A NO-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 12: Flyers 7 - Capitals 4

The Washington Capitals played their traditional Super Bowl Sunday matinee hosting the Philadelphia Flyers at Capital One Arena.  What started in promising fashion dissolved into an affair as messy as the snowy streets from a morning storm that passed through the Washington area.  When it was done, the Flyers had a 7-4 win that exposed the Caps as a thinned out and vulnerable team, despite the goal scoring exploits of their captain.

 First Period

Philadelphia had the better of the chances early, but the Caps got the first power play of the day when the Flyers were whistled for too many men on the ice, and they made it count.  The Caps entered the offensive zone with speed, Nicklas Backstrom feeding Lars Eller, who dished the puck to Tom Wilson on the right side entering the zone.  Wilson spied Alex Ovechkin jumping in from the left side and threaded the puck across.  Ovechkin stepped up to the top of the left wing circle and ripped a shot high over the left shoulder of goalie Carter Hart to make it 1-0, 11:11 into the period.

Tom Wilson doubled the lead a little over five minutes later.  Ovechkin tried to curl and drag the puck around Phillippe Myers and did so smartly.  From the side of the net, he backhanded a pass to Wilson crashing the net, and Wilson had only to deposit the puck into the space vacated by Hart, who was busy defending the shot from Ovechkin that never came.  2-0 Caps, 16:36 into the period.

Scott Laughton got the Flyers on the board late in the period. The Flyers were able to work the puck down low, and Joel Farabee centered the puck.  It pinballed among a number of players and ended up on the stick of Laughton at the top of the crease with at which to shoot.  He couldn’t – and didn’t – miss, the Flyers cutting the lead in half at 18:33 of the period.  That was how the teams ended the period.

-- The Caps out-shot the Flyers, 15-8, but the Flyers had the shot attempts edge, 22-20.

-- Lars Eller and Tom Wilson led the team with three shots apiece.

-- The Caps had only one shot attempt blocked, that from Carl Hagelin, who was one of four Caps with three shot attempts.

-- Nic Dowd was three-for-three on faceoffs.

Second Period

The Flyers tied the game early in the second period.  Dmitry Orlov was stripped of eh puck just inside the offensive blue line, and the Flyers were off.  They worked the puck deep and with the Caps unable to secure loose pucks as they became available, Laughton scored his second of the game when he pinched in from the corner and flipped a loose puck over Vanecek’s shoulder at 2:229 to make it 2-2.

Ovechkin put the Caps back in front less than two minutes later when Nicklas Backstrom skated the puck up the right wing wall to the blue line and fed it to Ovechkin for a one-timer from the middle, the puck eluding players in front and Hart, clicking off the post to Hart’s left and in at the 4:08 mark to make it 3-2, Caps.

The Caps went short a man 30 seconds later when Nic Dowd was sent off for interference.  The Flyers did not convert the man advantage, but they did tie the game when Nicolas Aube-Kubel fed Farabee for a one-timer that beat Vanecek cleanly at 7:50 of the period.

The visitors got another power play when Richard Panik went to the box for tripping at 13:17.  The Flyers did not convert that power play either, but James van Riemsdyk put the Flyers ahead at the 16:36 mark when he fired a puck from the left wing circle that beat Vanecek on the long side into the top corner.  That ended Vanecek’s afternoon, Craig Anderson taking over.

Nicklas Backstrom got the Caps even once more in the last minute of the period.  From the right point, Tom Wilson sent the puck across the ice to Alex Ovechkin at the top of the left wing circle.  Instead of taking a one-timer, Ovechkin fed Backstrom cutting across the low slot.  Backstrom pulled the puck to his back hand and flipped it over Hart to make it a 4-4- game with 56.1 seconds left in the period.  The teams went to their respective locker rooms tied.

-- The Caps held a 30-14 edge in shots after two periods and a 45-40 advantage in shot attempts.

-- Alex Ovechiin and Tom Wilson had four shouts through 40 minutes to lead the club.  Ovechkin was tops with seven shot attempts.

-- Garnet Hathaway was credited with six hits, almost as many as the Flyers’ total through two periods (seven).

Third Period

It did not take long for the Flyers to regain the lead.  Sean Couturier scored 31 seconds into the period on the first shot faced by Craig Anderson as a Capital goalie.  The Caps were unable to clear the puck out of their zone, and the Flyers eventually worked it between the circles where Couturier spun and snapped a shot past Anderson to make it 5-2.

Then, to make matters worse, Zdeno Chara took a double minor penalty for high-sticking Couturier at 3:14 of the period.  The Caps skated off the four-minute power play with only one shot allowed.

The Flyers iced the game late when Laughton completed the hat trick, the first of his car, at the 2:09 mark, and Couturier added an empty net goal with 1:22 left for a 7-4 final in favor of the Flyers.

Other stuff…

-- Alex Ovechkin had a pair of goals and a pair of assists.  His four-point game was the 29^th of his career, tops in franchise history and one short of Dino Ciccarelli for 25^th place since 1979-1980.

-- Tom Wilson had a goal and three assists for four points, the second four-point game of his career.

-- The three-assist was the first of Wilson’s career.

-- Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and two assists, his three-point game being the 82^nd of his career, second to Ovechkin (113).

-- The penalty killers allowed the Flyers only one shot on goal in 8:00 of power play ice time.

-- The Caps had a whopping 37-23 edge in shots on goal, and they recorded 63 shot attempts to the Flyers’ 56.

-- Craig Anderson came into the game in relief of Vitek Vanecek and allowed a goal on the first shot he faced as a Capital.

-- The Caps had one power play chance.  They lead the league in games with one or no power play chances (four).

-- This was the first time in ten games that Vitek Vanecek was relieved of his duties in a contest without finishing.

-- The fourth line of Conor Sheary, Daniel Sprong, and Phillippe Maillet (playing his first game for the Caps) logged a combined 28:26 in ice time and recorded one shot on goal (Maillet).

In the end…

Thinking dispassionately, what did one expect?  The Caps iced a top line, a third line, and what amounted to two fourth lines.  The top line was wonderful (4-7-11), the other three lines were pitiful.  The third line of Lars Eller, Richard Panik, and Daniel Carr were minus-4, minus-4, and minus-3, respectively.  And the Caps could not get a save when they needed one.  The Caps blew two leads in this game and allowed five of the game’s last six goals.  It just is not a team that can compete for 60 minutes consistently against the cream of the division, as the last two games against Boston and Philadelphia have demonstrated.