The Philadelphia Flyers are one of the hottest teams in the NHL since the return from the Olympic break. As a result of this, the team had pulled within two points of a playoff spot entering Tuesday night. While the attention was on rookie prospect Porter Martone's debut, the Flyers had a chance to gain ground in the crowded playoff field in the Eastern Conference.
Instead, the Flyers lost 6-4 to the Washington Capitals. It was a rough outing for starting goaltender Dan Vladar, who had been a bright spot for the Flyers this season. Instead, he gave up five goals on just 17 shots faced, four of which came from Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson (two each). It was not the performance the Flyers were looking for, even though they put up four goals against a game Logan Thompson.
The loss only stings further considering the results of the other games in the league. In fact, if the Flyers had won, they would have leaped ahead of the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators, both of whom lost huge on Tuesday night.
Flyers miss out on opportunity to soar in playoff standings
The Flyers had 86 points on the season, tied with the Red Wings and Senators, and all three were two points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who held the final Wild Card spot as of that day. All of the dominoes fell in the Flyers' favor.
The Senators lost 6-3 to the injury-riddled Florida Panthers. In fact, the Senators trailed 5-0 in under 16 minutes of game time. One of those goals arrived just eight seconds into the game. That was one result that favored the Flyers.
Then, the Red Wings, who have had a brutal March (as is tradition for that franchise), faced off against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who despite being one of the biggest surprises of the season, are in a playoff spot. Even with Stuart Skinner, who has been shaky this season, in net, the Red Wings had no answers for him. The Penguins won 5-1 to further secure their second place spot in the Metropolitan Division.
The Blue Jackets, who are not only looking to hang onto their spot in the Wild Card but also potentially climb up into third place in the Metropolitan Division, lost 5-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes. So the Blue Jackets gained no ground with the regulation loss.
The Flyers had the perfect chance to gain ground, pull away from the Red Wings and Senators, while also tying with the Blue Jackets for the last Wild Card spot. Unfortunately for them, they lost out on that opportunity. The good news is that the Flyers have eight more games left in the season, and are still only two points out of a playoff spot. Even so, a win would have been much better on Tuesday night.