The Washington Capitals finally met their division rival Philadelphia Flyers for a road game on Thursday night. In a game with big standings implications, the Capitals looked composed all the way up until they didn’t.
Bobby Brink, great name, opened up scoring for Philly, capping off a heavy shift for the Flyers. Less than a minute later, Connor McMichael showed some serious skills in front of Philly’s net to tie it up. Tom Wilson’s power-play goal (yes, those exist) gave Washington a 2-1 lead after two periods.
Joel Farabee tied it up in the third with a mutant sort of wraparound from below the goal line. Dylan Strome restored the lead with a quick tip-in from Aliaksei Protas. Owen Tippett benefited from a screen to again tie the game with three minutes left.
In overtime, the Capitals had a lot of puck possession but no finish.
Shootout bullets!
- Couturier put the biscuit in the basket
- Oshie put the biscuit in the basket
- Foerster did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
- Strome did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
- Brink put the biscuit in the basket
- Mantha did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
Caps lose.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov did not play due to illness. It’s going around, I suppose.
- Matthew Phillips suited up in his stead, but he didn’t really play. He didn’t even get a shift in the second and third periods. So the Caps were effectively playing with eleven forwards. (Why not try seven defenders then?)
- There were a lot of scouts in attendance as the trade market heats up. Also, Ethan Bear signing when?
- Connor Michael‘s line remains white-hot, with the man himself scoring a really impressive goal after a good centering pass from Protas. Just check out the moves:
LET THIS LINE COOK pic.twitter.com/XEaN5u3WuA
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 15, 2023
- The Capitals say McMichael’s line has now scored seven five-on-five goals over Washington’s last eight games.
- Last bullet on McMike, I promise: he got busted for a phantom hook at the end of the second period. That was a very bad call, and you know I try to stay mellow on ref-blaming in the recaps.
- I wrote about ex-Caps goalies earlier today, and hoo boy it was a woof of a night for poor Ilya Samsonov against Columbus. Consulting the General Dynamics out-of-town scoreboard, Sammy gave up five goals at last check – and they kept him in the game. Sick and twised. (The Leafs came back, so there’s goal support for you.)
- The Capitals scored on the power play, but it wasn’t from Alex Ovechkin, who had a great scoring chance moments before Tom Wilson scored from danger-close. Tom Wilson is now at 10 goals – or a 30-goal pace – so it looks like I was way under in my predictions for him.
- Meanwhile, Ovechkin continued to get zone time and looks, but he’s still just ‘til Birnam forest come to Dunsinane-level cursed.
- Martin Fehervary didn’t have a great night, failing to clear the crease on the Brink goal and getting outworked below the goal line on the Farabee goal. I’ve been whining about Washington’s trouble in high-danger areas all season, but I didn’t really think of Fehervary as one of the team’s worst offenders at it. Well, tonight he was.
Division matchup let's goooo #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/4XHocRL5xL
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 14, 2023
(Hey, do me a favor: don’t light up the poor social-media people working for the Caps and Monumental. They’re getting soooo much abuse for decisions made by much more powerful people. Thanks.)
It would have been a much better night if this was a four-point swing, with the Flyers losing two and the Caps gaining two from a regulation win. Instead, the Caps’ timid prevent defense finally burned them. That’s a bummer. They now have a day off before playing in Nashville on Saturday night. It’ll be a busy weekend with that and then a no-rest game in Carolina. Strap in.
Headline photo: Guy9988 from Crashers
