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Capitals 6, Flyers 3: Too little, too late

Oct 23, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Philadelphia Flyers center Scott Laughton (21) and Washington Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun (6) battle for the puck in front of Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson (48) at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

After a tedious, trying 4-1 loss to the Caps at home Tuesday, the Flyers sleepwalked through the opening period, went down by four and then brought the fight to the Capitals. But the comeback was still a pointless result, leaving the Flyers with six losses in a row.

The basics

First period: 4:50 — Taylor Raddysh (Dylan McIlrath, Rasmus Sandin)

Second period: 2:49 — Nic Dowd (Rasmus Sandin), 4:04 — Connor McMichael (Pierre-Luc Dubois, Dylan McIlrath), 7:16 — Connor McMichael (Trevor van Riemsdyk, Pierre-Luc Dubois), 12:04 — Travis Konecny (Matvei Michkov, Jamie Drysdale) (PPG), 16:16 — Owen Tippett (Tyson Foerster, Egor Zamula)

Third period: 6:36 — Matvei Michkov (Owen Tippett, Jamie Drysdale) (PPG), 17:48 — Pierre-Luc Dubois (unassisted), 18:50 — Alex Ovechkin (Dylan Strome)

SOG: 29 (PHI) – 25 (WAS)

Some takeaways

Power play has faint pulse

After giving up two shorties last game, the Flyers’ power play was not good. After an almost mind-numbing effort on their first attempt in the first, the Flyers got an early one in the second (with Nic Deslauriers ringing a shot off the post). The second go around was a little better thanks to Michkov trying to drag everyone into the fight. But when the Capitals killed it they just went down and put a second one behind starter Ivan Fedotov.

The Flyers finally connected on a great sharp-angle shot by Travis Konecny, making that six power play goals for the season. They are ahead of last year’s pace, which is a good thing.

In the third, the Flyer struck again with the power play as Michkov put one in to give them this season one, two, three, four, five, six, seven … seven power play goals, ah ah ah, to quote the immortal Count Van Count from Sesame Street.

Discipline? Better

John Tortorella spoke before the game (while announcing Tyson Foerster’s return, Jett Luchanko’s second consecutive healthy scratch, and Bobby Brink’s exit for the evening) about the need for the Flyers to be disciplined so they could get some flow into their game. Philadelphia on this night were off to a disciplined start with no penalties in the first period but the result was just a lot of lackadaisical play, whether it was passing that was anything but sharp, rushes that had little to no chance of success and just a rather muddled opening start. The collective play resembled Nick Seeler at the conclusion of the first, hobbling around on one skate blade and not being able to do much (the 26.09 CF% only highlights such ineptness).

That discipline was absent when Tyson Foerster took a needless minor for putting his hand on the puck deep into the second period. But thanks to a fantastic stop by Fedotov, the Flyers killed it off and then put a second puck behind Caps goalie Logan Thompson to make things 4-2.

Well, shoot

The Flyers on Tuesday night had eight shots in the final 40 minutes. With nearly 10 minutes gone in the opening period Wednesday evening the Flyers were on pace for half that production with one shot. For a team that is looking to get any sort of momentum or positives in their games, one shot just isn’t going to cut it. No matter how good or horrid Fedotov was on this night (good to start), the Flyers aren’t winning with two shots with close to 18 minutes played.

The gameflow chart after the first is only more evidence.

Once the Flyers finally broke the shutout, they seemed to look a little bit more like the team we saw last season, starting to get back into the fight and at least making a game of it. Late in the second, Couturier’s line (with Michkov and Konecny on either side of him in some line juggling) had some great chances to pull within one, with Michkov (who attempted a Michigan earlier in the first) stoned at the doorstep. The fact Tortorella rode the Mad Russian (14:46 TOI after two periods) is a great sign. That and the fact the sticks seemed to be gripped far looser as the Flyers slowly gained a smidgeon of confidence (owning the Caps with 72.22 per cent of the chances in the second period).

Zamula zaps start, Poehling painful to watch

Egor Zamula might be useful as Michkov’s translator but that’s the only thing that’s translating effectively these days. After a decent start, Zamula lost the battle on his man in front as Taylor Raddysh got a stick on a Dylan McIlrath shot that beat Fedotov for the quick lead. The shift was also highlighted by Ryan Poehling’s indecision as not knowing which man to cover before finally moving one of the Capitals out of the front. As solid as Poehling looked as a fourth line forward last season, so far this year he looks lost, leaving a lot of onlookers lost for words with his dismal play. Even something as something as dumping the puck in deep, as he tried in the first, was flubbed, resulting in the Caps quickly transitioning.

As painful as his play was most of the night, Poehling took a hard shot from John Carlson that had him limping to the bench during a penalty kill in the third. The shot (94 miles an hour), caused Poehling to leave the bench for the locker room. Fortunately, Poehling was back out on the ice to test his leg and seemed good to go.

Zamula left the ice with the Flyers pulling Fedotov for a line change which didn’t seem to make much sense. The result was Washington’s fifth goal into an empty net and a decent attempt at a comeback still their sixth loss in a row.

Faceoffs favorable

One silver lining the Flyers had was a decided advantage in the faceoff circles, winning 14 of the first 19 for a solid 71.4 per cent effectiveness. That’s it, that’s one of the good things that happened before they actually scored!

Fedotov

Fedotov has now on three occasions given up two goals within roughly one to two minutes of each other. It happened against Calgary, it happened against the Kraken which caused a close game to be blown open. And on this night Fedotov gave up two in 75 seconds, making a game where they were horrid looking but still within a shot from tying it, to being down by three and looking out of it. He wasn’t really to blame on the fourth goal as Konecny lost a small but important battle as Connor McMichael got his second of the period to make 4-0 and Fedotov’s save percentage for the game at, er, 60 percent.

As bad as that was, Fedotov’s ten-beller in the second seemed to give the Flyers life. It doesn’t make the start any better by any stretch, but the fact Fedotov made a save that could’ve changed the game’s narrative is something he might be able to build on. He also stopped Alex Ovechkin late in the third with a strong save on a one-timer.

Frantic finish but Frost ice cold

The Flyers, like they did some games last season, refused to give up which is something that is admirable. If nothing else it shows they haven’t given up on Tortorella and more importantly themselves. More lines were juggled in the third (Farabee moved to a line with Deslauriers while Frost and Hathaway were together at one point).

Frost had the tie (not a clothing tie) in his hands and managed to not score. Later he ended up getting a penalty called on him that wasn’t helped when the Capitals player had his skate blade break, causing the infraction to look far worse than it was.

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