Game Recap – 2/8/2020 – Philadelphia Flyers v. Washington Capitals

Philadelphia Flyers (29-18-7 65pts) v. Washington Capitals (36-13-5 77pts)

 

Game Recap:

For Saturday night action Matt Niskanen and the Philadelphia Flyers come to town to visit the Washington Capitals for the first time this season after playing their first two meetings in Philadelphia. After a very back and forth first period, the final five minutes of the period would provide us some scoring as Jonas Siegenthaler would be called for hooking and nine seconds later Sean Couturier would net his 14th of the season while on the powerplay to give the Flyers the 1-0 lead. However, the referees would call a bad penalty on goaltender Brian Elliott for tripping Lars Eller, who was cutting through the crease and Elliott was playing the puck so it shouldn’t have been a penalty, to give the Capitals the powerplay. On the powerplay the Capitals would need only 29 seconds as TJ Oshie would net his 20th of the season to tie the game at one.

 

In the second period the Capitals would have a very rough first five minutes to the period as they would hang Braden Holtby out to dry. as Michael Raffl and Couturier (second of the game) would score 14 seconds apart to take the 3-1 lead. Then James van Riemsdyk would do the last second tip right in front of Holtby to grow the Flyers lead to three. The Capitals would get three powerplay opportunities, albeit the first one on Couturier was very questionable as it should have been a cross checking call on Alex Ovechkin, but would not be able to do anything of note with any of them as the Flyers would take the 4-1 lead into the second intermission.

 

Then in the third period the Flyers would continue scoring as the Capitals would continue to struggle moving the puck and doing coverage in their own zone as Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Travis Konecny would both score to grow the Flyers lead to five. The Capitals would then put themselves into penalty problems which would lead to Claude Giroux scoring his 14th of the season and 800 career NHL point while on the two man advantage to force the Capitals to pull Holtby for Ilya Samsonov to finish the game. The Capitals would finally get back on the board as Evgeny Kuznetsov would get a trickler past Brian Elliott, and give Martin Fehervary his first career NHL assist and point. However, the Flyers would hold the Capitals at bay as they would go on to win 7-2.

 

Lineups:

Philadelphia Flyers:

Claude Giroux — Sean Couturier — Jakub Voracek

Scott Laughton — Kevin Hayes — Travis Konecny

James van Riemsdyk — Morgan Frost — Tyler Pitlick

Michael Raffl — Connor Bunnaman — Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Ivan Provorov — Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim — Philippe Myers

Robert Hagg — Justin Braun

Brian Elliott

Alex Lyon

Scratched: Shayne Gostisbehere

Injured: Nolan Patrick (migraine disorder), Carter Hart (abdominal strain), Joel Farabee (flu)

 

Washington Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie

Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson

Carl Hagelin — Lars Eller — Richard Panik

Brendan Leipsic — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway

Michal Kempny — John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov — Martin Fehervary

Jonas Siegenthaler — Radko Gudas

Braden Holtby

Ilya Samsonov

Scratched: Travis Boyd, Nick Jensen

Injured: None

 

First Period:

WAS Penalty – 15:13 – Jonas Siegenthaler 2 minutes for Hooking

PHI PPG – 15:22 – Sean Couturier (14) from Claude Giroux (23) and Jakub Voracek (30)

PHI Penalty – 17:49 – Brian Elliot (Aube-Kubel) 2 minutes for Tripping

WAS PPG – 18:18 – TJ Oshie (20) from Jakub Vrana (23) and Nicklas Backstrom (32)

 

End of 1st

 

Second Period:

PHI Goal – 2:45 – Michael Raffl (6) from Nicolas Abe-Kubel (4)

PHI Goal – 2:59 – Sean Couturier (15) from Jakub Voracek (31) and Justin Braun (9)

PHI Goal – 4:30 – James van Riemsdyk (15) from Matt Niskanen (18) and Tyler Pitlick (9)

PHI Penalty – 7:48 – Sean Couturier 2 minutes for Embellishment

WAS Penalty – 10:52 – Nic Dowd 2 minutes for Roughing

PHI Penalty – 10:52 – Jakub Voracek 2 minutes for Roughing

PHI Penalty – 11:55 – Kevin Hayes 2 minutes for Hooking

PHI Penalty – 15:58 – Travis Sanheim 2 minutes for Slashing

WAS Penalty – 19:57 – Richard Panik 2 minutes for Hooking

 

End of 2nd

 

Third Period:

PHI Goal – 2:58 – Nicolas Aube-Kubel (3) from unassisted

WAS Penalty – 3:31 – Richard Panik 2 minutes for Hooking

PHI Goal – 5:47 – Travis Konecny (18) from Claude Giroux (24)

WAS Penalty – 6:17 – Tom Wilson 2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct

WAS Penalty – 7:00 – Garnet Hathaway 2 minutes for Cross Checking

PHI PPG – 8:02 – Claude Giroux (14) from Travis Konecny (28)

PHI Penalty – 11:00 – Nicolas Aube-Kubel 5 minute major for Fighting

WAS Penalty – 11:00 – Brendan Leipsic 5 minute major for Fighting

WAS Goal – 12:17 – Evgeny Kuznetsov (19) from TJ Oshie (20) and Martin Fehervary (1)

 

End of 3rd

 

Next Up:

Washington (36-14-5 77pts) v. NY Islanders (31-16-6 68pts)

Philadelphia (30-18-7 67pts) v. Florida (29-18-6 64pts)