Sometimes the hockey gods decide to prevent you from winning a hockey game.

On Friday night, at the Phone Booth, that was the case as the Washington Capitals fired 44 shots on goal against Michal Neuvirth and allowed only 11 against, but somehow lost the contest, 2-0.

For the Caps, this was the first time all season they’ve been defeated in back to back games in regulation, but fortunately this streak has come after they grabbed a 3-0 series lead. Game six will be Sunday at noon from Philadelphia on NBC.

Washington came out extremely fired up for this one and things got smoking hot fast as T.J. Oshie dropped the gloves with Brayden Schenn off of the opening faceoff. Oshie said that the Capitals players did not like what Schenn did to Evgeny Kuznetsov in game 4 (he cross checked him in the back of the legs after a stoppage in play) and he was the one who fought since he was the first one to Schenn.

The Caps were hoping for a fast start, but that was derailed quickly by a careless double minor for high sticking on Justin Williams. Williams would also take a goalie interference penalty in the opening frame and as a result, the Capitals had to spend six minutes of time killing his penalties.

At even strength, Washington totally dominated play and for the first frame, the Caps out shot the Flyers, 14-6, and in shot attempts it was 21-12.

Things would get even more lopsided in period two, but the Flyers would grab a 1-0 lead on a fluky goal. Williams took another careless high sticking minor and just three seconds after #14 stepped on the ice Ryan White scored when his shot banked off of Taylor Chorney’s skate and into the cage. The tally came 7:52 in to period two.

It was a lucky bounce and goal, but if the Capitals aren’t in the box for a terrible penalty, the bad bounce likely isn’t costly. Washington had 30 shots on goal to just eight for the Flyers after 40 minutes and shot attempts were a staggering 51-16. As Coach Barry Trotz routinely says, though, the only statistic that matters is the goals.

In the third period, the Capitals really kept their foot on the gas pedal pouring 31 shot attempts on the Flyers (only 11 SOG for the game) while Philly only had 11. For the game, shot attempts ended up an astounding 82-27 for Washington. That is simply amazing.

The Caps effort for 60 minutes was the best it has been this postseason. They were dominant and only were burned by taking bad penalties. Afterwards, Coach Trotz stated that he thought his team deserved the six penalties. I concur.

Simply put, the Capitals played a dynamite game and Neuvy stole this one for the Flyers. However, the Caps need to cut back on their penalties. All four of Williams’ minors were careless and Jason Chimera’s boarding penalty showed a lack of awareness. Jakub Voracek was clearly vulnerable and had his back facing #25 when Chimmer plowed him into the boards head first. It was a terrible penalty at a critical time as the Capitals were pouring tons of shots at Neuvirth.

The penalties are extremely disruptive to the Capitals line rotations and it saps momentum from the team. Had this game stayed at even strength more often, Washington likely wins because they are just better than the Flyers.

But the scoreboard is all that matters now. It’s 3-2 and the Capitals have a chance to win this series on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center.

Clearly the Capitals want to duplicate the puck possession they had on Friday, but they also want to generate more stress for Neuvirth. The way to do that is get more pucks and bodies on the cage. Washington is the bigger and better team, but in a single game, they just didn’t get the breaks while taking some terrible infractions, and it proved costly.

Adjustments will be made for game six and Coach Trotz stated he would look at the lineup to possibly make some changes. The coach mentioned that they needed more from the middle of the lineup. To me that hits right at the low offensive output from Kuznetsov and Williams, so does Trotz reunite the TKO line (Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Oshie)? It might be a good idea, although Washington was very good in this tilt outside of the bone headed penalties.

Overall, you had to like the effort and energy the Capitals put into game five. They played like a desperate team and lost on a lucky bounce. They need to keep up that same intensity on Sunday and stay out of the sin bin.

It is never good to lose two games in a row in regulation, especially in the playoffs, but the Capitals can take solace in the fact that they still are in the drivers seat in this series with two games remaining, if necessary.

Notes: Alex Ovechkin had eight hits, eight shots on goal, and 14 total shots for the night in 21:41 of ice time…John Carlson led the Caps in ice time with 27:52…Chris Vandelvelde had the other Flyers goal into an empty net with 31 seconds remaining in regulation…the Caps won the faceoff battle, 38-34…Claude Giroux was the high man for Flyers time on ice, with 23:01…the Caps had 35 hits to just 17 for the Flyers.

The Philadelphia Flyers, behind 31 saves from former Caps goalie Michal Neuvirth, staved off elimination in front of a raucous, but much better behaved Wells Fargo Center crowd on Wednesday night. Shane Gostisbehere and Andrew MacDonald scored in the first 40 minutes for the Flyers and they held on for a 2-1 win.

The Caps lead the series three games to one with game five on Friday night at 7 pm at the Verizon Center.

Philadelphia came out flying and hitting and Washington was unable to match their intensity. In addition, the Caps weren’t executing on their zone exits and that allowed Philly to gain momentum.

“They were really coming trying to disrupt our breakouts, so that took away from our game,” said Matt Niskanen, who logged 24:16 of ice time in this one.

Taylor Chorney, who was in for an injured Brooks Orpik, took an ill advised penalty just over five minutes into the game and it proved costly for Washington as “Ghost” scored from the point with Wayne Simmonds screening Braden Holtby (25 saves). Coach Barry Trotz saw some contact by #17 on Holtby, and there was, so he challenged the call, but the referees deemed it wasn’t enough to overturn it.

The Flyers second goal, which came at just under four minutes into period two, hit a Caps player on the way in, and it was the result of Washington not working hard enough and giving the Flyers too much space in their own zone.

In the final frame, the Flyers sat back and the Caps really came at them. T.J. Oshie scored on the rebound of a Matt Niskanen shot before three minutes were gone. Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom did a super job of creating traffic in front.

The Capitals attack continued with speed throughout the period and Neuvirth, who had a super easy first 40 minutes, made his best stops on Tom Wilson on the doorstep and Mike Richards from point blank range. Neuvy had 12 saves in the final period to earn the win.

Washington became the more desperate team in the third period, but it wasn’t enough for a series sweep.

“We’re going to have to have that level of will and compete right from the drop of the puck on Friday. We should be excited about going home with the opportunity to close the series in five,” added Niskanen.

The Flyers crowd was certainly a factor in this one and now Washington gets home ice on Friday.

“They feed off of the crowd here. We have an excellent home crowd so we’ll be excited to go home and get the right match ups too with home ice advantage,” finished Niskanen.

Niskanen is spot on. The Capitals need to come out and dictate the pace of play, rather than react to what the Flyers are going to do. Washington is the better and bigger team, they need to announce their presence with authority, early and often, on Friday night to not let this series go any farther.

Notes: Shot attempts were 41-41 through two periods and ended 76-47 for the Caps…Washington won the faceoff battle, 29-27. Kuznetsov was 9-5…Ovechkin had eight shot attempts, but only two in the first 30 minutes. Overall, he only had two shots on goal…John Carlson led the Caps in ice time with 25:23…the Flyers were 1 for 2 on the power play while Washington went 0 for 2…Scott Laughton crashed hard into the boards in the 1st period and left on a stretcher. He was taken to a local hospital for precautionary reasons…Brayden Schenn got away with a dirty cheap shot on Kuznetsov in period two. He slashed hard at the back of #92’s legs while Kuzy had his back to Schenn after a whistle. Both referees, Wes McCauley and Francois Charron, did not see it, but the cameras did capture it. It was a gutless move and there is no room in the game for that.

The Washington Capitals used a four goal third period to bury the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-1, on Monday night and put Philly’s season on notice. The Caps now have a three games to none lead in this best of seven series. Game 4 is Wednesday night at 7 pm at the Wells Fargo Center.

Simply put, the Capitals embarrassed the Flyers.

In addition, the Flyers and their fans, who repeatedly threw bracelets onto the ice on Ed Snider night late in the third period, totally melted down embarrassing themselves and the NHL with their awful penalties and idiotic behavior. Frankly, they looked like a bunch of whining babies when it was all said and done.

With the crowd amped up, the game got off to a bad start for Washington as Michael Raffl put the rebound home of a Brandon Manning point shot just 57 seconds into the contest. Braden Holtby (31 saves) said afterwards that was a shot he wanted back, but following that, the Holtbeast shut the door on the Flyers.

Washington, though, answered quickly, less than four minutes after the Flyers early goal to really settle things down. 15 seconds after Wayne Simmonds took a holding infraction, John Carlson blasted a shot from the point and it hit Marcus Johansson on the way in to tie things up. The Caps would score on one of their two power plays in the opening frame while Philadelphia went 0 for 2 with their man advantage situations.

In the middle frame, the Capitals took the lead at the 8:50 mark as Alex Ovechkin (two goals, one assist) slipped behind the Flyers defense and snapped a wicked shot just below the glove of Steve Mason (21 saves) and inside the far post to give Washington a lead it would not relinquish.

The Flyers did their best to try to tie it up, throwing their body around and pretty much tossing the kitchen sink at Holtby. Brooks Orpik took a vicious hit from Ryan White that resulted in an upper body injury and he did not return. From that point on in period two, Philadelphia was really all over the Caps. Somehow Washington managed to maintain their focus and Brayden Schenn took a stupid slashing penalty at the end of the frame that set the table for a big Caps final stanza.

What a period it was as Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on the ensuing power play when the Caps got a lucky break off of the back glass on a Justin Williams hard around that bounced right into the slot and on the stick of #92, which he deposited by Mason just 1:58 into the period. The Flyers and their fans were absolutely stunned. Sure it was a lucky bounce, but if Schenn doesn’t take the bad penalty, Kuznetsov is not all alone and in position for the easy marker.

But the Flyers would not learn from their mistakes and Radko Gudas took another bad penalty, tripping Kuznetsov in the offensive zone and Carlson made him pay with his third goal in three games with Williams setting a beautiful screen on Mason at the top of the crease. That made it 4-1 and the Flyers were pretty much done with the hockey part of their game.

It’s in the DNA of the Broad Street Bullies to get dirty and cheap when the game is heading into the out of reach category and right on cue, the Flyers went there. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare hit Dmitry Orlov awkwardly from behind and earned a five minute major at the 12:17 mark. A scrum ensued and many Flyers fans lost it, at that point, littering the ice with the bracelets and causing a couple of delays. They were then warned by the referees, via the Flyers in house announcer, that if more objects were thrown on the ice then the home team would be penalized.

The Caps worked the puck around in the offensive zone for several minutes on the five minute major creating numerous chances before Ovechkin fired another dart past Mason to make it 5-1 with 5:02 remaining. Naturally, several more bracelets were tossed onto the rink and the referees assessed a bench minor to the Flyers for the fans insubordination. Those who threw the objects onto the ice basically acted like three year old kids. It was embarrassing for those fans who were behaving properly, and there was a good number of them. It also disrespected the game and was a black mark for the NHL. Simply put, the NHL cannot be happy with the behavior of the Flyers and their fans and that will do them no favors the rest of the series. Snider, if he were still with us, would be disgusted at the lack of respect for the game shown by numerous Flyers fans.

Jay Beagle then closed out the scoring after Matt Read took a slashing penalty and the Caps earned a five on three power play.

The final statistics for the third period included four Capitals goals, a shot attempts advantage of 33 to 15 and a 13-6 margin from the dot on draws. Up until that period, the Flyers had a 27-13 edge on faceoffs and 48-35 on shot attempts. The mostly young Philly team took themselves out of the contest with terrible decisions and penalties; it was not simply the result of one lucky bounce.

Overall, the Caps did a super job in this game of keeping the Flyers to the outside and either blocked shots or allowed Holtby to see the biscuit clearly. Coach Trotz stated that despite the offensive weapons his team has up front, his club is really built on defense.

Washington also won this contest by keeping their cool and destroying the Flyers on special teams. The Caps went 5-9 with the power play while Philly was 0-5.

“It’s tough, you want to retaliate, but you have to look at the bigger picture and know what we’re playing for here. Everyone takes hits to make plays, takes slashes, you have to take a lot of stuff if you want to get where you want to be,” said two time Stanley Cup Champion Mike Richards, who had six hits in 11:05 of ice time.

“It tests your patience, for sure, but the end goal is to win the game. We have to stick up for each other, stay together as a group, but especially when our power play is going like that, we’ll just turn it into a game like that and keep scoring goals,” added Matt Niskanen, who blocked five shots in a game high 26:48 on the blue line for Washington.

This was the first time in franchise history, in eight tries (h/t Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post), that the Caps have taken a 3-0 lead in a best of seven series, but in the locker room following the game, you’d be hard pressed to tell that Washington is on the verge of sweeping this opening round series. Basically, it looked like another night in Caps land during the regular season. There was no celebration or feeling of accomplishment, just a singular focus on the task at hand, which was to win a hockey game and then get one more on Wednesday.

“You want to win, that’s where the focus is, but they have a really good team. [Claude Giroux] is a great leader and Simmonds is a great leader, so you know they’re not going to lay down and die, so we have to play our best game. The toughest is to get that fourth win and we know they are going to come hard,” finished Richards.

Notes: Orlov, despite the nasty hit he took then crawling out from under the donnybrook that occurred while he was laying on the ice, came back and notched a power play assist. #9 eats rocks for breakfast and looked very solid and comfortable in 12:34 of ice time…Nate Schmidt, one assist, was excellent in 11:58 of playing time…with Orpik likely out for game 4, you can expect Mike Weber to get a sweater on Wednesday given that his game most closely resembles #44’s…Karl Alzner was fabulous on D in 22:52 of ice time.

The Philadelphia Flyers had everything to play for and the Washington Capitals only had some individual milestones to motivate them as well as the annual stench that is the squad formerly known as the Broad Street Bullies.

In an entertaining game that saw the referees pretty much let things get out of hand, the team from the City of Supposed Brotherly Love came out on top in the skills competition, 2-1.

On the good side, Alexander Ovechkin notched his 44^th goal of the season on the power play and now has a five puck lead for the Rocket Richard trophy with six games remaining (Patrick Kane and Jamie Benn). On the bad side, Braden Holtby was fabulous in the cage with 33 saves, but a hooking penalty by Marcus Johansson led to a late Brayden Schenn power play tally when he tipped home Claude Giroux’s blast with 5:28 remaining.

Washington received an overtime man advantage when Wayne Simmonds tripped Evgeny Kuznetsov, but Nicklas Backstrom hit the left post on a beautiful set up and Philadelphia killed the remainder of that sequence. It was clearly an opportunity lost for Washington.

Sean Couturier then ran Holtby, but somehow the zebras gave #70 a matching minor for roughing??!!

Yeah, something.

The Flyers would then defeat the Caps in the shootout and the Holtbeast is still stuck on win number 46 with likely four starts remaining for him. He needs two victories to tie Marty Brodeur’s single season record. Holtby was just outstanding in this game making several big stops.

Overall, this was a pretty even game. The shot attempts favored Philly, 69-68, and shots on goal were 34-30 for the Flyers. The Caps were unlucky with some pipes hit, in addition to Backstrom’s in OT, Ovechkin hit the left pipe in the second period after he undressed Nick Schultz.

Kuznetsov, who has been struggling in recent games, was better in this one and his pass to the Gr8 on the power play 1:28 in to period three was a beauty of the saucer variety. It’s one that Fox Mulder probably would classify as a UFO.

Believe.

It’s never fun to lose to the Flyers, but in the four games they’ve played against each other this season, the Caps are 2-0-2. One loss came in 3 on 3 and the other in the gimmick. None of that stuff happens in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. So for the group of Debbie Downers out there on the ledge afraid of playing Philly in the post season, I have a quote from one Douglas C Niedermayer, Sergeant at Arms, for  you.

“You’re all worthless and weak! Now drop and give me twenty!”

Once again, believe.

This Caps team is deep and will bring the intensity when the games matter. Right now this is basically glorified preseason for them. I’ll give the Flyers credit for playing hard, albeit a bit dirty, at times, but I expect nothing less from them.

The loss drops the Caps to 54-16-6 (114 points), but the Presidents’ Trophy was already clinched on Monday night. It’s now off to Colorado and Arizona for back to back tilts this weekend. You can expect to see Philipp Grubauer get one of those starts and perhaps Michael Latta, Stan Galiev, Mike Weber, and Taylor Chorney will see some game action, as well, to shake off the rust?

Right now it’s all about staying healthy for the playoffs. April 13th can’t come soon enough, but patience is all we must have right now.

Keep the faith.

Notes: The Caps were dominated from the dot, 41-28. Backstrom was 1-14, ouch!…Dmitry Orlov had a better game on Wednesday and doled out four hits. His decision making in his own zone was very solid, too…Jay Beagle led the Caps with five shots on goal. He had a great chance in overtime, but waited too long after Steve Mason (29 saves) had the five hole open for a few moments…Matt Niskanen led the Caps in ice time with 26:42…both teams were 1 for 3 with the man advantage.

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.