Philadelphia Flyers: Breaking down the season series against Washington

A familiar opponent, the Flyers handled the Capitals during their season series.

Out of all of the opponents the Flyers will face during round-robin play, they are most familiar with the Washington Capitals. Playing them four times during the season, they seemed to improve during every game.

They captured a point in every single game, coming very close to sweeping the season series over Washington. The Flyers went 3-0-1 against the Capitals this season.

And they were threatening to take over first place from them in the Metro. But it didn’t start off well when they first faced them back in November.

Both teams were playing well coming into that game. The Flyers were on an early season four-game win streak. The Capitals were even better, riding a 12-game point streak.

This had the makings to be a great game. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, it didn’t end up that way. While they did increase their point streak, they dropped a tough game in overtime.

Braden Holtby limited them to virtually nothing. He surrendered one goal in the third period. It was Washington’s game throughout and that was made obvious by the final score. It did come down to a shootout, but that’s where Holtby stoned the Flyers once more.

While Claude Giroux answered T.J. Oshie’s shootout goal, Sean Couturier was unable to do the same after Evgeny Kuznetsov scored. Carter Hart was also strong in this one. His 35 saved ended up not being quite enough.

Having lost four in a row, the next game against the Capitals would prove to be a turning point in the season. The Flyers were coming off a horrendous West Coast road trip, desperately needing to come back home.

With big games coming up, they needed to get back on track. And they did just that against Washington, facing them for the second time.

It was a back and fourth game as the two teams traded goals during the first period. Four goals were scored, each team with two. Robert Hagg’s first goal of the season turned out to be an important one going into the first intermission.

And it was Kevin Hayes who would become the hero. En route to holding the Capitals to an 0-for-5 power play, Hayes tapped in a shorthanded goal late in the second period.

Despite not being able to increase that advantage, the Flyers were able to hold the Capitals off during the third period. That included killing off two penalties as the newly improved penalty kill put on a show.

This would be the last close game between the two teams as the Flyers exploded in the final two games of the season series. Washington was beginning to see the kind of team the Flyers were becoming.

It was exactly a month before the two teams met again. Alex Ovechkin came in just two goals shy of 700. But it was Giroux who stole the show, recording three points for a totsl of 800 in the NHL.

And based on the final score, it was a rout for Philadelphia. The first period doesn’t tell the story as both teams tallied a power play goal. It was the second period where the Flyers broke the game wide open. They scored early and often, grabbing three goals in the span of 1:45.

Michael Raffl kicked things off early, scoring just under three minutes into the period. Scoring his second of the game, Couturier answered that goal 14 seconds later. James van Riemsdyk finished it off under two minutes later.

But the Flyers weren’t done yet. To put icing on the cake, they grabbed three more goals in the third period. The Capitals would finally grab another, but it was too late by then. Holtby would end up being pulled after the Flyers seventh goal, but it was also pointless by them. Ilya Samsonov faced just one shot in 11:58.

When the Flyers traveled to Washington for the final game of the series, they were scorching hot. 9-2-0 on their last 11 and 16-5-1 since they dismantled the Caps in January.

They were not a team to be messed with and they proved that once again. A Flyers win would put the team just one point back in the division. And they were able to do just that.

It was a slightly closer game than the last time the two teams had met. But it was the same end result. While Washington scored the first goal of the game, it was the only lead they would get.

Travis Konecny would seemingly tie the game in the second period. A review deemed it was inconclusive that the puck crossed the line. But karma is a funny thing as Konecny would end up scoring on his next sent. Ball don’t lie, as they say. Or puck don’t lie, in this case.

The Flyers tacked on two more goals in the period to increase their lead to 3-1. The Capitals would come close to tying the name, grabbing a late second period goal by Garnet Hathaway.

That was the closest they would come as the Flyers pulled away in the third period. Ivan Provorov and Scott Laughton finished things off, each grabbing a goal.

Five goals were scored by five different pushers, a clear sign of the depth the team had.

After a tough shootout loss in November, the Flyers turned things on throughout the rest of the season. They would end up out scoring Washington 16-8. It helped that they broke out for 12 goals in the final two games.

Philadelphia proved they weren’t a team to mess with as the season series went on. And with one more game to play against Washington, we should be in for a good one.