Schedule continues to take a toll on the Flyers
Their tired play on Saturday in Pittsburgh almost preordained the way they played on Sunday.
PHILADELPHIA » Ivan Provorov has remarkable vision. Skating powerfully with his head up, the Flyers’ defenseman frequently puts the puck in a teammate’s wheelhouse with a minimum of mistakes.
What Provorov saw Sunday in a 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals at Wells Fargo Center was the same slipups the Flyers have made in a skid where they’ve lost three of their last four games.
Getting booed on the way to the locker room by fans who haven’t been allowed through the doors for a year should give the boys something to think about on their day off Monday.
“I think we had some opportunities,” said Provorov, who played a game-high 22 minutes. “It’s just a matter of making the smart read at the blue line. Sometimes you have to dump it in. But when we had space we didn’t make the plays that we needed to make. It just came down to that.”
Just like that, the Flyers (12
6-3, 27 points) tumbled to fifth in the East behind the Capitals (15-6-4-32) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (29 points), who prevailed Sunday.
Despite their early energy with fans in the building, the Flyers lost momentum in the second period and the game changed. Their tired play Saturday in Pittsburgh almost pre-ordained the way they played Sunday.
Yet Flyers coach Alain Vigneault insisted his team was ready to play, and applauded goalie Carter Hart (24 saves) for giving the team a chance to win after Joel Farabee gave them the lead with the only goal of the first period.
“We came out with good energy, making a lot of the right plays,” Vigneault said. “We knew they were going to have a push in the second period. And in the third period, they got their third one there. I think there should have been a call in there on Zdeno Chara for high-sticking to Joel’s head but the referee let it go, and then we missed an assignment. But the guys competed.”
Travis Konecny missed on a 3-on-1 in the last six minutes of the second period, and the Flyers hit a post on that rush. Hit a wall, too.
Two minutes later, Alex Ovechkin flicked a pass from T.J. Oshie into the net to knot the game at 1. It was just the eighth goal of the season but the 714th of Ovechkin’s illustrious career. And it was too deadly accurate for Hart. That was with 4:49 left. Hart was beaten on a similar play, Dmitry Orlov sliding the puck underneath him on a crossice feed from John Carlson with just 15.8 seconds left, the Flyers making a mistake on a faceoff.
With 15:45 remaining, the Capitals scored their third straight goal, Nick Jensen finding the net for the first time since 2018.
“I think we gave up the first goal where the puck should have went deep,” Provorov said. “We lost it at their blue line and then they went down and scored. The second goal there was a questionable icing that in my opinion should have been waved off. Then the faceoff, we got confused and they scored. In the third period we weren’t clicking and weren’t making the right plays and right passes and ended up losing the puck too much.”
Provorov bristled when it was suggested the Flyers had just completed a sequence of six games in nine days, the last two back-toback.
“I’m pretty sure all the teams are on the same schedule,” Provorov said. “So, that can’t be an excuse.”
The Flyers better get used to the busy schedule. After a Tuesday game here against Buffalo, they play the Caps twice at Wells Fargo Center.
NOTES » Farabee’s goal was his team-leading 11th for the Flyers. All of his goals are at even strength. … The Flyers are 4-5 since the coronavirus outbreak at Washington. … The Flyers had won four straight games versus the Caps . ... Nate Prosser was returned to the Taxi Squad and the club recalled forward Connor Bunnaman from the Taxi Squad.