April 16, 2016
Special teams, special teams, special teams.
In Game 2 of a first-round NHL playoff series, the Philadelphia Flyers went 0-4 on the power play, making them 0-8 for the series. The Washington Capitals went 2-2 with the man advantage, making them 3-9 for the series. I’ll be happy to write more about the game, but that pretty much sums it up.
Oh yeah, this happened, too:
Add it all up, and the Caps beat the Flyers by a 4-1 score in Game 2, taking a 2-0 lead in the series as the venue now shifts to Philadelphia for what should be an emotional Game 3 (with an Ed Snider tribute) on Monday night.
Braden Holtby deserves the Vezina for his first period work alone. The Flyers put 19 shots on the Capitals goalie, and he turned away all of them, a few of which came from point-blank range. In fact, the Flyers outshot Washington 19-5 in the opening 20 minutes and still went to the dressing room trailing 1-0.
Live look-in at Holtby during #CapsFlyers pic.twitter.com/YKYMY4hxGY
— Neil Greenberg (@ngreenberg) April 16, 2016
Through two games, Holtby has stopped 60 of the Flyers’ 61 shots. He good.
Despite losing convincingly, the Flyers did plenty of positive things. From a possession standpoint, it would be tough to make the argument that they didn’t drive play. At five-on-five, the Orange and Black had 60 shot attempts to Washington’s 37. Outside of Jake Voracek on one occasion in the second period, they simply couldn’t solve Holtby.
Coming back home, it will be interesting if the Flyers can build on their 5v5 play. That may depend on whether or not they can clean up the special teams, which were subpar.
Specifically, the penalty kill was poor. John Carlson’s first period goal came on a much cleaner shot than the one he scored on in Game 1. Nick Schultz had lost his stick, and Carlson was given a clean shooting lane from the point. Later in the third period, Alexander Ovechkin scored all alone from “his office” (left circle) with the man advantage, a defensive breakdown.
On the power play, the Flyers wasted 5-on-3 and 4-on-3 opportunities.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
