The Flyers hit the road for a quick trip down to DC to face off against their rival Capitals tonight, and with all the momentum in the world behind them, coming off of two huge wins in the weekend back-to-back, they struggled to continue to build on that, and stumbled their way to a 6-4 loss, further complicating their playoff hopes along the way.
The Basics
First period: 14:59- Tom Wilson (Dubois, Sandin), 18:35- Alex Ovechkin (Roy, McMichael)
Second period: 0:39- Travis Sanheim (Konecny, Dvorak), 4:36- Carl Grundstrom (Zegras), 6:58- Jakob Chychrun (Leonard, Dubois)PPG, 17:37- Ryan Leonard (Dubois, Chychrun)PPG
Third period: 0:33- Christian Dvorak (Konecny, Sanheim), 3:47- Alex Ovechkin (McMichael, Chychrun), 7:52- Denver Barkey (Ristolainen, Cates), 18:56- Tom Wilson (Dubois, Roy)EN
SOG: 24 (PHI) – 18 (WSH)
Some Takeaways
Martone makes the jump
We’ll get to the biggest headline right off the top — Porter Martone’s debut. It was, on the whole, a bit of an uneven showing, as he kicked things off by promptly taking an unforced delay of game penalty on his second shift of the night, and was clearly working through some first game jitters through those early goings.
But while it wasn’t a perfect start to his professional career, what was even more encouraging to see was how he continued to settle in, and indeed ramp up, as the game went on. He picked up steam through the second period, and by the third he was stepping up as one of the Flyers’ most noticeable players on the ice. He wasn’t able to collect his first NHL point, but he was right around it, getting involved in setting up looks for his linemates and also creating a few good ones of his own. It was a nice bit of work put in, and with how he was knocking on the door by the end of the game, we can’t help but feel like that first NHL point and goal won’t be too far away, if he’s able to keep that up.
Andrae’s 100th
Tonight’s game was also a milestone in another way, as it marked Emil Andrae’s 100th NHL game. It’s nice to see him able to hit that mark in a season that’s been as challenging at times as this one has, but the milestone game in and of itself was a relatively quiet one for him. He didn’t see a ton of usage — not even breaking 13 minutes of ice time — but he was still able to bring some flash, remaining engaged physically in quite a chippy matchup, and delivering a couple of more subtle sound defensive plays. That’s all for the first 100 games, here’s to 100 more.
Vladar stumbles
There’s no sense beating around the bush on this one: it really was just not Dan Vladar’s night. This wasn’t an easy game for him, as the Capitals were gifted a few chances on the power play (more on that later) and their numerous talented shooters threw some incredible shots at him, but even with all of that taken into account, it remains that Vladar just did not seem to be at his sharpest tonight. He wasn’t kept overly busy, facing just 18 shots on the night, and maybe that lack of rhythm contributed, but he just looked overall a bit unsettled in this start — overplaying initial chances and having some trouble picking up shots coming at him through traffic, and really just having the look of not seeing the puck overly well from start to finish.
Of course, games like this are bound to happen over the course of a long season, especially for a goaltender that’s getting used as much as Vladar. We can forgive it in the grand scheme of things, considering how good he’s otherwise been all season, but it was tough to see this breakdown happen in this moment of all moments.
A note on discipline
While the less steady goaltending situation made this one a challenge for the Flyers, the skaters in front of Vladar also really weren’t doing themselves any favors at times throughout this one. The Flyers had some real struggles in the discipline department tonight, and while it wasn’t an extraordinary number of penalties taken (four non-offsetting minors across the whole of the game), these were overwhelmingly sloppy penalties. Between that early delay of game, a slash, and two trips, the Flyers weren’t getting penalized for being overly aggressive trying to make play, or anything like that, but for being careless with their sticks. It’s bad practice, and it burned them, as they gave chances away for free to a Capitals power play that, though they’ve struggled at times this season, still clearly can be lethal when it gets going. It was a tough one to see unfold, particularly as the majority of those penalties came from more experienced players who should know how to manage their games better than this.
Pushing back
If there’s a silver lining to be found in here, of course, it would be that in spite of the difficulties that faced them in this one, the Flyers didn’t go away quietly. After falling down 2-0 in the first period, they came out for the second with a head of steam and managed to score twice in the first five minutes to draw things even again. They weren’t able to continue to control play from there, and the Capitals once again responded to jump ahead by two, and then restore that lead after the Flyers got one back in the third period, but they were able to hang around and counterpunch to keep this game well within reach. This isn’t really the point in the season when we can spend too much time spelling out moral victories and still feel good about it, but there’s value in the fact that the Flyers didn’t just pack it in and let this game get out of control when it pretty quickly became clear that it wasn’t going to be their night. That still counts for something, that they kept this competitive, and that’s something they can build on.
Falling short (again)
Of course, while it was nice to see the Flyers finding some degree of response in this one, it’s hard not to come out of this one feeling weighed down by the fact that, once again, they couldn’t rise all the way to the occasion and come away with a win when the moment got bigger, when they had a chance to steal critical points from a divisional opponent and put themselves as close as could be into a playoff spot. Maybe it’s the mark of a young team, or a team still finding their identity, but finding ways to win these must-win games with consistency remains elusive for them. There’s still a good bit of season left in front of them, but the window to grab a playoff spot is narrowing. If there’s ever a time for them to figure this out, to learn from how tonight played out and take that next step, it’s now.