Cliches, little else to offer after another loss to Caps

PHILADELPHIA >> It might be easy to say, as Alain Vigneault has recently done day by day, that alleged No. 1 goaltender Carter Hart is simply trying to practice through a slump.

Or work through some other synonym.

“He’s going through a rough patch,” Vigneault termed it early Saturday, “and he’s got to work himself through it.”

Lately Hart had been mostly punching his timecard for the mid-day shift and was scheduled to do so behind Brian Elliott again Saturday night. But just two nights after he’d been riddled for five goals in a Flyers loss to the Capitals, Elliott started this rematch looking like a weary backup, bringing Hart back to the spot for which he’s paid to play when Elliott was pulled in the second period.

Despite a too-late push in the third by the Flyers, there would be no poetic conclusion for Hart’s savior act on this night, as he could only work his way through a 5-4 rematch loss to the Capitals at Wells Fargo Center.

Washington now has won all four times it’s played Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the Flyers are 5-6-1 since a four-game COVID break and have lost five of their last seven starts. They’re looking as out of synch as they have for a long time.

Or are appearances deceiving?

“I thought we played a good game from start to finish,” Vigneault said. “Guys competed. We’re not going to be perfect. We competed hard, made some plays at the right time and got some good looks. Unfortunately, the game, results-wise, it didn’t go our way.

“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us right now because we’re going through tough times . ... I do like parts of our game at this moment I do think we’re trending the right way.”

Again, that’s five losses in seven games. The Flyers are fifth in the East, three points out of a playoff spot.

What’s that trending toward?

“I do believe our game is trending the right way,” Claude Giroux echoed, “but it’s hard to evaluate that when you’re losing games. I do think we have a lot of confidence in our locker room and this (four-game)

road trip coming up, guys are excited about it.” But then again... “We’ve dug ourselves a hole to make the playoffs,” Giroux said, “but we’re going one game at a time here and we’re going to battle to get back in that race.”

To do so, the Flyers can’t count on Elliott to carry the goaltending load. That will have to fall heavily on Hart, and whether due to his club’s poor defensive play, numerous turnovers, or his own sloppiness in the crease, he hasn’t seemed up to the challenge.

Hart last started Tuesday, when he allowed three first-period goals to the Buffalo Sabres then sat the last two periods while Elliott helped the Flyers gain a shootout win. Hart’s only other two starts in March were losses to the Capitals and Penguins. Other than that, it’s been Elliott leading the way, until he made it quite clear early on Saturday that he didn’t have it.

His rebound control was rather non-existent, but then, he could have done without the Flyers’ defensive zone turnovers that gave the Caps their chances to begin with.

“Without a doubt we’re going through a challenging time,” Vigneault said. “We’re falling behind in games and trying to work and battle back. Yes, we are making mistakes. We’re going to try to improve and get the mistakes to a minimum.”

It took almost no effort for the Flyers to fall behind early yet again. Elliott couldn’t control a puck shot in by Nick Jensen,

and the rebound trickled into the slot. There, a shovel shot by Washington’s Daniel Sprong got legs and climbed over Elliott’s body and slipped behind him for an odd goal and a 1-0 Capitals lead only 4:40 in.

Then a Giroux backpass was off the mark to Shayne Gostisbehere, and in a flash Elliott was forced to make a save ... but again he couldn’t get the rebound. This time Carl Hagelin outmaneuvered Gostisbehere to it, jamming the puck through Elliott’s pads at 13:21.

An intermission seemed to matter when a blind clearing attempt in the Washington zone was snagged by James van Riemsdyk, who turned around a wristed a shot past Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov 2:36 into the second. But all of 29 seconds later Elliott didn’t seem to have a proper angle on a Jensen shot, and it was 3-1 and guess which rusty goaltender was asked to come on down?

Not that it was part of the plan...

“I just felt that Carter needs a couple of more days here,” Vigneault had said before the game. “He’s been working hard. Stepping on the ice, stopping the next puck and working with (goalie coach) Kim (Dillabaugh) are all things that are going to build him and bring him back in the right direction.”

An Alex Ovechkin leftcircle power play shot might have awakened him, too. That happened shortly after a Nolan Patrick goal had cut the Caps lead to 3-2.

The Flyers had a chance to tie after that, gifted with

a power play. But Travis Sanheim threw that away with an infraction, and after the Caps went up an extra skater with Sanheim in the box, a brutal clearing attempt by Patrick would be flagged and sent on to Ovechkin, who drove it home over Hart’s waving glove for 4-2 after two periods.

In the third, Caps winger Garnet Hathaway threw a bit of a wrist shot that teammate Nic Dowd may have breathed on as it went by. Didn’t matter because Hart had it between his pads ... until it exited through the other side for a 5-2 Caps lead.

But then the Flyers suddenly decided to make their coach’s trendy words ring true. They kicked up their energy level for a power play, and Gostisbehere floated a long-distance shot through a screen and past Samsonov to bring it to 5-3 with 6:53 showing on the clock.

Then with an empty net and extra skater, the Flyers controlled the puck until Giroux one-timed a shot home to cut the deficit to a goal with 2:57 left.

Try as they may, and with an extra skater the whole time, the Flyers couldn’t get the equalizer. You wonder if and when their equalizer in net — whichever goalie that might be — can return to consistent competence.

“He was fighting it a little bit,” Vigneault said of Elliott. “We saw that, so Carter came in. Our guys worked. When you’re giving up the number of goals we’re giving up at this time, it’s not easy for anyone.”