The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
The Washington Capitals wrap up their I-95 back-to-back road
trip on Saturday night when they visit that peaceful meadow of brotherly love,
Wells Fargo Center, in Philadelphia when they face the Flyers in a Metro
Matchup that is the season home opener for the Flyers.
The Caps are coming off a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils
on Friday night to push their record to 3-1-1 and to the top of the
Metropolitan Division. Meanwhile, the
Flyers are coming off a three-day hiatus, off since dropping a 6-5 decision to
the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. It extended the Flyers alternating wins and
losses to arrive at a 2-2-0 record on their road trip to start the 2017-2018
season. The Flyers, who struggled with the 19th-ranked scoring defense in the
league last season, at least started the season on a higher note, allowing only
seven goals in their first three games. But then they almost had that total
doubled when the Predators dropped a six-pack on their heads.
Scoring has been uneven on a game-to-game basis for the
Flyers, who scored five goals in their season opener (a 5-2 win over the San
Jose Sharks) and in that last contest against Nashville. In the two game
in-between, they have a total of three goals, all of them in a 3-2 overtime win
over the Anaheim Ducks last Saturday.
Scoring has also been strange for the Flyers at the player
level of production. Both of their leading point producers – Jakub Voracek and
Shayne Gostisbehere – are at the top of the skater rankings without the benefit
of having scored a goal. Voracek, who led the club in points last season
(20-41-61), has six assists to top the Flyers points list. He has been kept off
the score sheet only once when he, and the rest of the squad, was held without
a point in a 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on October 5th. Voracek could
crack the top-20 in all-time point production for the Flyers if he records
another 34 points. His 360 points in what is now his seventh season with the
club trails Dave Poulin in 20th place with 394. Voracek is 11-8-19, plus-1, in
29 career games against the Capitals.
Gostisbehere is trying to rehabilitate a reputation for
being a scoring defenseman that he established in his rookie season two years
ago (17-29-46), one in which he finished second in the Calder Trophy voting for
top rookie, and that sustained a hit last season when he slumped to 7-32-39 in
76 games and was a team worst among defensemen minus-21. So far, the results
are mixed. Yes, he is second on the team in points with five (all assists), but
they came in bunches – three assists in the 5-3 win over the Sharks to open the
season and two more in the loss to Nashville in the Flyers’ last contest. Four
of those five assists came on power plays, all three he had against the Sharks
and another against the Predators. The plus-minus is looking better though; he
was “even’ in all four games to date. “Ghost” is 0-3-3, minus-3, in seven
career games against the Caps.
The Flyers have a situation on the blue line that resembles
that of the Caps, perhaps even more so. They are a young group. Only one of the
seven defensemen to dress so far is past 30 years of age (Andrew MacDonald is
31), and four of them are younger than 25 – Gostisbehere (24), Ivan Provorov
(20), and rookies Travis Sanheim (21) and Robert Hagg (22). Sanheim is a former
first-round draft pick (17th overall in 2014) who had a fine season with the
Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL last season (10-27-37, plus-7, in his first
full year in the AHL). Hagg is a former second-round pick (41st overall in
2013) who was up for one game with the Flyers last season and going 7-8-15,
plus-10, for the Phantoms. Both Sanheim
and Hagg will be looking for their first points for the Orange and Black in
what will be their first appearances against the Caps.
1. The Flyers are one
of just two teams to have scored and allowed the same number of goals.
Philadelphia has scored and allowed 13 goals, while the Ottawa Senators have
both scored and allowed seven goals (through Thursday’s games).
2. The Caps might be
able to take advantage of the Flyers’ penalty killing. It is not that they have
faced a lot of shorthanded situations, although they have the tenth-highest
number (17). It is that they rank 28th of 31 teams in efficiency (70.6
percent), although they have yet to test their penalty killers at home.
3. Then there is the
matter of the Flyers’ propensity for late swoons. Only the St. Louis Blues have
allowed more third period goals (eight) than the Flyers (six).
4. If Claude Giroux
gets three assists (perish the thought), he will reach the 400-assist mark in
his career. Less likely is Jakub Voracek getting to the 500-point mark in his
career in this game. He needs a six-point night to get there.
5. Only one team in
the league has more penalties this season than the Flyers without having taken
a major penalty. Philadelphia has been whistled for 17 penalties without a
major so far. Washington has 20 penalties and no majors.
1. Nicklas Backstrom
recorded his 20th game of four or more points as a Capital on Friday
night (1-3-4). Only one player in the
league has more such games since Backstrom came into the league in 2007-2008 –
Sidney Crosby (22)
2. T.J. Oshie had two
goals and an assist for his 12th game with three or more points as a
Capital. Since he joined the Caps in
2015-2016, only Backstrom has more three or more point games (18).
3. Evgeny Kuznetsov
had a pair of assists to give him four multi-point games in five played so
far. His ten assists leads the league,
and his ten points is tied for the league lead with teammates Backstrom and
Alex Ovechkin.
4. Alex Ovechkin
became the fourth player in league history to record nine goals in his first
five games with his goal on Friday night.
Mike Bossy, Patrick Marleau, and Mario Lemieux are the others.
5. Andre Burakovsky
had his first NHL fight in Friday’s win over the Devils; in fact, his first
fight in pro hockey. His scrap with
Blake Coleman was his first fight since he mixed it up with Nick Moutrey back
in March 2014 as a member of the Erie Otters.
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
Philadelphia: Brian Elliott
Perhaps nowhere in the NHL are goaltenders treated as
“plug-and-play” devices more than in Philadelphia. Steve Mason out, Brian
Elliott in. If Mason put up okay, if not extraordinary numbers for the Flyers
last season (26-21-8, 2.66, .908, with three shutouts in 58 games), Elliott is
doing little to improve on that in the early going. After what was a
disappointing, statistically, one-year stay with the Calgary Flames last season
(26-18-3, 2.55, .910, with two shutouts in 49 games) and signing a two-year/$5.5
million contract with the Flyers last July, he opened the season with a 2-1-0
record but a goals against average of 3.67 (34th of 52 goaltenders to dress so
far) and a save percentage of .876 (42nd). That’s what allowing six goals on 31
shots in one of three games he’s played so far will do to the GAA and save
percentage, though. Not that his career numbers against the Caps are any
better: 6-5-0, 3.31, .888 in 13 career appearances.
Washington: Dmitry Orlov
Through four games, only one Capitals defenseman has a goal,
and he’s a rookie (Christian Djoos). Three do not yet have a point. It is not
surprising that neither Brooks Orpik nor Taylor Chorney have any points thus
far; they are generally regarded as defensive defensemen. Dmitry Orlov is
another story. Not that he has had explosive starts in his still young NHL
career – he had one point in the first four games of each of his last two
seasons (both assists) – but a good deal is expected of the 26-year old this
season. In other respects he is assuming more responsibility, particularly in
penalty killing where he is averaging 4:03 in shorthanded ice time per game,
3:30 more than he averaged last season (and that was a career high). What he
has been slow in doing so far is unleashing shots. He has three shots on goal
in four games, and while it is a very small population of games so far this
season, he had 125 shots in 82 games last season. You get the feeling it will
come, but sooner would be better than later as the Caps seek to fill in the
spaces left with the departures of three starters on defense from last season.
Orlov is 5-1-6, plus-4, in 13 career games against the Flyers.
In the end…
The Patrick Division days are long gone, but it is still
possible to spin up some anger at the prospect of facing the Philadelphia
Flyers. And it especially satisfying to beat the Flyers on their home ice. The
Caps have points in four consecutive games in Philadelphia (2-0-2), both losses
coming in trick shot competitions. One thing the Caps will be looking to do is to
reduce the volume of shots they have been facing (first four games featured
more than 30 shots against), a task made harder by the fact that in each of
their last three visits to Wells Fargo Center they allowed the Flyers to put up
an average of 35.3 shots per game. It
will be a chance for the Caps to put some early distance between themselves and
the rest of the Metropolitan Division.
Capitals 3 – Flyers 1
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