Screenshot: NHL App

The Washington Capitals fell to the Philadelphia Flyers by a score of 3-1 at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night to fall to 0-2-1 in the 2021-22 NHL preseason. Goaltender Ilya Samsonov played the entire game, making 28 saves.

Capitals’ Lines at Flyers

Carl Hagelin — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway
Anthony Mantha — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Brett Leason
Conor Sheary — Aliaksei Protas — Garrett Pilon
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby — Michael Sgarbossa — Joe Snively

Michal Kempny — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Tobias Geisser — Justin Schultz
Martin Fehervary — Nick Jensen

Samsonov
Pheonix Copley

First Period

Protas slid one past the glove of Flyers goaltender Martin Jones 3:18 in after Van Riemsdyk’s point shot was blocked through traffic on the power-play and went right to Protas to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead.

Protas and the Caps strike first! pic.twitter.com/FTcx6F65f6

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 2, 2021

Right-wing Claude Giroux blasted one past the glove of Samsonov from the left dot after defenseman Keith Yandle kept the puck in at the blueline on the power play at 5:41 and center Sean Couturier fed Giroux across.

The Capitals led 2-1 in takeaways, 6-4 in blocked shots, and scored on their lone power play of the first.

The Flyers led 14-8 in shots, 14-4 in hits, won 56% of the draws, went one-for-three on the power play, and did not have any giveaways while the Capitals had two through 20 minutes.

Second Period

The Capitals led 10-8 in blocked shots and scored on half of their two power plays in the first two periods.

The Flyers led 24-17 in shots, including 10-9 in the second, 20-11 in hits, had four giveaways while the Capitals had five, won 58% of the draws, and scored on one of three opportunities on the man advantage through 40 minutes.

Each team recorded two takeaways through two.

Third Period

Right-wing Cam Atkinson finished one into a wide open net from the crease after left-wing Oskar Lindblom got Samsonov out of the cage and fed him at the other side of the blue paint to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead two minutes into the third.

Center Scott Laughton opened up the five-hole of Samsonov and backhanded one smoothly through it after getting fed by right-wing Nicolas Aube-Kubel, who won a battle along the half-wall and got to center ice before hitting Laughton up, to extend the lead to 3-1 with 3:04 to go.

The Capitals led 12-11 in blocked shots, 3-2 in takeaways, and had five giveaways while the Flyers had six.

The Flyers led 31-22 in shots, including 7-5 in the third, 23-18 in hits, had four giveaways while the Capitals had five, won 64% of the draws, and scored on one of three opportunities on the man advantage.

Each team converted on one of three power plays.

Practice Shootout

Atkinson (PHI): stopped

Kuznetsov (WSH): hit crossbar

RW Travis Konecny: missed

Mantha: stopped

D Ivan Provorov: stopped

Dowd: stopped

Lindblom: stopped

Sgarbossa: hit post

C Morgan Frost: scored

Trevor Van Riemsdyk: scored

D Ryan Ellis: missed

Sheary: missed

LW Joel Farabee: stopped

Protas: stopped

Laughton: stopped

Schultz: missed

James Van Riemsdyk: stopped

Snively: scored

Next game: at New Jersey Devils on Monday (7 PM ET, not televised)

By Harrison Brown