Sean Couturier served the Flyers a Selke appetizer before enjoying Sunday’s Super Bowl in the nation’s capital.
On Couturier’s expected return from injury, the Flyers interrupted a two-game skid by defeating the Capitals 7-4 in a wild confrontation, going up and down at Capital One Arena.
Couturier scored the winning goal, finished with three points (two goals, one assist) and scored a plus-4 in 15:54 minutes. 2019-20 Trophy winner Frank J. Selke helped his club gain an advantage, something the Flyers (8-3-2) had a hard time doing during their absence.
Scott Laughton made his first hat-trick of his career. All three objectives were timely. The first two eliminated a 2-0 deficit and the third was crucial insurance, as the Flyers had a 5-4 advantage.
In the last six games against the Capitals (6-3-3), including the round robin, the Flyers are 5-0-1 and beat Washington by 26-13.
• The Flyers missed Couturier a lot. However, they know that they still need to clean things up.
• Laughton, James van Riemsdyk and Joel Farabee are full of secondary scores.
Laughton scored five goals in his last two games against Washington (including the round-robin game), Farabee made three assists and van Riemsdyk made another multi-point game (one goal, one assist).
Van Riemsdyk is on a streak of seven consecutive points (four goals, nine assists) and is fourth in the NHL with 18 points, behind only Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Mitchell Marner.
What a start for the 31-year-old.
• Alex Ovechkin was a standout machine while continuing to upload his resume to the Hall of Fame.
He made two goals and two assists. His first period assistant came for a move that any hockey person can enjoy.
His second goal was out of his big shot, but it was also the product of a collapse of the Flyers. Somehow, they left Ovechkin alone near the point where he was shooting Carter Hart.
• Speaking of Hart, he was once again under siege. He faced 36 shots and denied 32 of them.
Hart had to make 30 or more saves just seven times in 40 games last season.
The 22-year-old goalkeeper had to make 30 or more saves six times in nine games this season.
With the Flyers playing against the Capitals, you can’t help but think about Matt Niskanen and how much Alain Vigneault’s club missed the stability of the veteran defender in all situations.
The Flyers will take the win, but they still can’t be excited about the process today. They do not consistently look like the team that allowed the least number of NHL shots per game last season.
The capitals were insufficient and scored four goals in the first two periods. In five clashes with the Flyers last season, they never scored more than two.
• Washington goalkeeper Vitek Vanecek conceded four goals in 14 shots and was pulled after van Riemsdyk’s marker at 3:24 from the end of the period.
Craig Anderson replaced Vanecek and converted six saves into eight shots.
• Maintaining a 5-4 lead in the third period, the Flyers had a four-minute power play after Couturier was left bleeding from a high stick by Zdeno Chara on his chin. The Flyers were unable to profit and had only one chance at an advantage.
They are lucky that it didn’t cost anything. Couturier was fine and then hit an empty ball.
• Couturier returned after missing 10 games due to a costochondral split and Philippe Myers was back in step after his absence on Friday due to an upper body injury.
It was an exchange of two for one, as Travis Sanheim unexpectedly lost his first game of the season for an undisclosed reason. The Flyers listed the 24-year-old blueliner as the everyday.
With Sanheim out of the lineup, the Flyers used a different combination of six defenders for an eighth straight game.
Defender Robert Hagg scored his first goal of the season in a nasty kick.
Washington suffered a severe labor shortage without Evgeny Kuznetsov (COVID protocol), Jakub Vrana (COVID protocol), TJ Oshie (upper body) and llya Samsonov (COVID protocol).
• Flyers and Capitals are back in DC on Tuesday (6 pm ET / NBCSP).
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