A long break didn’t help the Flyers a whole lot Wednesday night.

After a 19-day layoff because of the Olympics, the Flyers fell to the Capitals, 3-1, at Capital One Arena.

Noah Cates scored the team’s lone goal.

The Flyers (25-21-11) had a chance to tie the game with 48.4 seconds left when they emptied their net for a two-man advantage on a power play, but Washington converted at shorthanded.

Rick Tocchet’s club has dropped 13 of its last 16 games (3-9-4), a stretch in which it has scored just 2.44 goals per game.

The Flyers are 1-1-0 in their four-game regular-season series with the Capitals (30-23-7).

Ashlyn Sullivan and Al Morganti discussed the team’s 3-1 loss Wednesday night to the Capitals on Flyers Postgame Live.

• Dan Vladar surrendered two or fewer goals for the 21st time in 33 starts this season.

He converted 26 saves on 28 shots, but the effort went wasted.

Rasmus Sandin opened the scoring with 6:08 minutes left in the second period, handing the Flyers their 38th 1-0 deficit.

Cates responded with a deflection just 29 seconds into the third period.

Washington, though, scored its game-winner with 5:52 minutes to go on a Trevor van Riemsdyk marker. The Flyers didn’t seem to have a good line change, leaving Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen to defend an odd-man rush.

Capitals netminder Logan Thompson stopped 23 of the Flyers’ 24 shots. He faced only six in the third period.

Christian Dvorak and Rick Tocchet spoke on the Flyers’ 3-1 loss Wednesday night to the Capitals.

• The Flyers failed to take advantage of the third-place Islanders being idle.

They’re eight points back of New York in the Metropolitan Division race with 25 games to go. They entered Wednesday with a 12.4 percent chance to make the playoffs, according to Hockey-Reference.com’s probabilities report.

“It’s something that is obtainable and our guys believe in,” assistant coach Todd Reirden said a week ago. “If we can get back to playing the way we were playing in the beginning of the season, I think we give ourselves a really good chance.”

Ashlyn Sullivan sat down with Travis Konecny to discuss the upcoming trade deadline, the Flyers’ playoff push and more.

• Emil Andrae went into the break having sat for the Flyers’ last five games. The 24-year-old defenseman remained a healthy scratch Wednesday night.

Tocchet and Reirden have been rolling with Noah Juulsen for his righty shot and penalty kill responsibilities.

“Emil has had a really good year,” Reirden said last Thursday. “I mean, he has already passed his career numbers. In terms of where his path is for this year and in terms of how we’re using him game by game, sometimes it’s situational, sometimes it’s handedness.

“He’s doing everything he can to get himself in a situation where he’s fighting to be in that lineup every night. We’ll continue to go through that discussion. … This is a player that has definitely improved and continues to improve. Being able to just keep that level of consistency for us is important.”

• The Flyers are right back at it Thursday when they visit the Rangers (8 p.m. ET/ESPN).