Broad Street Buzz
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Poor second period haunts Philadelphia Flyers in loss vs Capitals

By Benjamin Gabrych

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 08: Washington Capitals goaltender Pheonix Copley (1) makes a second period save on a shot by Philadelphia Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds (17) on January 8, 2019, at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 08: Washington Capitals goaltender Pheonix Copley (1) makes a second period save on a shot by Philadelphia Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds (17) on January 8, 2019, at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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The Philadelphia Flyers entered the second half of a back-to-back hoping to snap a seven game losing streak.

Getting shutout in their last contest, the Philadelphia Flyers needed to bring their A game going up against the best team in the Metropolitan Division in the Washington Capitals.

Mike McKenna, who was claimed off waivers by the Flyers on Friday, got the start and opposed Pheonix Copley in-net. Copley had a 9-2-2 record coming in, with a 2.56 Goals-Against Average, and a .915 save percentage. Philadelphia needed to give a better effort on both sides of the puck and not let themselves get shutout for the second straight game.

Washington got the game’s first goal less than five minutes in the form of Tom Wilson and took an early 1-0 lead over the Flyers. Ivan Provorov couldn’t decide who to cover on the two-on-one, leaving Wilson open back-door for his 13th tally of the year. That lead wouldn’t last long, as Jakub Voracek scored on a two-on-one opportunity to tie the game for the Flyers. Oskar Lindblom did a great job to pick off a pass in the neutral zone and set-up Voracek for the goal.

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The score stayed tied at the end of the first, with Philadelphia having an 11-to-four shots on goal advantage over the Capitals. This was a much better first period performance than in games past. If it weren’t for a couple of miscues on their pass attempts, the Flyers could’ve easily left the period with the lead.

The Caps received their first power-play of the game early on in the second, but the Flyers did a good job playing aggressively and killed off the penalty. Those efforts weren’t rewarded and TJ Oshie deflected a  puck passed McKenna to give Washington a 2-1 advantage. There wasn’t really anything McKenna could do, it was honestly a nice deflection from Oshie and completely froze the veteran net-minder.

Jakub Vrana went on to add to the Capitals lead, scoring his 13th tally of the season on a semi-breakaway to put Philadelphia in a puck two goal hole. It wouldn’t take long for Vrana to find his second goal of the night, as he banked the puck in the net off of McKenna on the power-play to make it a 4-1 game at the end of the second. The Flyers collapsed in the second period once again and couldn’t build off of a good first period performance.

Philadelphia failed to score on three power-play opportunities throughout third period and went zero for four on the night. The chances were there to cut into the Capital lead and the man advantage simply failed to capitalize on any of them. Interim Head Coach Scott Gordon pulled McKenna with just over three minutes to go and Wayne Simmonds netted his 200th career goal in a Flyers uniform to cut the deficit to two. Claude Giroux put Philadelphia within one late in the third, but it was just too little too late as Oshie netted an empty-netter and won the game for Washington.

The poor second period is what did the Flyers in tonight. They, for whatever reason, couldn’t build any confidence coming into a period when the game was tied and sure paid the price for it in this one.

Next. It's time for the Flyers to call-up some prospects.. dark

The Flyers are now riding an eight game losing streak. Next game is Thursday against the Dallas Stars.

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