The Washington Capitals held a lead on two separate occasions against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night but ended up 4-3 losers in a shootout. With just three minutes remaining in regulation, Philadelphia’s late push that the Capitals had little response to paid off and forced the game to overtime.
The Capitals have closed out their wins recently super well. This was the opposite of that.
- The Capitals started this game out super well, utterly dominating the first period at five-on-five. Philadelphia had a total of zero five-on-five scoring chances and high-danger chances after twenty minutes. The second was almost completely even and then the third was unfortunately the game decider. Philly had the Caps on the back foot at five-on-five, out-attempting them 22 to 16, out-scoring chancing them 13 to 8, and out-high danger chancing them 4 to 1. They also scored two goals in the final frame compared to the Capitals’ one.
- John Carlson had a brutal night. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals saw negative differentials in shot attempts (-8), scoring chances (-6), and high-danger chances (-6). The Flyers scored twice during his minutes (15:49) and the Capitals did not record a single high-danger chance of their own with him out there.
- Another two points from Aliaksei Protas at five-on-five which extends his team lead in five-on-five scoring (12) to two points over both Anthony Mantha (10) and Connor McMichael (10). Protas developing into a consistent scorer would be so huge for the future of the team and help them transition well out of the current era. As things currently stand, with almost zero power play time, Protas ranks fifth on the team in overall scoring with 13 points (3g, 10a).
Aliaksei Protas recorded the primary assist on Strome's goal, his second assist of the game. Protas’ five multi-point games this season rank tied for first on Washington (Dylan Strome: 5).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 15, 2023
- I thought some of the ice time choices in this game were incredibly bizarre. Matthew Phillips played just 2:43 in the entire game and after his recall earlier in the day, Joe Snively played just 6:31. I get that they were maybe late additions to the lineup but it’s not like they were just plucked off the street. These dudes have played NHL games and played well in them. If you aren’t comfortable with Phillips down the middle, move Protas there for a game. Sacrificing an entire line because Evgeny Kuznetsov dropped out late with an illness is just a little mind-boggling. You have to think it potentially contributed to the team waning down the stretch as well.
- Dylan Strome scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season in the loss. Strome has goals in two-straight games and has scored four goals in his last four games. He is now on pace for 37 goals this season. What a pickup he has been.
- Connor McMichael played over 20 minutes in an NHL game for the first time in his career. He has earned every second with his recent play.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
