Things were already slipping for the Flyers, and Wednesday night in Washington only pushed them deeper into the slide.
The Capitals beat the Flyers, 5-2, at Capital One Arena, with Philadelphia spending much of the night chasing the game. Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov supplied the Flyers’ scoring, and Michkov briefly pulled them within 3-2 in the third period with a power-play goal. Washington answered 3:07 later, then sealed it with an empty-net goal.
The loss was Philadelphia’s 12th in its first 15 games. The Flyers are 3-8-4, and after putting together a three-game winning streak, they’ve now dropped three straight. The scoring has been thin, too: just 1.93 goals per game, along with a minus-21 goal differential excluding shootout goals.
That’s a sharp contrast from where they stood a year ago. Through 15 games last season, the Flyers were 8-5-2, were averaging 2.67 goals per game and carried a plus-1 goal differential.
This was the first meeting of four between the Flyers and Capitals, who improved to 7-4-0.
The setup wasn’t kind to Philadelphia. The Flyers were on the second night of a back-to-back, while Washington had been off for three days.
That showed up in the details. The Capitals were the cleaner team, the sharper team, and the Flyers kept handing over chances with penalties they couldn’t afford.
Joseph Woll made 25 saves on 29 shots.
The turning point came shortly after Couturier tied the game at 1-1 in the second period. Less than two and a half minutes later, Trevor Zegras took a costly penalty, slashing Alex Tuch as the Washington winger got by him in transition. The Capitals converted on the power play and reclaimed the lead.
Philadelphia never really settled in after that. The Flyers were forced onto the penalty kill three more times during the rest of the second period, and that kept them from building off Couturier’s goal.
Washington made it 3-1 with 3:13 left in the second when Aliaksei Protas was left alone at the side of the net to finish a deflection.
Logan Thompson stopped 23 of the Flyers’ 25 shots. He came up biggest late in the third, denying Zegras on a power-play chance that could have tied the game with 8:17 remaining. A minute and eight seconds later, Jordan Kyrou took advantage of a strange bounce and scored to stretch the lead to 4-2.
The Flyers also dug themselves a hole early. They gave up the first goal just 1:50 into the night when Tuch drifted through the slot untouched and buried a rebound.
That slow start came one night after Philadelphia had a rough opening period at home and lost to the Blue Jackets, 4-3, in overtime.
There was at least a bit more pushback against Washington. The Flyers put 11 shots on goal in the first period, but they managed only four in the second and never found the kind of sustained pressure they needed.
The injuries have mattered, too. There’s no question the Flyers have missed Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett.
Konecny led the team in points last season, while Tippett led it in goals. Konecny has missed the last 10 games with a lower-body injury, and Tippett has sat out the last six because of an upper-body injury.
They’ve also been without Rasmus Ristolainen for 11 games total. The top-pair defenseman is out with an injury to his left hand.
The Flyers will have three days off before returning Sunday at home against the Mammoth. Game time is 4 p.m. ET on NBCSP.
In Other News...
Michkovs Scoring Surge Is Giving The Flyers A Huge New Question
Matvei Michkov has quickly become one of the Flyers most productive scorers, sitting second on the team in points while leading the club with eight goals. A lot of that damage has come from his ability to find quiet space on the weak side of the net, where he has turned into a dangerous finishing option on the power play and around the crease. The setup has given Philadelphia a legitimate new weapon in its offense, and it has also made Michkov a central piece of how the team wants to attack.
What makes the surge even more interesting is how deliberate it has been. Michkov has clearly worked to add that weak-side instinct to his game, and the results have been showing up in real time as the Flyers keep leaning on him in scoring situations. The bigger question now is how far that skill can carry him and whether the rest of the league starts to adjust to the spot where he keeps doing his best work. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Already Face An Ugly Question About This Core
The early stretch has already forced an uncomfortable conversation around the Flyers, because the problems are showing up in too many places at once. They have been slow out of the gate, loose defensively and short on the kind of offense needed to survive a long season, and coach Rick Tocchet has not tried to hide it. Sean Couturier and Nick Seeler also acknowledged the issues after Wednesdays game, which tells you how plainly this is being viewed inside the room.
Danny Briere is the one left staring at the bigger-picture question if this slide keeps going. At some point, the Flyers may have to decide whether this core needs a jolt through personnel or a more drastic shakeup behind the bench, because the current mix is not masking the flaws. For a team that wants to climb out of the leagues middle, the uncomfortable part is not just that things are going poorly now, but that the list of possible fixes is already getting shorter. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Keep Getting Outpaced Even As Matvei Michkov Keeps Scoring
Matvei Michkov kept finding the net, but the Flyers still could not keep pace in Washington, where the Capitals pulled away for a 5-2 win. The game had the familiar shape of a Philadelphia night lately, with Michkov providing offense while the other side seemed to have more answers, more speed and more finish as the Flyers tried to hang on.
Washington's depth made the difference, with Jordan Kyrou striking twice and Aliaksei Protas adding his first goal of the season. Alex Tuch also kept his torrid start going for the Capitals, and the late finishing touch only underscored how quickly Philadelphia can get buried when an opponent starts turning chances into goals. [Read more 🡒]