POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 5, Flyers 3

Not This Time - For the second straight game, the Caps carried a 4-1 lead into the third period of Thursday night's contest against the Flyers in Philadelphia. Two nights after watching a 4-1 third-period lead evaporate in less than seven minutes on home ice against the Devils, the Caps found themselves in a similar situation on the road in Philly.

While Washington needed Jakub Vrana's overtime goal to salvage the two points on Tuesday night in the District, the Caps skirted that situation and managed to close out the Flyers in regulation, winning 5-3.
The Flyers cut the Caps' lead to 4-3 on a couple of rush goals in the third, one of them at 4-on-4 early in the frame. Nic Dowd's long distance empty-netter with 27.4 seconds left clinched the Caps' third straight win and their seventh in their last eight games.
While fans in the greater DMW area were likely feeling a sense of dread combined with unease as the third period unfolded, Washington coach Peter Laviolette had a much cooler mindset as to how the final 20 minutes played out in Thursday's game, compared to that of Tuesday's tilt with the Devils.
"This one is really different for me than the other night," says Laviolette. "The wheels were coming off quickly [against New Jersey], and by the end you're hanging on by a lug nut. And tonight was totally different.

"[The Flyers] were able to capitalize on a couple of chances. There are things that we could have done better against their rush; I feel like we had numbers in place and we didn't play it properly, so they got some looks from the weak side of the ice - we vacated middle, we didn't cover the weak side of the ice and they scored two goals. But from an even strength defensive standpoint, I'm going to say we didn't give up six or seven chances the entire night that were quality chances.
"I was really happy with the game. I don't feel like it was the same type of game that you saw the other night."
The 500 Club -Caps defenseman John Carlson recorded the 500th point (111 goals, 389 assists) of his NHL career on Thursday, scoring his sixth goal of the season at 6:58 of the second period with help from Vrana and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
In doing so, Carlson became the third fastest active NHL defenseman to achieve that milestone. Carlson picked up his 500th point in his 783rd career contest, and only Erik Karlsson (615 games) and Kris Letang (753) got to the 500 milestone sooner than did Carlson.
"It's a pretty cool achievement," says Carlson. "I think I've been fortunate to have some great players around me for my entire career, so that has certainly helped. And it was nice to do it when we won."

Gunning On Empty - Dowd's empty-net goal came from deep in Washington ice, from about as far away from the opposing net as one can get. He lofted a high, hard wrist shot that bounced once and went straight into the vacant Philadelphia cage.
After the game, both Dowd and Laviolette shared some of the Caps' philosophy on taking long-distance shots at a vacant opposing cage late in games when there is a risk of being called for icing the puck in the event of a miss.
"Lavi has told us before - he told us right at the beginning of the season - he wants us to end the game if we have a chance to end the game," says Dowd. "We've been told that if we have an opportunity to shoot the puck from anywhere on the ice, that let's just end it, let's take a shot at the net and end it. If there's 10 or 15 seconds left and you could punt that puck out and waste all that time and not get the team another icing, then yeah, there's obviously an opportunity to get that out and make a smart play."
Some coaches would prefer not to have their team ice the puck, but in recent seasons we have seen more coaches embrace the idea of dealing with the icing and the ensuing defensive zone draw if it happens, but realizing that the value in taking that shot and potentially ending the game is too significant to ignore.
"I've been doing it for at least five years," says Laviolette. "I've watched guys try to flip pucks out under pressure and turn them over and they're tired. If there's an opportunity to shoot the puck down the ice and put it in the net, [go for it]. There are some rules in there, but for the most part, if you get a look down ice, I want it in the back of the net, and I want [the lead] doubled up. And if you miss then we'll reset, we'll breathe for a second. We'll start with a 50/50 scrum on the face off and we'll go from there, so Dowder did the right thing.
"I can't believe it's taken this long to end one that way, but it's been in place from the start of the year. We've talked about it, we've actually worked on it in practice a couple times, but it was nice. It takes a game that's in reach of being tied up, and it puts it out of reach."
And since they've been given the responsibility of closing out slim leads late in games, Dowd and linemate Garnet Hathaway have spent some time practicing those long distance empty-net daggers.
"Lavi has given us an opportunity to take a bigger role," says Hathaway. "We're out there in those important moments, and that's a way to end the game. We talk about it a lot. If you put that empty-netter in, and you go up by two, it more often than not ends the game, pretty much. And so that's something me and Dowder actually fool around with. We'll be practicing those a lot on the ice. Just those quick shots where you have no time right there, and he kind of comes around the net and [shoots]. That was farther than I think we've ever practiced, but that was probably the best one I've seen him have yet."

7/11 - For the second time this season, the Capitals dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards for Thursday's contest. The decision came about at the last minute when Washington center Lars Eller was a late scratch after returning home to attend to a family matter.
Washington elected to dress defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler so it would have the full complement of 18 skaters for the game, but because the Caps' defensive rotation has been so solid and strong as of late, and because the team faced only two shorthanded situations in the game, Siegenthaler didn't see any action until he skated the final shift of the night, logging 28 seconds of ice time after Dowd's empty-netter.
"This is nothing on Sieggy at all," says Laviolette. "We went in with a plan to play the 11 forwards, and to double-shift people to try and keep the lines - I guess - as familiar as we have from the last couple of games. And so we decided to double-shift the three centermen and [T.J.] Oshie into the middle, between [Conor] Sheary and Richard Panik, and we were going to play six defensemen.
"It becomes really difficult juggling seven defensemen. You do it because if you have an injury or if something pops up on the bench, you've dressed a player and you've dressed to the maximum of 20. So this had nothing to do with Jonas at all, and we were just playing the six defensemen that we've been going with. It's difficult to roll seven [defensemen]. It takes people out of the loop and they lose the rhythm and it's new partners. We like the way things have been going defensively."
Split Second -With 1:29 remaining in the second period of Thursday's game, there was a problem with a section of glass in the Wells Fargo Center. The on-ice officials huddled together and made a decision to suspend play and have the second intermission at that point, and to play those final 89 seconds of the second on a fresh sheet of ice before the two teams switched ends at the start of the third period.
The NHL's situation room sent out the following memo on the early intermission:
At the discretion of the officials, a decision was made to end the period early with 1:29 to be added to the third period due to an issue with the glass. The decision was made in accordance with Rule 77.3, which states, "If any unusual delay occurs within five (5) minutes of the end of the first or second periods, the Referee may order the next regular intermission to be taken immediately. The balance of the period will be completed on the resumption of play with the teams defending the same goals after which the teams will change ends and resume play of the ensuing period without delay."
The early intermission option is not a very frequent occurrence, but it has happened from time to time - and for various reasons - over the years. When the two teams came back from intermission and play resumed, play commenced with a face-off at the Washington blueline - as would have been the case had play not been suspended - rather than a center-ice draw as would occur at the outset of a period.
By The Numbers -Oshie led the Caps in ice time with 22:32. Oshie became the first Caps skater aside from Carlson or Alex Ovechkin to earn that distinction this season … Ovechkin led Washington with seven shots on net and 11 shot attempts in Thursday's game. His seven shots were nearly a third of Washington's team total of 22 for the night, and his 11 attempts were also nearly a third of the Caps' team total of 37 for the game … Brenden Dillon led the Caps with six hits … Carlson and Richard Panik each blocked two shots to lead the Capitals … Only four different players took face-offs for the Caps while eight different skaters did so for Philadelphia in Thursday's game.