2. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The Caps come in as the back-to-back reigning Presidents' Trophy winners as regular season champions - they have also earned 238 points in the last two seasons, marking the most points in two straight seasons since Montreal recorded 244 points from 1977-79… This is the second of games on back to back days, and third game in four nights for the Capitals, who took a 5-2 win at New Jersey last night to improve to 3-1-1… The Caps have scored four or more goals in each of their three wins and are averaging four goals per-game this season… They also have outscored the opposition 8-2 in first periods.
3. RIVALRY RENEWED
The Flyers and Caps meet for the first time this season, its the first and only Metropolitan Division opponent of the year for the Flyers in their first 21 games of the season until they play the NY Islanders on Nov. 22, while the Caps have played two division rivals and all five games against Eastern Conference opponents… Get a good look at the Caps because following tonight, the two clubs won't play each other for another 100 days, on Jan. 21 at Washington, and won't meet again at the Wells Fargo Center until Mar. 18 - a span of 156 days and 67 games in between… The Flyers out-shot the Caps in last year's season series, 127 to 113, but scored just four goals in the entire season series last year as Washington goaltenders Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer combined for a 0.64 GAA and .981 save percentage.
4. TAKE ME TO YOU LEADER
The Caps have the top three scorers in the NHL so far, all at 10 points, with Ovechkin leading the NHL with nine goals and Evgeny Kuznetsov leading the NHL with 10 assists, and Nicklas Backstom leading the NHL in points on the power play (6)… Jakub Voracek leads the Flyers in scoring with six assists, while Wayne Simmonds leads the team in goals (4)… Through the first four games, the Flyers have have nine different players record at least a goal and have 14 of 19 skaters record at least a point… The Caps have had seven players record at least a goal, but only three with multiple goals this season, while also having 15 of 21 skaters record a point.
5. PLAYERS TO WATCH:
FLYERS (RW: #93 - Jakub Voracek)
Voracek has been an assist machine early in the season… He leads the Flyers with six helpers, which also leads the team in points… Four of those assists have come on the power play… Voracek also does well in the friendly confines of the Wells Fargo Center, recording 37 of his 61 points, and 14 of his 20 goals last year on home ice.
CAPITALS (RW: #8 - Alex Ovechkin)
Two hat tricks and nine goals in the first five games would pretty much guarantee you to be a player to watch… Ovechkin leads the NHL in goals and is tied for the lead in overall scoring with 10 points… Against the Flyers, Ovechkin has 31 goals and 52 points and is a plus-1 in 45 career games, but failed to score a goal in last year's season series against the Flyers for the first time in his 12 seasons - he had four assists in four games.
