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Sean Couturier served the Flyers a Selke aperitif before enjoying the Super Bowl Sunday in the nation’s capital.
In Couturier’s expected return from injury, the Flyers ended a two-game losing streak by beating the Capitals, 7-4, in a mad case of ups and downs at Capital One Arena.
Couturier scored the game-winning goal, finished with three points (two goals, one assist) and had a plus-4 odds in 15:54 minutes. The 2019-2020 Frank J. Selke trophy winner helped his club take a lead, which the Flyers (8-3-2) had serious difficulty doing in his absence.
Scott Laughton delivered his first career hat trick. All three objectives were timely. The first two erased a 2-0 deficit and the third was crucial insurance, with the Flyers retaining a 5-4 advantage.
In their last six games against the Capitals (6-3-3), including the round robin, the Flyers are 5-0-1 and have beaten Washington 26-13.
• The Flyers desperately missed Couturier. However, they know they still have to clean things up.
• Laughton line, James van Riemsdyk and Joel Farabee is ripe with a secondary score.
Laughton has scored five goals in his last two games against Washington (including the round robin game), Farabee had three assists and van Riemsdyk had another multipoint game (one goal, one assist).
Van Riemsdyk is on a seven-game streak in points (four goals, nine assists) and is fourth in the NHL with 18 points, behind only Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Mitchell Marner.
What a start for the 31-year-old winger.
• Alex Ovechkin was a highlight machine as he continues to upload his Hall of Fame resume.
He scored two goals and two assists. His first period assistant came up with a play that any hockey player can appreciate.
His second goal was off his big shot, but was also the product of a Flyers breakdown. They sort of left Ovechkin alone near the point of a shift where he was shooting Carter Hart.
• Speaking of Hart, he was under siege again. He faced 36 shots and denied 32 of them.
Hart had to make 30 or more saves just seven times in 40 starts last season.
The 22-year-old goaltender has already had to make 30 or more saves six times in nine starts this season.
With the Flyers playing the Capitals, you couldn’t help but think of Matt Niskanen and how Alain Vigneault’s club lacked the stability of the veteran defenseman in all situations.
The Flyers will take the win, but they still can’t be happy with the process right now. They don’t always look like the team that allowed the fewest NHL shots per game last season.
The Capitals were undermined and scored four goals in the first two periods. In five games with the Flyers last season, they’ve never scored more than two.
• Washington goaltender Vitek Vanecek scored four goals on 14 shots and was called out after van Riemsdyk’s scorer with 3:24 left in the middle frame.
Craig Anderson relieved Vanecek and converted six saves on eight shots.
• With a 5-4 lead in the third period, the Flyers had a power-play four minutes after Couturier was left bloodied with a high stick from Zdeno Chara to the jaw. The Flyers failed to concede and had only one shot on the advantage.
They are fortunate that it did not cost them. Couturier was fine and then scored an empty net.
• Couturier made his comeback after missing 10 games with a costochondral separation and Philippe Myers was back in the lineup after his absence on Friday due to an upper body injury.
It was a two-for-one tradeoff as Travis Sanheim unexpectedly missed his first game of the season for some undisclosed reason. The Flyers have listed the 24-year-old defenseman day to day.
With Sanheim out of the lineup, the Flyers used a different combination of six defensemen for an eighth straight game.
Defender Robert Hagg scored his first goal of the season with a bad shot.
Washington was severely shorthanded without Evgeny Kuznetsov (COVID protocol), Jakub Vrana (COVID protocol), TJ Oshie (upper body) and llya Samsonov (COVID protocol).
• The Flyers and Capitals are back in Washington on Tuesday (6 p.m. ET / NBCSP).
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