A day after getting a huge victory in Beantown, the Washington Capitals were just over 10 minutes away from a win on home ice against the despised Flyers to leap frog Philadelphia into third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Caps, who played an outstanding first frame only to see Philly goalie Steve Mason keep his club in the game, had weathered an early third period Flyers storm and seemed to have everything calmed down and in hand. It was going to give them a five game winning streak and momentum heading into Wednesday’s rematch on Broad Street.

It all looked good for the guys in red, who appeared to be taking another step towards turning the corner on a very up and down hockey season.

But then the dark clouds came in and Dmitry Orlov, who played well for the first 2+ periods, lost his head and took a terribly stupid penalty on Brayden Schenn after the Flyer had cleanly checked him behind the net just seconds earlier. #81 charged and left his feet hitting #10 square in between the numbers and into the boards. It was as easy of a major boarding call as you will ever see and there will likely be a suspension tacked on this week. Orlov’s brain fart instantly turned the game, and possibly the Capitals season, on its head.

His selfish play, and he has a history of being just that (see his early season trade demand), put him in the box for five minutes leaving Coach Adam Oates with just five defensemen to try and stop a very good Flyers power play. Washington was able to only give up a single tally on that major, but the damage was done as Braden Holtby was the only reason Philly didn’t have 2 or 3 more on that sequence. The Caps were out of energy and had no burst when the major expired and it was Orlov again failing to do his job as Claude Giroux deflected home the biscuit with 65 seconds remaining after the Flyers pulled Mason for the extra attacker.

You know what happens next, Vinny Lecavalier scored off of Karl Alzner’s shin pad to win it in OT and the disliked team in orange and white left town with a stolen two points and more importantly, a two point lead on the Caps in the playoff race.

If you are a Caps fan, you are likely livid tonight. You are mostly ticked at Orlov but deep down you know this was bound to happen given the Capitals weaknesses on the blue line. Let’s face it, all season I’ve been blogging that the team would not be consistent until the defense was upgraded. It has not been and the trade deadline is 3pm this Wednesday.

Yes, the Caps received a point today, but this game was one they should have had two and the Flyers had none. They wasted an outstanding effort from Mike Green (3 assists) and superb goaltending from Holtby (31 saves). Joel Ward (assist, +3) was also excellent once again. There wasn’t a lot of good to point out after those three.

Washington’s power play was bad going 0 for 6 and gave up a shorthanded tally. The Caps second goal did come just seconds after Luke Schenn’s minor penalty expired, but overall the Flyers kicked the Capitals rears on special teams in this game. The Flyers were 2 for 4 with the man advantage. Adding in the shorty, that’s a +3 on special teams.

Alex Ovechkin was held pointless and the Flyers dominated shot attempt totals, 76-52. They also won 37 of 60 face offs.

Simply put, this Capitals club remains flawed. They have talent in certain places but the holes appear too much to overcome to pass the teams ahead of them in the playoff race. There continue to be mental and physical mistakes made by many of the same players. Oates continues to point that out and, at some point, you have to move the guys who aren’t getting it done.

This is where George McPhee comes in and its up to him to shake things up this week, but it won’t be easy. The trade market is over priced and making things more complicated is the Capitals difficult salary cap situation. Any dollars coming in have to be matched by dollars going out. That doesn’t put the team in a position of strength, at all.

But this is the situation they are in. They have made the playoffs six straight seasons.

If they want to make it seven years running, then they have to find a way to change certain parts of this roster because through 62 games in 2013-14 the guys currently here have not shown the ability to get this club over the hump.

Today’s loss was a microcosm of the teams struggles this season.

It just hurts worse because it was a gift wrapped victory to the despised Flyers.

The revamped Philadelphia Flyers came to the Verizon Center on Friday night to take on a Washington Capitals team that didn’t dress four of its’ top five defensemen. In a preseason tilt filled with numerous fights, the Caps smoked the Flyers, 6-3, to run their September record to 4-0-3 as they head into Saturday’s exhibition season finale in Chicago. The season then opens on Tuesday, October 1st with Washington taking on the defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks, again in the Windy City.

Here are some thoughts and observations on the Caps last home tune-up:

- Alex Ovechkin notched two sweet power play goals from the slot. The first was a laser off of a nice feed from Connor Carrick (3 assists) and the second came on a rebound that was aided by Ray Emery’s mishandling of the puck. The Gr8 looks to be in great form for the regular season but in between he’ll depart on Friday night for Greece where he’ll be the first Russian to carry the Olympic torch for the Sochi games after it is lit in Olympia. Ovechkin will return to DC on Sunday night and will practice on Monday before the season opener.

- There is not much more Tom Wilson can do to show he belongs on the team. He scored another goal going to the net (sweet pass by Mikhail Grabovski), got into a fight with Brayden Schenn and he beat the young Flyer to a pulp, drew a penalty that led to Ovie’s 2nd PPG, and doled out several hits. The 19 year old is an NHLer now and brings an added dimension of size and toughness to a Capitals team that will need it in the new Metropolitan Division. Some Flyers, to include Scott Hartnell, got knocked off of their game mentally by Wilson in Friday’s contest.

- Eric Fehr tallied two more times to run his preseason goal total to five. #16 looks great and the hope is that he can stay healthy for a full season to see what he can do. Washington is loaded at right wing with Ovechkin, Wilson, Fehr, Troy Brouwer, and Joel Ward.

- With Mike Green, John Carlson, John Erskine, and Jack Hillen all resting on Friday night, Coach Adam Oates and GM George McPhee got a chance to look at several players vying for the 6th and 7th defensemen spots on the roster. Noone really stood out among the three guys with the best chance to get those slots in Steve Oleksy, Tyson Strachan, and Dmitry Orlov. Each had some solid plays, especially in the opening frame when the Caps jumped to a 2-0 lead. But when the Flyers scored three straight in the middle stanza to tie the game up, each of the three had their share of mistakes. Carrick probably had the best game on D other than Karl Alzner, but with two right handed offensive guys already on the squad in Green and Carlson, it doesn’t make sense to keep Carrick up. Michal Cajkovski did once again show off his heavy left handed shot on the blue line but he needs more seasoning. Right now, the odds seem to favor Oleksy and Strachan to get the last two D spots while Orlov goes down to Hershey to play lots of minutes and get his confidence back.

- Michal Neuvirth had a good night in net stopping 32 of 35 shots. His stick handling is improved and that will be important in the regular season. Both goalies will play lots of games but Braden Holtby is the clear #1 now. Holtby’s ability to move the puck really helps the defense and adds another dimension from the back line.

 - Playing goalie in Philadelphia might be the toughest position in the NHL and Emery may not be the answer the Flyers are hoping for in goal. The net minder already had one problematic stint in the city of Brotherly Love and he looked weak on Friday night. Is Steve Mason the guy for the job in Philly? One thing Peter Laviolette should be concerned about is the fact that his team has struggled in the preseason and they also couldn’t beat a Caps team that didn’t dress many of their top D. Yes the Flyers inked Vinny Lecavlier this summer but there are still lots of holes on that Philly team. Claude Giroux is still a super player, though, and will have to carry that club.

So we are just four days from the regular season opener and the Caps roster is still up in the air. McPhee and Oates have a lot of work to do over the next 48+ hours to finalize things and the decisions are not easy, especially when the salary cap gets factored in. Washington has 14 NHL forwards, so do they keep them all and only 7 defensemen? Or do they go 13 forwards and 8 defensemen or possibly just 13 and 7 to be one spot under the 23 man limit? We’ll find out very soon.

The Washington Capitals early season struggles have been well chronicled, but on Friday night at the Verizon Center the Caps gave their fans an evening to forget about the string of six losses in seven games by defeating the despised Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2.

For two teams that are usually near the top of the Eastern Conference standings, this was an unusual affair as the loser would likely reside in the basement of the conference at the end of the night. That “cellar dwellar” title goes to the Flyers after Braden Holtby played an excellent game in net making 29 saves and center Nicklas Backstrom (1 goal, 1 assist) had his best effort of this lockout shortened season.

Believe it or not, we are at the 1/6th point of a 48 tilt campaign. The Caps are still 2-5-1 and have a lot of work ahead of them, but I thought they did some good things in the victory over the Flyers.

To steal a line from the movie “What About Bob?”, Washington managed to do some ”baby stepping” on Friday.

There was progress in the penalty department as the Caps only allowed three power plays despite taking another delay of game penalty. Washington killed off all three of those Philadelphia Flyers power plays. In their two wins they have only had to survive two shorthanded situations (vs Buffalo) and the three on Friday. Stay out of the box and not allow a power play goal and your chances of winning go up dramatically, much like not turning the ball over in football generally leads to victories.

In addition, there seemed to be more cohesion with the lines as Coach Adam Oates put Alexander Ovechkin with Mike Ribeiro and Wojtek Wolksi together with Backstrom centering Troy Brouwer and Marcus Johansson on the second line. That left a good checking unit in Jason Chimera, Jay Beagle, and Joel Ward. Ovechkin had seven shots on goal, his highest total of the season, and he had more jump than usual. However, he and his linemates will be called on the carpet for the total lack of defensive assistance they provided to Mike Green and Karl Alzner on the first Flyers tally. Defensive zone is still an issue for this team, one that I am sure Oates will continue to address and tweak going forward. You can’t win if you are bad in your own zone and Washington has plenty of room for improvement there.

One of the areas I was most confident in this team coming into the season was goaltending. Holtby was outstanding in this one after Michael Neuvirth had given the Caps a chance to win the previous four games. Both Holtby and Neuvy are the type of goalies you want to have in this short compact season: young and ultra competitive. Also, they both have a short memory, which is very important at the NHL level.

Washington’s power play still continues to sputter (o for 5 vs. Flyers), mostly due to their inability to get the puck in the zone to set up. Oates attributed that to “bad reads” on Friday night. I’d still like to see more bodies and pucks to the net with the man advantage. For me, Brooks Laich can’t get back soon enough to join the second line and bump Johansson down to the fourth unit or even out of the lineup. Plus #21 is a super net presence in man advantage situations and his penalty killing is outstanding. With Laich skating on Friday morning, it appears we are getting closer to getting a key piece back into Washington’s forward lineup.

Another problem with the power play is faceoffs. Right now the Caps are losing those opening man advantage draws and that wastes a good 15 seconds right off of the bat. It also allows the defense to set up. Philadelphia was 40-29 from the dot against Washington on Friday, with Ribeiro going a terrible 5-12. The Caps centers have to be better at draws going forward.

On the backend, John Erskine has played very well and is getting the fourth highest D-man minutes. However, his elbow to the head of Wayne Simmonds will likely draw some Brendan Shanahan reaction in the form of a fine and possibly a suspension. It would be nice if Dmitry Orlov was ready to go but that won’t happen yet, although it appears he practiced late this week in Hershey and is inching closer to a return. Getting Orlov back and playing at the NHL level would help the Caps defense and also strengthen the second power play unit (a left handed point shot is definitely needed).

Summing up this one, the Capitals did some good things and got a victory on Friday night. They needed one of those very badly. What makes it even sweeter is it came against the Flyers, who along with the Penguins, are the most disliked teams the Caps compete against.

Washington has a lot of work to do to get better and climb back into the top eight slots in the East. If they keep working hard, playing smart, and sticking together, they have a chance to win consistently. But they don’t have much room for error.

Still, any way you slice it, a win over the Flyers is always good, no matter what the records are coming into the affair.

Next up, the Pittsburgh Penguins on Super Bowl Sunday.

Notes: John Carlson made a great poke check to spring Backstrom for the Caps first goal that tied the game at one. #19 beat Ilya Bryzgalov on the back hand on a breakaway as Philly got caught in a line change…Matt Hendricks and Flyers goon Zac Rinaldo were both ejected for the dropping the mits on a faceoff before the puck was officially in play. That is an automatic game misconduct…Wolski and Brouwer had the Caps other goals.