After narrowly coming back and defeating a beaten-down Buffalo Sabres club on Tuesday, the Flyers found themselves fighting back from a 4-1 deficit after two periods last night. Unfortunately, they could not finish off the comeback and dropped another game to the Capitals by a score of 5-3.
In a game where the Flyers outshot the opposition by a 33-22 margin, scored a powerplay goal and held the Caps to 0-2 on the man advantage, defensive lapses cost them the game. You would think if our PK and powerplay performed, we would be in good shape, right? Sadly, that was not the case.
Alex Ovechkin started off the scoring in the first period directly off of a poor turnover from Ivan Provorov. All it takes is Ovechkin to have the puck anywhere near the slot and boom, you are down a goal. He really has been killing us, the Flyers did a way better job of limiting his impact last season.
The two goals scored in the second period are the real backbreakers. John Carlson is all alone coming in as the trailer on the rush, and finds himself with a great opportunity. It is another case of leaving a high-caliber player alone in a dangerous area that can not happen.
The calls to Chuck Fletcher to reinforce this blueline have only grown louder over the past week or two. It has been rumored that the Flyers and Predators have began some dialogue over Mattias Ekholm, which is intriguing.
I am not sure I feel about Shayne Gostisbehere, although I understand his name being reported due to his improved play. Ghost really looks to be one of the keys to unlocking this team’s full potential on the powerplay, but at the same time the defense needs to be bolstered. Ghost is still only 27 years old, too, and he seems to finally be healthy again. It will be interesting to see if anything more develops past preliminary talks.
One positive to take away would have to be the continued strong play of Sean Couturier. He had two assists against Buffalo and had an assist last night as well. Look at this strong play along the boards, then finding the trailing Provorov for a goal.
The “Mustache Line” of Scott Laughton, Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes have helped to keep the Flyers in these last few games. TK got a goal on his birthday yesterday.
We play the Capitals yet again tomorrow night at 7:00 PM. I truly wish we did not.
The Flyers really have to focus in and limit their errors, while making sure to cash in on powerplay chances. They have what it takes to beat this Washington team, they just can not keep falling into two or three goal deficits.
The Capitals have beaten us in front of fans at Wells Fargo twice already, lets not have it be three.