The depleted Philadelphia Flyers will look to avoid a fourth straight loss Thursday night when they host the Washington Capitals.
In a season filled with injuries and frustrating defeats, Tuesday’s 5-4 overtime loss on the road against the Pittsburgh Penguins might have been the most maddening for Philadelphia.
The Flyers gave up a late 4-2 advantage before succumbing.
Rasmus Ristolainen was the latest Philadelphia player to be injured, when he sustained an upper-body injury Feb. 9, joining key pieces such as Kevin Hayes (abdominal surgery), Sean Couturier (back surgery), Ryan Ellis (lower body) and Derick Brassard (hip).
“I thought we were aggressive in most parts of our game and at most times, but obviously you have to do it every shift, every guy,” Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said.
“It helps when you’re getting more touches out there,” Scott Laughton added. “But at the end of the day, if you don’t win games, it doesn’t really matter about the points.”
Flyers captain Claude Giroux, the team’s lone All-Star and its longest-tenured player, scored his 16th goal of the season. But it was wasted again.
“He’s one of the best players in the league,” Carter Hart said of Giroux, who appears likely to be traded before the March 21 deadline. “It’s a privilege to play alongside him. I just wish we could give him more as a group. It’s a tough situation for him, and he’s playing great.”
The Capitals will look to build on Tuesday’s resounding 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators for their fourth consecutive win on the road.
Alex Ovechkin scored two goals in the third period to reach 30 for the 16th time in his career, one shy of Mike Gartner’s league record. The only time he hasn’t reached 30 was in last year’s shortened (56-game) schedule, when only five players reached 30 and he finished with 24 – on pace for 35 for a full season.
The 36-year-old Ovechkin is on pace for a 49-goal campaign, and with 31 assists, he’s on pace for 100 points which would be the most he’s scored since 2009-10.
“If we play like that, we move the puck quick, we control the puck, it doesn’t matter, me or somebody else is going to score,” Ovechkin said.
Washington has been inconsistent in recent weeks, with a 7-9-2 record since Jan. 1, with Sunday’s 4-1 home loss to Ottawa sticking out for coach Peter Laviolette.
“For me, the win was really good for our team,” Laviolette said. “It’s been a bit of a roller coaster, and you leave the Ottawa game and you don’t feel good about it. You lose a game at home and you want to get back and win a hockey game.”
For the first time in a while, the Capitals played a stellar all-around game from the opening face-off to the final buzzer. After Nashville had tied the score 2:43 into the second period, Nick Jensen responded for Washington just 44 seconds later.
“That was a really good response and we needed it,” Jensen said. “I know there’s been a series of games where we’ve had the lead and we’ve let off the gas pedal — whether it be in the second or the third — and it looked a little bit like we were going to do that. But that was a big shift we had there.”
–Field Level Media