The Washington Capitals once again fell to the Philadelphia Flyers in another unacceptable loss.
The Philadelphia Flyers entered Wednesday night’s contest against the Washington Capitals as one of the hottest teams in hockey. They left D.C. with their seventh win in a row thanks to a 5-2 win.
Lars Eller put the Caps up 1-0 thanks to a sweet behind the back pass from Richard Panik that Eller finished for his 16th goal of the season at 14:09. Carl Hagelin was credited with the secondary assist.
1-0 was the score after 20 with shots on goal even at seven.
More from Capitals News
- Breaking down the Rookie Camp roster
- Hear what Magic Johnson said about Alex Ovechkin
- Capitals announce Rookie Camp schedule
- Breaking down the 2023-24 Capitals national TV schedule
- Capitals Alumni Weekend is coming back
The Flyers came out firing in the second period with three unanswered goals. First it was Travis Konecny on the power play at 7:06, then Kevin Hayes at 14:48 and Tyler Pitlick at 17:05.
The Caps got one back to cut the deficit to one with a goal from Garnet Hathaway on a great set up from Tom Wilson in front of the goal. The goal came at 18:32 and was Hathaway’s eighth of the season. Nic Dowd was credited with the secondary assist.
3-2 Flyers was the score after two periods with Philadelphia outshooting Washington 18-8 in the middle stanza.
In the third the Flyers added two more goals from Ivan Provorov at 6:36 and Scott Laughton at 14:15. 5-2 would go on to be the final.
The Caps outshot the Flyers 12-4 in the third period but were outshot 29-27 overall. Braden Holtby made 24 saves on the 29 shots he faced for a .828 save percentage.
Things have been rocky in Washington of late and players were rightfully frustrated after the game.
“We can’t keep going with it. If we keep doing that, there is not going to be a future for us,” said Garnet Hathaway. “We got to figure some stuff out.”
“Everybody’s pissed off right now, as it should be,” added Lars Eller. “Then I think you know everybody’s got to do a little better. Everybody from top to bottom, the best players, the guys who are only playing so many minutes a night, we need more from everybody.”
If the Caps need more from everybody they have to start right away. They face a hungry New York Rangers team fighting for their playoff lives tonight.
It doesn’t get any easier after that. On Saturday the Caps will travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins. All of these games could be playoff previews with the way things are going.
To make matters more complicated both are on the road but a positive is the Caps are a solid road team and won’t be wearing those third jerseys.