The Flyers visited DC for rivalry night which means we got an 8 PM start, and that is a bad start time.

Nolan Patrick scored less than two minutes into the game to put the good guys in an early hole. Before the game was even 10 minutes old, the Flyers took a 2-0 lead after Christian Djoos bodychecked Braden Holtby and then Travis Koneckny deposited the puck into the open cage.

Early in the second, Lars Eller beat out an icing, gamed his corsi, and then Chandler Stephenson banged home the rebound to bring the Caps back within one. Shortly after, Stephenson scored again. Madison Bowey, much like Tom Brady will do on Sunday, shredded the Philly defense with a long pass and Stephenson finished it off. Later in the period, Eller made a nifty pass to Andre Burakovsky who banked home a power play goal from the front of the net.

About five minutes into the third, TJ Oshie scored his first goal in about 700 games to put stretch the lead to 4-2. With the period about halfway over, Jay Beagle made a nice feed to Christian Djoos. Djoos hammered the puck towards the net and it banked off Devante Smith-Pelly’s skate to make it 5-2. A Jake Voracek deflection pulled the Flyers to within two.

Caps win 5-3!

• Jakub Vrana was a healthy scratch tonight. Whatever.
• The Flyers’ second goal won’t show up on any Christian Djoos highlight reels. He got turned around and then skated by at the blue line. He tried to recover but ended up wiping out his own goalie, giving the Flyers an easy second goal.
• During the game, Ian commented in our RMNB chat that Nolan Patrick looks like a good hockey player. I agree with this analysis.
• When Marcus Johansson was the main man for carrying the puck into the zone on the PP, the Caps entered along the right hand side of the ice and were almost immediately set up in their power play position. Now, with Evgeny Kuznetsov taking a lot of the entries, the Caps enter down the middle more often, or even the left hand side. It sure seems like it takes longer for the Caps to get set up with the new approach to zone entries this season.
• I still do not get this Carlson-Ovechkin switch on the PP.
• Chandler Stephenson has looked like a viable bottom-six forward this season. Related to his two goals tonight: Vrana and Andre Burakovsky won’t both be in the top-nine again until March of 2054.
• On Stephenson’s second goal, I couldn’t tell it was him as he broke in all alone. And then he showed such great hands depositing the puck in the net. I was really surprised when the camera angle allowed me to see it was Chandler Stephenson showing off those soft hands.
• Thank goodness Burakovsky ended his drought. It’s January 31st and that’s just his fourth goal. It’s hard to imagine this season going worse for him than it has, but hopefully he can get it going here in the second half.
• Two brilliant primary assists from Lars Eller. It’s gonna be really tough to keep him around next season and, man, the team will miss him if he walks.
• Dmitry Orlov drew a penalty and the Caps scored their third goal on the ensuing PP. Orlov has drawn 10 penalties on the season and is plus-four in penalty differential. Both are good for third on the team. Pretty darn impressive for a defenseman. Vrana leads the team in both categories.
• Braden Holtby had some great stops tonight.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Flyers

Headline image: Patrick McDermott