Preview: Flyers hosting the ancient Capitals

The Game : 7:00 p.m. EST on NBCSports Philadelphia, ESPN+/Hulu, and 93.3 WMMR

The Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals are colliding for the first time this season and it really is like a grandparent seeing their new great-grandchild hours after they are born. The Flyers are full of this young spirit, running and gunning and executing a system well enough to be competitive. Meanwhile, the Capitals had their fun, won one time, and are on the rapid decline as they try to hold on to their youth by the ways of late-first round picks in the lineup.

Grandpa, you think Connor McMichael will bring the joy back into your life??

Even in one of the most miserable seasons to experience in Philadelphia, the Flyers had this Capitals team\'s number. In the four games, they earned a 2-1-1 record and their most recent matchup, was a 3-1 defeat back in January of this calendar year where Carter Hart completely stood on his head. How fun!

Now, we get to really have some meat on the bone. It is too early to be watching the standings and looking at playoff positioning, but the Capitals have quickly surged up from a terrible position to be in the second wild-card spot and are technically above the Flyers by points percentage. This game shouldn\'t mean the end of the world or be the best thing to ever happen, but it could set either team on the journey for the rest of the season. Both teams are performing similarly -- Flyers are 5-3-2 in their last 10, Capitals are 5-4-1 -- so this is really a test of current forms.

Tonight might be the first game in a while where it can truly feel like Meaningful Hockey, and it\'s only December.

Players to watch

Joel Farabee

It might not be much, but Farabee has earned at least one point in his last three games, seeing a little bit of success Flyers\' three-game road trip with two goals and three total points. He will continue to get his spot in the top-six, to try and keep on hammering away at some production, but his absence from both power-play units is a little bit noticeable. Not a whole lot of offensively minded wingers could get by without some time on the man advantage.

Tonight, it will all be about trying to control play past a Washington team that is just barely staying alive.

Alex Ovechkin

You might say yeah, duh you should watch one of the best players to ever live , but it\'s not just for that reason. Ovechkin has not been himself and it has been ultra noticeable. With just five goals through the first 25 games for the Caps, is the decline starting to happen? Is his age of 38 years old starting to show?

Well, yes and no. Obviously he is getting slower and shooting fewer amount of pucks -- Ovechkin ranks just 25th in the entire league in shots attempted, while through the last two seasons only David Pastrnak attempted more -- but he is just not getting any luck. Right now, he has a 5.6 shooting percentage, which would be a drastic drop-off from any of his previous seasons. Just last year he had a 14.3, and then a 15.0 shooting percentage the season prior. So, while we are not neutral observers and want to see his team lose, we do feel rotten that he is having the year he is having after the hype around him potentially breaking Wayne Gretzky\'s all-time goals record.

Projected lineups

Philadelphia Flyers

Tyson Foerster -- Sean Couturier -- Travis Konecny Joel Farabee -- Scott Laughton -- Cam Atkinson Owen Tippett -- Morgan Frost -- Bobby Brink Nic Deslauriers -- Ryan Poehling -- Garnet Hathaway

Cam York -- Travis Sanheim Nick Seeler -- Sean Walker Egor Zamula -- Rasmus Ristolainen

Carter Hart Sam Ersson

Washington Capitals

Alex Ovechkin -- Dylan Strome -- Tom Wilson Aliaksei Protas -- Connor McMichael -- Anthony Mantha Joe Snively -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie Beck Malenstyn -- Nic Dowd -- Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Martin Fehervary -- John Carlson Joel Edmundson -- Nick Jensen Rasmus Sandin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk

Charlie Lindgren Darcy Kuemper

Some thoughts

The power play desperately needs to work. Everything about this team is seemingly clicking. They are the better team for the majority of the time while at 5-on-5, according to most underlying metrics you want to use. The Flyers are able to get solid goaltending while being very good defensively. The penalty kill is motoring along, as one of the best currently. There is just so much going right, but the power play is a disaster and almost neutralizes their excellent effort on the other side of the special teams. Tonight, they\'re facing a terrible Capitals penalty kill and it should be the perfect time to pounce. Like, look at this:

That\'s bad! Really bad!

Nick Seeler and Sean Walker will have an opportunity to impress. The trade rumors are already ramping up before the end of the calendar year and apparently, at least one team asked to acquire by Seeler and Walker as a package deal. Well, head coach John Tortorella is keeping them together for the time being to potentially sell high.

Egor Zamula\'s leash length. Marc Staal is hanging around too damn close and we have to see more out of Zamula. We want to see him succeed and be given a whole lot of opportunities, and hopefully just stay in a competitive NHL lineup for the rest of the season.

Talking Points