty of possession and time in the offensive zone. They teed up nine shots during that span, getting three of them on net, but there would be no late heroics for Washington on this afternoon.
The Caps outshot Philly 19-8 and owned a 37-23 advantage in shot attempts over the game's final 40 minutes. But the Flyers had all the offense they would need by then, and they hung in and hung on defensively the rest of the way, holding the Caps off the board at 5-on-5.
"Hanging in is a good way to put it," says Flyers coach Mike Yeo. "Certainly the guys competed extremely hard tonight, the emotion was there and obviously physicality was there. A great start, and obviously now getting a win. Maybe that can help start to build confidence.
"You could see that as the game wore on - especially after they scored the power-play goal - we started playing on our heels a little bit, as opposed to having that attack mindset that we want to have. But we certainly did defend hard, we just defended too much."