Gamecenter – Natural Stat Trick
The Washington Capitals resumed their playoff-cum-preseason round-robin tournament with another weekday afternoon game against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers had finished the regular season as one of the League’s hottest teams and dominated the Caps in their season series, outscoring them 14-2 in two games over the final month of play.
Since then, the whole world has changed — except, apparently, what happens when the Caps play the Flyers, as Washington lost 3-1.
Plus: Braden Holtby continues to look solid during the resumption of play in Toronto. Braden was faultless on the Flyers’ goals, all three of which were scored by players parked right in front of him. Holtby is statistically one of the best playoff goalies in history, and he saved this game from being a blowout.
Minus: Roughing, boarding, tripping, roughing, tripping, interference, hooking — the Capitals committed seven minor penalties Thursday, gifting the Flyers six power plays. Thankfully the Caps’ stellar penalty kill saved them from themselves, but the postseason has been refereed tightly so far, and sloppiness like this in the first round would be deadly for the Caps.
Some more notes on the game:
Well, so much for that. The Capitals now have one point in two round-robin games, meaning they will not get one of the top-two seeds in the first round. Washington clearly doesn’t care much, treating the games as tune-ups instead. Disturbingly, these have been some pretty terrible tune-ups.
Holtby looks good, though.
The Capitals play their final round robin game against the league-leading Boston Bruins Sunday in a battle for the third and fourth seed.