What to watch as Flyers play final road game

In their final road game of the season, the 24-23-7 Philadelphia Flyers remain in Washington D.C. on Saturday for the second game of a back-to-back with the 34-15-5 Capitals.

Here’s what to watch:

Previously on Flyers vs. Capitals…

The Flyers played a good overall game against the Capitals on Friday, getting off to a quick start in all three periods, taking only one penalty, and playing from ahead most of the night. When there were breakdowns and scrambles in the Flyers’ zone, Brian Elliott stepped up with some big stops among his 28-save night.

The Flyers got two goals from rookie power forward Wade Allison on Friday, and one goal each from Joel Farabee and Sean Couturier. Cam York played well in his NHL debut and defenseman Phil Myers, who has struggled for much of the season, produced one of his better all-around games the season.

On the other side, both of the Capitals’ goals came from Flyers turnovers and confusion on faceoffs. It nearly happened a third time with the score at 3-2 in the third period. There were other occasions in which the Flyers stopped a little too much time and space, and Eliott had to come up with tough saves.

At the other end of the ice, the Flyers established a good forecheck. Farabee’s goal came about because of pressure off the forecheck. Allison’s first goal was scored off a cross-corner dump by Oskar Lindblom that bounced perfectly off the end boards to the oncoming right winger, who ripped a shot past Vitek Vanecek. The second Allison goal, on a delayed penalty against Washington, was scored at the net as he batted home the aerial rebound of a Myers wraparound.

The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play on Friday, dropping to just 2-for-17 on the man advantage against the Caps this season. They did manage to kill off their only penalty of the game. The Caps had been 7-for-14 on power plays against Philly this season.

Second to last game of the disappointing season

The Flyers will be playing their final road game and second-to-last game of the 2020-21 season, it’s almost over.

Projected Lineups

Flyers:

28 Claude Giroux -14 Sean Couturier – 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee – 13 Kevin Hayes – 93 Jakub Voracek
25 James van Riemsdyk – 21 Scott Laughton – 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
23 Oskar Lindblom – 19 Nolan Patrick – 57 Wade Allison

9 Ivan Provorov – 6 Travis Sanheim
45 Cam York – 61 Justin Braun
55 Samuel Morin – 5 Phil Myers

34 Alex Lyon
[37 Brian Elliott]

PP1: Giroux, Couturier, Allison, Voracek, York
PP2: Hayes, Farabee, JVR, Konecny, Provorov

Scratches: 8 Robert Hägg (healthy), 59 Jackson Cates (healthy), 79 Carter Hart (MCL sprain, out for the remainder of the season).

NHL suspension: Shayne Gostisbehere (suspended for May 7 and 8 games).

Injured reserve: 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery), 58 Tanner Laczynski (hip surgery).

COVID-19 protocol: None.

Capitals:

39 Anthony Mantha – 19 Nicklas Bäckström – 43 Tom Wilson
73 Conor Sheary – 20 Lars Eller – 77 T.J. Oshie
28 Daniel Carr – 17 Michael Raffl – 10 Daniel Sprong
62 Carl Hagelin – 26 Nic Dowd – 21 Garnet Hathaway​

9 Dmitry Orlov – 74 John Carlson
4 Brenden Dillon – 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk

33 Zdeno Chara – 3 Nick Jensen​

41 Vitek Vanecek
[31 Craig Anderson]​

PP1: Wilson, Bäckström, Oshie, Sprong, Carlson
PP2: Sheary, Eller, Mantha, Orlov, [Schultz, if available]
​
Scratches: 2 Justin Schultz (lower body, day-to-day), 8 Alex Ovechkin (lower-body), 31 Craig Anderson (healthy).

Injured reserve: 47 Beck Malenstyn (Achilles tendon repair surgery), 35 Henrik Lundqvist (open heart surgery).

COVID-10 protocol: 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov, 30 Ilya Samsonov.

Essentials

When: 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.

Where: Capital One Arena

Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia

Radio: 93.3 WMMR

Social media coverage: Philly Sports Reports’ Twitter & Instagram.