In their first meeting of the season, the Flyers survived a third period push by Alex Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals. A late goal on the power play by Jamie Drysdale was the difference in the Flyers’ 4-2 win.
The basics
First Period: 5:56 – Owen Tippett (Travis Sanheim, Matvei Michkov)
Second Period: 4:45 – Carl Grundstrom (Nic Deslauriers, Rasmus Ristolainen), 8:12 – Aliaksei Protas (SHG) (Anthony Beauvillier)
Third Period: 2:40 – Anthony Beauvillier (Justin Sourdif, Trevor van Riemsdyk), 14:37 – Jamie Drysdale (PPG) (Trevor Zegras, Travis Konecny), 19:43 – Rasmus Ristolainen (ENG) (Travis Konecny)
SOG: PHI (22) – WAS (28)
Some takeaways
Vladar weathers the early storm
The Flyers have surrendered the game’s first goal 36 times this season — the second-highest number in the NHL this season — and were seemingly on their way to another 1-0 deficit when Nic Deslauriers entered the penalty box less than three minutes after puck drop. Weathering a few chances from the leading goal scorer in NHL history, Alexander Ovechkin, goaltender Dan Vladar gave his team an opportunity to take an early lead for a change.
With the Capitals on the second half of a back-to-back, Vladar’s efforts in goal were critical to keep the Flyers from falling behind while the visitors had the most of their legs. Philadelphia held a slight advantage in Expected Goals (via MoneyPuck) in the first period, but something about Ovechkin being the shooter sprinkles an added element of fear to each shot. It wasn’t all Vladar — the Flyers blocked 13 shots in the first period alone, the most in any period this season.
Matvei Michkov responds to the noise
Owen Tippett broke the scoreless tie on a nice sequence started low in the offensive zone by Matvei Michkov, who dished over to Travis Sanheim on the weak side after carrying the puck the length of the boards behind the net. Sanheim found a cutting Tippett with an outstanding feed through traffic for his 19th tally of the season, and head coach Rick Tocchet had the following to say when asked by Ashlyn Sullivan about the goal coming out of commercial break: “Great patience by (Michkov) to find the weak side, we had talked about finding that side, so a great play by (Michkov).”
Owen Tippett goes to the backhand! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/MwMrxHOekN
— NHL (@NHL) February 4, 2026
Michkov, the subject of a surprise pregame press meeting from GM Daniel Briere amidst comments made over the weekend about ice time by Tocchet, was in the starting five for the opening shift. His 10:59 of time on ice in the first two periods was more than he received over the course of Saturday’s overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings (10:21). This comes immediately in the wake of Tocchet doubling, or tripling, down on being unsatisfied with Michkov’s conditioning with a new tidbit about being late for treatments, making his usage a significant focus of the fanbase. Michkov finished with nearly 16 minutes in this one — a return to normalcy.
In fact, his line — Bobby Brink, Noah Cates, and Matvei Michkov — was the most utilized line at 5-on-5 tonight, and managed 73.1% of the expected goals. The three of them were buzzing all night.
Grundstrom making an impact in his return
Having taken a seat since the Flyers loss in Columbus, Carl Grundstrom got a lucky deflection off Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun for his eighth goal of the season. This was also how Deslauriers received his first point of the season. With Sean Couturier as the regular center here, the Flyers’ fourth line has largely controlled play and was finally rewarded with a nice bounce, even if the captain himself has yet to be the beneficiary of any shooting luck for the last 28 games.
However you can get ‘em!#WSHvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/eEbThG77ro
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 4, 2026
Grundstrom was one of the team leaders in the Expected Goals department in his first match of February. After his four-game goal streak during the holidays, the Swedish winger didn’t score again in the month of January. This was his first goal since December 30, the end of that four game goal streak. He’s ninth on the team in goals, behind Tyson Foerster, despite playing limited minutes in just 26 games. Great scorers score in bunches, so it’s a shame there’s just one more game until the Olympic break cools him off again.
Capitals down to their third goalie in a back-to-back
Clay Stevenson was called into action for Washington after Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren suffered injuries in prior games. This is his second game in two nights, and just his fourth overall in the NHL. Having made 96 starts for the Hershey Bears the past few seasons, there’s some familiarity with the former Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the Flyer lineup tonight.
The former Dartmouth University goaltender didn’t make a ton of saves, but certainly was faced with plenty of chances from the low slot and was the victim of an unfortunate bounce off of his own teammate. With the Capitals undoubtedly fatigued, Stevenson allowed his team to hang around long enough to tie the game in the third period. With an Expected Goals against of 2.75, Washington won’t have any complaints with their netminder.
Travis Konecny’s 700th game as a Flyer
Travis Konecny is the Flyers’ best player, period, and it feels like just yesterday he was making his debut as a 19-year-old in the orange and black. In his tenth season, he’s been in great form, especially recently — despite the club’s struggles. Tonight, he came back to Earth, and was given a couple of shots against the boards throughout the game. He wasn’t bad, but the reigning NHL third-star-of-the-week had just been on another level until tonight, and still managed to extend his multi-point game streak to four with a couple of late assists.
With just under six minutes remaining, Konecny drew the penalty that led to the late power play goal by Jamie Drysdale — a big shot from the point through traffic on the power play, a rarity for the Flyers. Konecny’s secondary assist on the play was his missed shot attempt, which was then retrieved by Zegras, but it was a worthy reward nonetheless. Konecny would also receive an assist on the empty net goal by Rasmus Ristolainen to ice the game.
Jamie in the clutch ‼️#WSHvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/9jRLTCUcax
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 4, 2026
Vladar and the Flyers close the door
With the Capitals hammering away down a goal with minutes remaining, the Flyers relied on their outstanding goaltender to finish the job. Vladar finished with 26 saves and 0.46 goals saved above expected on his way to his 17th win of the season. As a team, the Flyers blocked 25 shot attempts, led by the efforts of Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, and Travis Sanheim, each with four blocks. Sean Couturier had perhaps the most important block of the night on a broken play when the puck found Ovechkin in the low slot with a scrambling Vladar late in the third.