Flyers Homestand Ends With Caps in Town
By Scott Cole
The Flyers dropped the Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche. Now, going 2-2 on this home stand, let’s finish it up with a win against the struggling Washington Capitals.
In their previous meeting against Washington, the Flyers let a game slip away. They gave up a goal to Sonny Milano with just under three minutes to play. Then, after a minute of OT, Alexander Ovechkin drilled home a game winner. What should have ended a losing streak at seven games extended one to eight. But this will be an entirely different team than the Caps faced a few weeks ago.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 9-12-5 (23 points, 7th in Metro)
The Flyers victory over the Avs was a good one, as well as a much needed one. Yes, Travis Konecny increased his goal scoring streak to three, but this was one for the kids as well. Tanner Laczynski broke a 1-1 tie in the first period to give the Flyers a lead they would never relinquish. The goal was Laczynski’s second of the season. Owen Tippett would also score his seventh goal to increase the Flyers’ lead.
That is the important thing. It wasn’t just the veteran players contributing, like Konecny, Kevin Hayes, and Tony DeAngelo. It was won, in large part, by some of these younger guys that the Flyers future is going to depend on. This is what John Tortorella is saying will happen when they start to gel together. And against a team as well put together as Colorado, that is wonderful.
Carter Hart had a nice bounce back game with 29 saves on 32 shot attempts. He will get the start in net once again. If Philly plays to their full potential, they can take this game from Washington and end this homestand on a two game winning streak. That will be important for taking momentum west to face the Vegas Golden Knights next.
Projected Lineup
Kevin Hayes – Noah Cates – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Owen Tippett
Scott Laughton – Lukas Sedlak – James van Riemsdyk
Nicolas Deslauriers – Patrick Brown – Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov – Rasmus Ristolainen
Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun
Nick Seeler – Tony DeAngelo
Carter Hart
Washington Capitals
Record: 11-12-4 (26 points, 6th in Metro)
Oh how the mighty have fallen. This is a team that used to dominate the Metropolitan Division and just outplayed and outscored everyone. Age and time has turned this once mighty squad into a shadow of themselves.
Washington has lost three of its last five games. And if the Flyers can steal this one from them, they would be one point behind them in the Metro standings. And when you consider that the Flyers are coming out of a 10 game losing streak, this tells you how much the Caps have struggled.
Much like the Flyers, they have faced a lot of key injuries to players. In Saturday’s game, Martin Fehervary and Darcy Kuemper had to leave the game due to injuries. The result of this is a team that is 22nd in goals for, 21st in goals against, and 20th on the power play.
Kuemper’s loss is a big one. He’s been their starting goalie with a 2.56 GAA, a .916 save percentage, and two shutouts. Kuemper is day to day with an eye injury. The options for Washington in net are not promising for the Caps. They recalled career minor league journeyman Hunter Shepard from Hershey. Their other option is Charlie Lindgren, who is 3-3-2 this season with a 3.32 GAA and a save percentage of .895. For the Flyers, this is a big opportunity that they can take advantage of.
Of course, the Capitals still have Alex Ovechkin…and that’s about it. He leads the team with 13 goals and 25 points. One of the goals was the OT game winner against Philly. He sits on 793 career goals. He hasn’t scored since Nov 29th when he scored two against Vancouver. He has 44 goals and 31 assists in 67 career games against Philly. He is eight goals away from tying Gordie Howe and you wonder if there were no lockouts or COVID stoppages, would he have passed Wayne Gretzky in goals scored by now?
Projected Lineup
Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Conor Sheary
Sonny Milano – Evgeny Kuznetsov – T.J. Oshie
Marcus Johansson – Lars Eller – Anthony Mantha
Aliaksei Protas – Nic Dowd – Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson – John Carlson
Trevor van Riemsdyk – Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev – Matt Irwin
Charlie Lindgren
Where, When, and How to Watch/Listen
Time: 7:00 PM
Where: Wells Fargo Center
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: Fubo Tv
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