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Capitals don’t show up until way too late in Philadelphia: Flyers beat Caps 5-3

By Chris Cerullo

 4 Comments

January 11, 2023 9:41 pm

The Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers did battle on Wednesday night in Philly as the two teams kicked off a two-game, home and home set. Games between the Flyers and Caps always have the chance to get spicy, but would this one?

Scott Laughton opened the scoring with a lofted strike through traffic on a power play. Garnet Hathaway scored in the McNugget minute to tie things up but the Caps left Travis Konecny uncovered in front of their net and he gave the Flyers their lead back less than 30 seconds later.

We got nothing in the second. Owen Tippett rocketed home a wrister in the third to extend the home team’s lead. Konecny got another shorthanded. Marcus Johansson and TJ Oshie went back-to-back to get the Caps right back into it. Konecny empty netter for a hat trick.

Flyers beat Capitals 5-3.

  • I was not too fond of the Capitals’ first period whatsoever. It felt like they were second to the puck for the entire twenty minutes. They scored late to tie it up against the run of play but immediately gave up another less than 30 seconds later. The team has started on their back foot recently way too much.
  • Garnet Hathaway got on the board with his sixth of the season. He has five points in his last seven games. Also, is there a player in the NHL with a higher scrums per 60 than Hath?
  • Big congrats to Trevor van Riemsdyk for playing in his 500th career NHL game. One of my favorite recent Caps. He’s so solid, so dependable.

  • They played no better in the second. In fact, I think they were even worse. The hope here is that the Caps are currently a team trying to readjust and find a groove again after fitting Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson back into their lineup.
  • Owen Tippett drew three separate tripping penalties against Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Dmitry Orlov. He also scored his 13th goal of the season.
  • I would not be surprised if we see Anthony Mantha and/or Nicolas Aube-Kubel in the next game.
  • Ian wrote this really cool post about Ovi and his two sons Sergei and Ilya joining a high school figure skating team out on the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. Go check it out.

  • The third was the Capitals’ best frame but it was way too little way too late.
  • That third-period power play was a good summary of things. It was brutal. Giving up that shortie cost them at least a point.
  • I thought Backstrom definitely looked better in this game. He found his first point of the season with a slick setup on TJ Oshie’s marker.

The Caps will have Thursday off, practice Friday, and then see the Flyers again at Capital One Arena on Saturday.

Headline photo courtesy of @imhopper/Twitter

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