The Washington Capitals host the Philadelphia Flyers tonight as both teams enter the contest on losing streaks. The Flyers have lost seven straight while the Capitals have lost their last four. Preventing goals has been a problem that’s plagued both clubs, allowing four or more goals in each game of their respective skids.
Special teams have been disastrous for Washington. Even though the Capitals’ PK ranks 17th, they’ve allowed at least 1 power play goal in each loss. Their power play has also been strikingly bad, going 1 for 16 in their games over the last week, including squandering six power play opportunities against the Lightening and four power plays against the Panthers.
Things are just as atrocious in Philadelphia, with the Flyers only cashing in on 3 of their last 18 power plays, and they have allowed 9 goals on their last 16 penalty kills. They rarely score on the power play, and they get scored on 50% of the time when the PK unit gets on the ice.
Due to the high number of goals each team are allowing recently, tonight’s game has some serious run-and-gun vibes to it.
PHI Record: 7-8-4, 18 pts, 6th in Metropolitan
WSH Record: 7-10-3, 17 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
Last Game PHI: 11/21/22, 5-2 L vs. Calgary
Last Game WSH: 11/19/22, 4-0 L vs. Colorado
When: 7:30PM ET
Where: Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
PHI Goalie: Felix Sandström (1-4-0, .896 SV%, 3.46 GAA, 0 SO)
WSH Goalie: Darcy Kuemper (5-9-1, .907 SV%, 2.83 GAA)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#13 Kevin Hayes – #49 Noah Cates – #17 Zack MacEwen
#59 Jackson Cates – #38 Patrick Brown – #58 Tanner Laczynski
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #23 Lukáš Sedlák – #20 Kieffer Bellows
#9 Ivan Provorov – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#6 Travis Sanheim – #61 Justin Braun
#24 Nick Seeler – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#32 Felix Sandström
#79 Carter Hart
WSH Projected Lineup
#8 Alexander Ovechkin – #17 Dylan Strome – #73 Conor Sheary
#15 Sonny Milano – #92 Evgeny Kuznetsov – #77 T.J. Oshie
#90 Marcus Johansson – #20 Lars Eller – #39 Anthony Mantha
#59 Aliaksei Protas – #26 Nick Dowd – #21 Garnet Hathaway
#56 Erik Gustafsson – #74 John Carlson
#42 Martin Fehervary – #3 Nick Jensen
#52 Matt Irwin – #57 Trevor van Riemsdyk
#35 Darcy Kuemper
#79 Charlie Lindgren
PHI Injuries: Cam Atkinson (upper-body), Sean Couturier (back), Bobby Brink (hip), Ryan Ellis (hip), James van Riemsdyk (finger), Wade Allison (hip), Travis Konecny (upper-body), Scott Laughton (upper-body)
Scratched: Max Willman
WSH Injuries: Connor Brown (ACL), Carl Hagelin (hip), Nicklas Bäckström (hip), Tom Wilson (ACL), Beck Malenstyn (upper-body), Dmitry Orlov (lower-body)
Scratched: Joe Snively, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Alexander Alexeyev
News and Notes
– Scott Laughton was placed on injured reserve by the Flyers yesterday. Travis Konecny is also expected to miss 10-14 days.
– Jackson Cates was recalled from AHL Lehigh Valley and will suit up tonight in place of Max Willman.
– These two clubs split the season series last season at 2-2-0 each. The Flyers won one of those contests in Washington, defeating the Capitals 2-1 at Capital One Arena on November 6th, 2021.
– Felix Sandström starts tonight in his first game since November 13th against Dallas.
Broadcast Info: TV – TNT, Radio – 93.3 WMMR
