Flyers Lineup

James van Riemsdyk – Sean Couturier – Joel Farabee

Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny

Oskar Lindblom – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek

Andy Andreoff – Nolan Patrick – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Ivan Provorov – Shayne Gostisbehere

Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun

Robert Hägg – Erik Gustafsson

Brian Elliot – Carter Hart

Connor Bunnaman, Nate Prosser, Philippe Myers, Carsen Twarynski

Morgan Frost (dislocated shoulder), Michael Raffl (hand)

Game Report

Game Report written by Amy Johnson

It’s been a rough week for the Flyers, losing their last three games. One of those losses was against the Washington Capitals, who they hosted once again on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center.

Carter Hart has had an especially tough go of things lately, and looked very out-of-sorts on Tuesday night in his post-game media availability after being pulled in the first intermission. Brian Elliott would instead get the start in net tonight.

Head coach Alain Vigneault also expressed frustration with a lack of consistency in Philippe Myers‘ play, and chose to make the defenseman a healthy scratch. Andy Andreoff drew into the lineup in place of an injured Michael Raffl.

First Period

An early penalty by Travis Sanheim forced Elliott to be sharp right out of the gate. The Philadelphia defense looked better in the opening minutes of play then it has in recent games.

Then Alex Ovechkin scored his ninth goal of the season when Elliott bungled a pass up the boards to Ivan Provorov, who mishandled the puck. Ovechkin pounced on it and made no mistake.

Next, Travis Konecny, who celebrated his 24th birthday today, notched a power play goal when he buried a big rebound and brought the score to a 1-1 tie. However, as has been the case too many times this season, the Flyers immediately turned around and gave up another goal. A turnover at the blue line led to a Conor Sheary breakaway, and he shot the puck five-hole right through Elliott.

Before the teams headed to the dressing room for intermission, Andreoff and Garnet Hathaway dropped the gloves for a rousing tilt. The Flyers forward landed a couple of solid punches on Hathaway and the bench was all for it.

Second Period

Things came unraveled for the Flyers in the middle frame when the Capitals added two more goals to their score. The first came from John Carlson, left alone in front to receive a pass from Jakub Vrana down low.

Then Nic Dowd easily skated around Sanheim down the left side and lost the puck, which unfortunately bounced off of Shayne Gostisbehere‘s skate and into the Philadelphia net.

As if that weren’t odd enough, the period ended with 1:29 left on the clock after a clearing attempt hit the curved glass near the door to the Flyers bench and cracked it. 

Third Period

After intermission, the players resumed the almost 90 seconds remaining in the middle frame, which ended uneventfully. That is, until after the time expired and Konecny found himself on the receiving end of a slash to the back of the legs from Zdeno Chara. Both players ended up going to the box, which began the third period with four-on-four hockey.

The Flyers tried to climb out of the hole they had dug. Sean Couturier completed a nice pass off the boards to Provorov, who fired home a perfect snap shot blocker side. Philadelphia clawed back to within one goal when Scott Laughton took a pass from Kevin Hayes on the rush and banked the puck off the post and in.

Despite a late-period power play, it was just too little too late for the Flyers. An empty net goal by Dowd in the final minute of play was the final dagger in this one.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲  Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Kevin Hayes

▼  Robert Hagg, Nolan Patrick