The Washington Capitals eked out a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. They cruised through the first two periods and then laid a complete egg in the third, leaving nearly all of the work in securing the two points to their goaltender.
Who cares, playoff qualification goes brrrrrrr. For the less online crowd, that was a meme.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2025-03-20: pic.twitter.com/oIjR3798bD
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) March 21, 2025
- The third period was an absolute mess. At five-on-five, the Flyers out-attempted the Caps 23-5, out-scoring chanced them 13-2, and out-high danger chanced them 8-1. Overall, the Flyers posted 2.12 expected goals in the final frame. Praise be, Charlie Lindgren.
- Lindgren made 27 stops on 29 shots faced, improving to 16-11-3 on the season with a 2.65 goals-against average, a .901 save percentage, and one shutout. Per MoneyPuck, he saved 2.61 more goals than expected, pretty much singlehandedly maintaining the win.
- Alex Ovechkin scored his 888th career goal, moving just seven goals away from taking sole possession of the NHL’s all-time goals record. Ovi has scored 52 goals in 78 career games against the Flyers, the second-most goals he has scored against a single franchise (56 vs Winnipeg/Atlanta).
The Capitals have earned 100 or more points in 10 of the last 14 82-game seasons, which is tied with the Boston Bruins for the most 100-point seasons during that span.
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) March 21, 2025
- The Caps have now beat the Flyers six times in a row, dating back to March 1, 2024. Can we get some Ls spammed in the chat? That was another meme.
- Anthony Beauvillier had a real nice game, chipping in two assists for his first multi-point performance with the Capitals.
- Aliaksei Protas recorded another five-on-five point with the primary assist on Ovechkin’s goal, giving him 47 five-on-five points (20g, 27a) on the season. Only Sidney Crosby (48), David Pastrnak (50), and Leon Draisaitl (51) have more. Wild company.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
