The Washington Capitals took on the Philadelphia Flyers at home on Tuesday as they sought their fourth win in a row. Could they get there or could Philly play spoiler?
Alex Ovechkin kicked things off with a backhand that got behind Carter Hart. TJ Oshie finished off a beautiful passing play to make the lead two. James Van Riemsdyk almost immediately struck on a breakaway to cut that lead in half. Martin Fehervary dangled the lead right back to two before the first period was over.
Lars Eller finished off another great passing play to add to the advantage early in the second. Conor Sheary was left all alone in front of the net and he dangled the goal total to five. Matt Irwin found the endzone for six. Lars Eller, extra point was good. Garnet Hathaway scored the eighth and I’ve run out of cliche ways to describe goals going in. JVR for a random pinball goal. Johan Larsson for nine.
Capitals beat Flyers 9-2!
Oh yeah, we gotta do this.
- I didn’t like the start to the first period but once Ovi scored it kind of settled things down and the Caps started taking it to the Flyers. They created a bunch in transition by turning the puck over defensively which is always good to see.
- As already stated, Alex Ovechkin got the good guys on the board first with the 776th goal of his career and the 46th of his current season. Ovi has goals in four straight games now and 14 in his last 18. Keep it up, O.
- That second goal was a thing of beauty and it starts with some really awesome work below the goal line from Nicklas Backstrom. His legendary ability to shield the puck and feed it to an open teammate will always be fun to watch. John Carlson was the open teammate in this case and he executed a slap pass to perfection to TJ Oshie who slotted home his ninth of the season into an empty net. Carlson, who is ridiculously hot right now, hit the 50-assist mark for the fourth time in his career on the goal. Via Caps PR, he’s only the 17th defenseman in NHL history with four 50-assist seasons.
now hold on one second pic.twitter.com/xnUOCCEtLx
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) April 13, 2022
- The Caps absolutely stomped the Flyers in the second. Philly looked like a team that really does not care at this point of their season. 13 scoring chances at five-on-five alone in the second frame for the team clad in red.
- Conor Sheary was left as wide open as I’ve ever seen an NHL player that wasn’t on a breakaway or in the middle of a shootout attempt. He could have pitched a tent in front of Martin Jones, got a night’s rest, woke up, and still had time to deposit that puck.
- Martin Fehervary brought out the puck skills bag multiple times in this game. The first resulted in him sliding home a backhand for his eighth goal of the season. The second led to Kevin Connauton almost launching himself through the glass as he tried to hit Marty and failed due to the rookie’s smooth moves.
- Lars Eller with another two goals. Competition is a good thing.
rest in peace to Gilbert Gottfried who has probably the best sequence in game show history on Hollywood Squares. if you’re not an old hag like me who remembers the rules, both contestants needed his square to secure the 5-square win, but he decided to troll both of them pic.twitter.com/Egzyzygudd
— manny (@mannyfidel) April 12, 2022
- The third was played at scrimmage pace as the Caps just lit up the scoreboard. You just love a game like that. The only thing that would have made it better was more Ovi goals.
- Matt Irwin scored his first as a member of the Capitals and his first overall in the NHL since December 6 of 2018. Johan Larsson also got his first as a Cap. Well done, boys.
- The end of this game was sure something. Maybe the Flyers should try not getting scored on nine times.
- Chris Kreider with the most fluke fifty goal season in the history of the league maybe outside of Jonathan Cheechoo.
The Caps head north of the border next as they’ll make a visit to Toronto to play a Leafs team led by Auston Matthews who apparently scores two goals in every single game he plays these days.
Headline photo courtesy of @dunnbe
