Flyers hitting the nation’s capital for a date with Washington
The first of four matchups between the Flyers and Capitals will kick off this evening. Philadelphia will be looking to have a much better time with Washinton than they had a season ago. They went 2-5-1 in eight games versus their Metropolitan Division rival. This will be the Flyers’ second game within a tough Metro Division. The teams are not separated by many points so this is one of those potential four-point swing matchups for each squad.
So far Philadelphia is 0-0-1 against their division while Washington is 2-0-0 early on. They beat the Rangers on opening night and followed that up by easily handling the Devils a week later. The Flyers are coming off the overtime loss to an under-manned Penguins team.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 5-2-2 (12 points, 4th in Metro)
Hitting the road for their first set of games against divisional opponents, the Flyers came into Pittsburgh facing a Penguins team without many of its star players. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby were both out, one with injury and one due to COVID-19 protocol. The Penguins were also without a few other players for various reasons as well. They did get Kris Letang back for the game, which turned out to be what beat the Flyers in the end.
Philadelphia did not look particularly strong during most parts of their eventual overtime loss. Carter Hart, as he has been able to do early on, was the biggest reason the Flyers were able to make it to overtime, to begin with. They snatched what could be a crucial point from a game in which they didn’t quite deserve one.
As to be expected, the scoring has begun to dry up a bit as they weren’t going to keep up their five goals a game pace. A hot trio for them at the beginning of the season has now dried up in recent games. The second line of Farabee, Atkinson, and Brassard has essentially been getting carved up during five-on-five play. They aren’t giving up goals, but they aren’t scoring them either.
Atkinson still leads the team with six goals with Giroux behind him at five goals. Giroux and Couturier lead the Flyers with 11 points apiece. A surprise early on has been the play of Justin Braun. He has taken over the top line spot previously held by Ryan Ellis. In nine games, Braun already has matched his point total from 53 games last season.
Projected Lineup
Giroux – Couturier – Konecny
Farabee – Brassard – Atkinson
Lindblom – Laughton – van Riemsdyk
Thompson – Brown – MacEwen
Provorov – Braun
Sanheim – Ristolainen
Yandle – Seeler
Jones
Washington Capitals
Record: 5-1-4 (14 points, 3rd in Metro)
The Capitals are coming off a disappointing Florida road trip in which they gained a single point out of a possible four. Both were tough, hard-fought games that saw them drop a close 3-2 to the Lightning. Their most recent contest against the Panthers saw them come back from a 4-1 deficit to send the game into overtime. They would not be able to finish the comeback, however, as Tom Wilson would accidentally deflect an Eetu Luostarinen pass into his own net.
Washington has had their fair share of injury troubles recently. Anthony Mantha and T.J. Oshie are both on injured reserve, the former hitting IR after the Panthers’ game. They are also without Nicklas Backstrom as well. But with Alex Ovechkin in the lineup, anything can happen.
Speaking of Ovechkin, he unsurprisingly leads the Capitals in goals (10), assists (8), and points (18). Evgeni Kuznetsov has been hard to stop as well as he has 13 points in his first 10 games. John Carlson has been strong as well with seven points.
Projected Lineup
Ovechkin- Kuznetsov- Wilson
Lapierre- Eller- Sprong
Hagelin- Dowd- Hathaway
Sheary- McMichael- Leason
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
van Riemsdyk-Schultz
Vanecek
When, Where, and How to Watch
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Capital One Arena
TV Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio Broadcast: 97.5 The Fanatic
Live Stream: Fubo TV
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