Washington Capitals stick to their guns in game three

By Bradley Davis | Apr 19, 2016

Apr 18, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Steve Mason (35) reacts after goal by Washington Capitals during the third period in game three of the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. The Capitals defeated the Flyers, 6-1. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports /

While the Philadelphia Flyers turned to their ineffective roots, the Washington Capitals kept a level head and buried their opponent to take a 3-0 series lead.

This was supposed to be a night of remembrance in Philadelphia.

A touching tribute to their late owner and founder, Ed Snider, who passed away just last week at 83, added even more emotion to a building and a team that was already charged. Thoughtful bracelets were attached to fans’ seats to be a part of the pregame ceremony for Snider. As it turned out, the night would be remembered for all of the wrong reasons.

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And as the pressure mounted in front of a crazed crowd, you could almost see it coming.

Washington Capitals forward Daniel Winnik took out Flyers defender Shayne Gostisbehere on an interference penalty at center ice just about halfway through the second period on Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center in game three of their Stanley Cup Playoff series. Less than a minute later, Wayne Simmonds and Mike Richards were sent off for roughing after they got tangled up along the boards.

You could tell that at this point, with the Washington Capitals up 2-1 on the scoreboard (and 2-0 in the series), tensions were rapidly rising.

Not too long after that, Flyers pest Ryan White laid a relatively clean body check on veteran Caps defenseman Brooks Orpik. Immediately, Orpik dropped to his knees, unable to stand as medical personnel hurried out to him. While emotions may have told us that it was a dirty, head-hunting collision, it was really just an unfortunate incident that caught Orpik the wrong way and put his status for the rest of this series, if not the season, in doubt.

After the dazed veteran was helped off of the ice, there was a reasonable expectation that the game would fall into an uncontrollable fist fight between both sides – we’ve seen it before. However, that was not the case, at least from the Washington Capitals’ perspective.

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The Caps held their lead through the end of the second frame, despite the fact that the Flyers were buzzing for the latter half of the period as a result of White’s monster hit.

Early in the third period, a wacky bounce off of a stanchion as Justin Williams wrapped the puck around the boards found its way to Evgeny Kuznetsov, who buried it to give the Caps a commanding 3-1 lead. The theme heading into this game was “weather the storm,” and this was just one of the many occasions that the Capitals did so on this night.

The game quickly spiraled out of control from there. As the Washington Capitals continued to rack up goals, specifically on the power play – where they were a shocking five-for-nine on the night – the focus turned more towards player safety.

Dmitry Orlov was boarded by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare just over 12 minutes into the third, resulting in a game misconduct for checking from behind. After watching Orlov’s head and neck crash into the boards, it is a wonder how he isn’t paralyzed, or worse.

“They weren’t interested in playing anymore,” Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz remarked. “I just thought it wasn’t very good for our game. It’s that simple. We were on national television. It didn’t display our game very well.”

As Flyers fans littered their home ice with the same bracelets meant to honor their former owner, Flyers PA announcer Lou Nolan admirably instructed the crowd to “have some class,” which unfortunately did not work.

The Flyers ended the game with 53 penalty minutes, with more than half of that coming in the devolved third period.

As utter chaos reigned, the Washington Capitals did their best to stick to their game. By scoring six goals, they did just that.

While the Flyers continued to tank any viable chance of a comeback in this series, it was, for the most part, business as usual for the Caps.

Next: Marcus Johansson Continues To Contribute

The only hope at this point heading into game four on Wednesday is that the Washington Capitals can close this series out in four games, and avoid any more potential injuries along the way.

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