Eleven games into the 2026-27 season, the Caps have faced five of their seven fellow Metropolitan Division denizens, and they’ve vanquished all five. Finishing up a prosperous five-game homestand with a flourish, the Caps prevailed 5-2 over the Flyers on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena.
Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch each had a pair of goals, Dylan Strome had a trio of helpers, Jack St. Ivany had a pair of assists in his Washington debut, and Logan Thompson made 23 saves to claim his fifth victory of the season. The victory enabled the Caps to finish off a five-game homestand with a 4-1-0 mark, and they also improved to 5-1-0 against Metropolitan Division opponents.
Earlier in the day, Caps coach Spencer Carbery stressed the importance of a swift start for his team. Philadelphia laid a first-period egg at home on Tuesday, falling down 3-0 while mustering only two shots on net in the opening frame of a 4-3 overtime loss to Columbus. The Caps delivered early, and they never trailed.
“I thought it was really good first period,” says Strome. “Honestly, we felt like we hemmed them in and did what we've been talking about for a while. I thought all four lines contributed and kept the pressure up. They got some shots, but I feel like most of them were from the outside, and [Thompson] will handle those all day.
“But for the most part, it felt like probably our most complete 60 minutes, and we didn't really let them get a whole lot of like sustained [offensive] zone time besides the penalties in the third. But other than that, it was really solid game. And when we did have a little bit of a blunder, [Thompson] was there for us.”
Despite the three-day lapse between Saturday’s overtime win over the Sabres and Wednesday’s meeting with the Flyers, Tuch and the Caps picked up right where they left off. Former Sabre Tuch bit the hand that once fed him in Saturday’s win, scoring twice, including the overtime game-winner.
And on his first shift of Wednesday’s game, Tuch netted his eighth goal of the season to lift the Caps to an early 1-0 lead at 1:50 of the first. On his first shift as a Capital, St. Ivany put a shot on net from the right circle, and Tuch was in the slot to bury the rebound when it kicked right out to his tape, giving the Caps an early lead against a team that played and traveled the night before. The Caps were able to usher that 1-0 lead to intermission.
Before the five-minute mark of the second, Philadelphia captain Sean Couturier squared the score after winning an offensive zone draw and tipping home a Nick Seeler point shot to make it a 1-1 contest at 4:36.
A few minutes later, Flyers forward Trevor Zegras slashed Tuch as he carried to the cage, putting the Caps on their first power play of the night. Eleven seconds later, the Caps had the lead once again.
Starting with Kyrou down low on the left side, the Caps worked a long-distance triangle tic-tac-toe play. Kyrou fed Jakob Chychrun at center point, and he in turn fed Strome down low on the right side. From there, Strome sent a laser of a pass across to Kyrou, who fired it past Flyers goaltender Joseph Woll for a 2-1 Washington lead at 7:14.
Washington had the next two power plays as well, but the Caps weren’t able to add to their lead until late in the frame when Aliaksei Protas made a deft deflection of a Matt Roy point shot, extending the cushion to 3-1 at 16:47 of the middle frame.
In the third, Philly had a run of three straight power plays, and Matvei Michkov connected just eight seconds into the first one, finishing a Denver Barkey feed to tighten the score to 3-2 at 9:44.
After Washington killed off the second of those two Philly man advantages in the third, Kyrou pounced on the rebound of a St. Ivany shot, burying his second of the night to restore the two-goal lead at 12:51.
During Philadelphia’s final man advantage of the game, the Flyers pulled Woll for a 6-on-4 advantage, but Logan Thompson and the Caps held firm. Thompson had to make a few big stops in the final period; and his glove denial of Zegras’ shot from in tight with less than four minutes remaining was the biggest of the bunch.
With 2:24 left, Tuch notched his fourth two-goal game of the young season, an empty-net marker that accounted for the 5-2 final.
“I thought we did a lot of good things in the first,” says Carbery. “I really liked our second. I thought we did a good job; we essentially didn't give them anything from the 15-minute mark on. The power plays, we grab momentum. Then we carried that over into 5-on-5.
“We felt like we sort of sucked the life out of their team in that second period and set ourselves up, put ourselves in a good spot heading into the third period. Third was okay, yeah, just okay. The penalties obviously give them a little bit of life, but even before that, [Thompson] had to make some big saves there in the third to keep that at a two-goal game and then a one-goal game.
“But we'll take it. You knew they were going to push in the third period. They're down and give them credit; they didn't lay down and they pushed it right to the end.”
The Caps headed out to Music City immediately after Wednesday’s game. They’re playing the second of a set of back-to-backs on Thursday against the Predators in Nashville.
