Flyers at Capitals preview

FLYERS (15-21-6) at CAPITALS (25-12-4)
7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS, NBCSWA, NHL.TV

Goalie Mike McKenna will start and become the seventh starting goalie Philadelphia has used this season. The 1989-90 Quebec Nordiques are the only NHL team to have seven goalies start in a season. The 2002-03 St. Louis Blues and 2007-08 Los Angeles Kings had seven goalies play for them in one season.
The Flyers have been outscored 26-12 during a seven-game losing streak, their longest since losing 10 straight from Nov. 11-Dec. 2, 2017. Philadelphia, which lost 3-0 to the St. Louis Blues on Monday, has scored seven goals in its past six games and been shut out twice.
Washington is 1-2-1 in its past four games after going 9-1-0 in its previous 10. The Capitals allowed two goals or fewer in seven of their past nine games.

Players to watch

Flyers forward Claude Giroux leads them with 46 points, but has two assists in his past six games.
Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin has a goal and three assists in his past nine games after getting 23 points (17 goals, six assists) in a 14-game point streak.

They said it

"You've got to start small. We've got to start with winning a period, winning a shift and build from there. Right now, you definitely can't look at the big picture, obviously the big picture doesn't look good, so you got to start small and we've got to start making strides from there." -- Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds
"They're a difficult team to play against just from the aspect of them really activating their defense and the guys, whether it's [Shayne] Gostisbehere or [Ivan] Provorov, different guys like that, they can add to the [offensive] group and they're dangerous." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden

Flyers projected lineup

Claude Giroux -- Sean Couturier -- Travis Konecny
Oskar Lindblom -- Nolan Patrick -- Jakub Voracek
James van Riemsdyk -- Jordan Weal -- Wayne Simmonds
Michael Raffl -- Scott Laughton -- Dale Weise
Ivan Provorov -- Travis Sanheim
Robert Hagg -- Christian Folin
Shayne Gostisbehere -- Radko Gudas
Mike McKenna
Carter Hart
Scratched:Jori Lehtera, Phil Varone
Injured:Corban Knight (collarbone), Brian Elliott (lower body), Anthony Stolarz (lower body), Andrew MacDonald (lower body), Michal Neuvirth (lower body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Lars Eller -- T.J. Oshie
Andre Burakovsky -- Travis Boyd -- Brett Connolly
Chandler Stephenson -- Nic Dowd -- Devante Smith-Pelly
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Brooks Orpik -- Madison Bowey
Pheonix Copley
Braden Holtby
Scratched: Dmitrij Jaskin, Jonas Siegenthaler
Injured:Nicklas Backstrom (illness), Christian Djoos (leg)

Status report

The Flyers did not have a morning skate. … Backstrom missed the morning skate and is a game-time decision.

Stat pack

Couturier has scored one goal in his past six games. … Ovechkin is one power-play goal from passing Brendan Shanahan for sixth place on the NHL with 238. … Kuznetsov has gone 15 games without a goal. ... Washington is 1-for-31 on the power play in its past 10 games.