Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
The Washington Capitals host the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night for the lone time during the regular season and second of three meetings overall in 2023-24 (7 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network locally, NHL Network nationally). Philadelphia has won the last three head-to-head meetings, including a 4-3 shootout victory on Broad Street on December 14.
Schedule
Philadelphia: heads on the road for the lone time in four games and second in a span of six (1-2-0), begins set of back-to-back as the Ottawa Senators will await them in the City of Brotherly Love
Washington: open two-game homestand, continue stretch where they host four of six (1-1-0) before heading on a five-game Western Canadian road trip
How Each Team Is Doing
Philadelphia: has dropped four of their previous five (1-3-1) before a 6-2 win over Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday
Washington: had five-game point-streak (4-0-1) spanned in an 8-3 loss to Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday but has points in six of their last eight (4-2-2) since ending six-game winless streak (0-5-1)
Standings
Philadelphia: 31-22-7 (.575 points percentage — third in Metropolitan Division, seventh in Eastern Conference); trails Carolina Hurricanes (who have a game in hand) by seven points for second in division, leads New Jersey Devils (one) by five, Washington (two) by six, and both the Pittsburgh Penguins (four) and New York Islanders (two) by seven
Washington: 27-22-9 (.543 points percentage — fifth in Metropolitan Division, 10th in Eastern Conference); six points behind Tampa Bay (with three games in hand) for second wild-card spot
Team Leaders
Neither team has a player ranked among the top-20 league-wide in goals, top-35 in points, nor the top-55 in assists. With Konecny out, right-wing Owen Tippet (21) has the most goals among Flyers expected to play while left-wing Joel Farabee (44) has the most points.
Team Statistics
Both teams are among the bottom-12 in goals while Philadelphia’s power play is the worst. However, their penalty kill is just .2% behind the Los Angeles Kings for the NHL lead. Philadelphia also ranks fourth in shots and third in shots-against.
Injuries/Illnesses/Suspensions
Philadelphia
- D Rasmus Ristolainen (upper-body)
- D Jamie Drysdale (upper-body)
- Konecny (upper-body)
- G Carter Hart (personal leave)
Washington
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
- RW T.J. Oshie (upper-body)
- C Evgeny Kuznetsov (NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program)
- C Nic Dowd (upper-body)
- D Martin Fehervary (lower-body)
- RW Tom Wilson (personal)
Expected Goalie Matchup
The following graph shows Friday’s expected matchup in the crease. Charlie Lindgren is coming off of his worst game of the season, where he allowed eight goals on 31 shots (.742) at Little Caesar’s Arena.
Projected Lines
Philadelphia
Tippett – Scott Laughton – Tyson Foerester
Farabee – Morgan Frost – Bobby Brink
Noah Cates – Ryan Poehling — Garnet Hathaway
Nicolas Deslauriers – Sean Couturier – Olle Lycksell
Cam York – Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Sean Walker
Egor Zamula – Marc Staal
Ersson
Felix Sandstrom
Scratched: RW Cam Atkinson, D Ronnie Attard
Washington
Ovechkin – Hendrix Lapierre – Ivan Miroschnichenko
Max Pacioretty – Strome – Sonny Milano
Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael — Anthony Mantha
Beck Malenstyn – Michael Sgarbossa – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Rasmus Sandin – Carlson
Joel Edmundson – Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev – Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: D Ethan Bear, RW Pierrick Dube
Betting Odds (BetMGM)
Philadelphia: -120, Washington: +100
Over-under: 6 (-110 both over/under)
By Harrison Brown
Looks like no Tom tmr?
Very huge game. If Caps lose, they likely are sellers. Friday’s game is the decision point for this season on what to do.
Meanwhile, worried about Tom and his wife and the coming baby.
I wonder what the market will like. Kinda looks like a buyer’s market, right now. Dallas got Tanev for a song, a 2nd, middling prospect, and a conditional 3rd that won’t convert, unless the Stars go to the Finals. I’m kinda thinking Mantha is worth a 2nd, Pacioretty and Edmundson are worth 3rds. Probably not gonna be the grand sell-off like last year. But who knows? Prices are subject to change.
Incorrect. They should sell no matter what. This includes Wilson and Ovie.
DET may have smoked the tired Caps on Tuesday, but DET turned right around and lost to NYI on home ice. Caps will be fine tomorrow with Flyers in town. Time for some good Puck Luck for our guys
Hey Prevent! Now there’s some optimism! Any specific reasons, apart from puck luck?
Why not be optimistic? It really depends on Philly. We smacked Boston, not because we were great – but because they took us for granted. Same could happen here. Anyway, Caps are not a play-off caliber team this year. GMBM is, no doubt, envisioning next year’s team. I think it should include Mantha – he’s playing well and he’s young enough. We’ll have some money to invest in free agency, too. I expect next year’s Caps to be competitive.
Oh my goodness, no on Mantha…this guys plays 1 year out of 3 plus and you want to reward him…no thanks.
Major money available next year
Backy’s 9.2m
Mantha 5.7m
Several 1-2m’s available
That is a serious player, and another pretty good one GM could go after and if he is unable to unload Kuzy (unlikely I’d think). No idea if he can pry a 1c away, only one that I know of that is RFA is Pettersson. Others on this site have a better feel for which players may be available.
Trade Lappy or CMM to sweeten the deal perhaps…Are either a 1c long term, even a 2? Even if a 2, trade one and sign/get the passing center. So, do either truly project as a 1 or 2c, like legit, if so, put 19’s money into a stud defender.
Then Caps have New 1c, Stromme 2c, CMM 3c, Protas, Sutter 4c
Ideally add a top 5 wing for 4-6m then after Oshi leaves Miro may be ready as well as Leonard.
Ehm. So what would the lineys be, if Tom plays tonite? Tom with Ovi and Lapi doesn’t sound too safe for defense.
nobody throws more sh$t against the wall that Friedman, hoping to see what sticks. “what Im hearing”, “this is a possibility”, “I dont know for sure”..dude is the master of saying one thing while simultaneously hedging at the same time. TML needed two teams to retain salary to acquire Lybushkin, how are they going to afford a $4M Jensen?
My question of this tweet would be in what is the question he is answering? All of his verbs are past tense in the quote, ‘heard’, ‘was, ‘were’. I wonder if answered this after the lybushkin signing or is this a question like very recent after the signing…
Caps sign Zac Funk y’all! who???
They call me Uncle Zac, Future of the Funk
Records are recorded minus all the junk
People spread gossip and believe what they must
While I slam dunk punks and make ’em bite the dust
—
Jingling Baby 😎
Goal song possibles:
Play That Funky Music
We Got The Funk
Embrace The $ukk!
Will the Caps EVER play well again? That’s four straight utter Dog$h** periods of anti-hockey. Didn’t help with Zebras winking at the flagrant interference and the other flagrant tripping by PHI. Oh well, the $ukk continues
Embrace The $ukk!
Ovi to the rescue? The only Ess Oh Bee that’s done ANYTHING Caps since last week
You love to show up when they lose. Glad they have turned it around so you will go away
Quite the turnaround in the second! Gotta keep it comin’ now.