5 THINGS: Flyers @ Capitals

GAME NOTES

This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the Metro Division clubs and the second and final game in Washington. The Flyers have won two of the prior three games: a 2-1 victory at Capital One Arena on Nov. 6, a 5-3 loss at the Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 17, and a 2-1 victory when the teams rematched in Philadelphia on Feb. 26.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 5-3 home loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday. The Flyers played a dominant first period in taking a 2-0 lead, followed by an atrocious second period that saw Anaheim strike three times. In the third period, the Flyers briefly re-tied the score at 3-3 and the game was up for grabs until breakdowns led to two additional Ducks goals in the latter portion of the final stanza.
All three Flyers goals against Anaheim were scored by defensemen: Travis Sanheim (7th goal of the season) off a pass-out feed from Morgan Frost, Ronnie Attard (1st NHL goal) on a point shot through traffic, and Ivan Provorov (8th) pinching into the slot to take a centering pass from Nate Thompson.
The Capitals are coming off a 4-2 home win over the Boston Bruins on Sunday. With the score tied at 2-2 after the second period, Lars Eller (10th) notched what proved to be the game-winning goal at 7:18 of the third period. The other Washington tallies came from John Carlson (14th), Tom Wilson (23rd) and Alex Ovechkin (empty net, 45th of the season, 775th of his NHL career). Vitek Vanecek stopped 28 of 30 shots to earn the win in goal.
Here are five things to watch in this game:
1. Brink's NHL Debut
It's been quite a last week for right winger Bobby Brink. After leading all NCAA players in scoring (14 goals, 43 assists, 57 points in 41 games) this season, the 20-year-old's University of Denver Pioneers team won the NCAA championship after upsetting the University of Michigan in the Frozen Four semis and then downing Minnesota State in the championship finale last Saturday.
A first-team NCAA All-American shoo-in this season and a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, Brink decided to forego his senior season at Denver. Less than 24 hours after celebrating the NCAA championship with his Denver teammates, family and friends, Brink signed an entry-level contract with the Flyers.
On Monday, he was on the ice at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees for his first NHL practice. He will make his NHL debut in Washington on Tuesday.
"It's been a hard path, a lot of work has gone in to get to this moment," Brink said. "It's obviously a dream come true to be here and playing a game. It's definitely really special."
Drafted by the Flyers in the second round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, 34th overall, there has never been a question about the player's skill level, hockey sense or competitive drive. Rather, it was his small frame (5-foot-8 and, in his draft year, 157 pounds) in combination with inartistic skating that caused him to drop out of the first round despite his considerable success with the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers and the promise he showed with the USNTDP.
Brink lacks explosive speed but is not lacking for quickness or anticipation. He does not get intimidated by venturing into traffic and keeps defenses off-balance because he is neither exclusively a pass-first player or strictly a shoot-first attacker. He's skilled at both. He's also worked hard over the last three offseasons to add roughly 10 pounds of much-needed muscle to his frame.
For players as small as Brink or new teammate Cam Atkinson -- the same as with Montreal's Cole Caufield, Chicago's Alex DeBrincat, Calgary's Johnny Gaudreau and pint-sized players of the past such as Danny Briere or Theoren Fleury -- work ethic and competitive drive are indispensable parts to succeeding.
"You "have to work extremely hard, which you see with Cam [Atkinson] and the way he plays the game. And No. 2, you have to be able to think the game. And again, with Cam, that's so (true). There are a lot of similarities there, no question. Cam's getting ready to play in his 700th game; he's been doing it for a lot of years in the league, so there's a lot of time between now and then for a young player like Bobby Brink. But (Atkinson) is certainly a good role model for him, and no question we're really excited about his potential," Yeo said.
At Monday's practice, Brink skated on a line with Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny. However, Yeo indicated afterwards that he might start Tuesday's game with Owen Tippett on the Laughton line and have Brink start with James van Riemsdyk and Frost.
Brink will wear uniform No. 46.
2. Hart Starts, Line Combos TBD
Dealing with a minor but nagging injury, Carter Hart missed a game in Nashville at the end of the Flyers' five-game road trip in late March and took a maintenance day off from the team's first practice after their return home. He had one practice and then started the team's home games against Toronto on April 2 and Columbus on April 7.
For the most part this season, Hart's play has been a bright spot for the Flyers. He went into the All-Star break with a .915 save percentage despite a rough won-loss record. Since that time, Hart has had some ups and downs. Both the Toronto and Columbus games were so-so performances by Hart's standards. He's been recently outplayed by veteran backup Martin Jones.
Jones received back-to-back starts in the rematch with the Blue Jackets and then Saturday's game against Anaheim. With the Flyers returning home after the Washington tilt to host the New York Rangers on Wednesday, Jones may very well get the start in that one as well.

In the meantime, the Flyers would rest easier if Hart can crank out a strong performance against the Capitals on the road.
According to Yeo, the Flyers' starting lineup in front of Hart could look different from the combinations that practiced together on Monday. These were Monday's lines:
Farabee-Hayes-Atkinson
Konecny-Laughton-Brink
van Riemsdyk-Frost-Tippett
Cates-Thompson- Brown
Lindblom rotating in on L4
Provorov-Sanheim
York-Ristolainen
Connauton-Attard
Hart
Jones
As noted above, Brink and Tippett may switch places in Tuesday's lineup. It is also possible that Sanheim may play left defense with regular partner Rasmus Ristolainen rather than switch to right defense on Provorov's pair. If so, Cam York will stay on his off-side and play with Provorov. There is also a decision pending on Tuesday as to whether Oskar Lindblom will come out of the lineup or skate on the fourth line. Both Atkinson and Lindblom have been playing while banged up but both told Yeo they feel better after the team had off-days on Friday and Sunday.
A potential Flyers' lineup if altered from Monday's practice:
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes -89 Cam Atkinson
11 Travis Konecny - 21 Scott Laughton -74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 46 Bobby Brink
49 Noah Cates - 44 Nate Thompson - 38 Patrick Brown
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim or 45 Cam York
York or Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
8 Kevin Connauton - 47 Ronnie Attard
79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
3. Inside the Numbers
The Capitals have an unusual home/road split this season. The club has gone an impressive 22-7-5 on the road. However, the team has been oddly pedestrian by its normal home-ice standards: 18-15-5.
On home ice this season, the Capitals have been slightly outscored overall (116 GF - 118 GA). At 5-on-5, the Caps have scored 73 home ice goals but allowed 79. Conversely, on the road, Washington has overall plus-29 differential (120 GF - 90 GA) including a plus-23 differential (81 GF - 58 GA) during 5-on-5 play.
In terms of special teams, the Capitals at home have an enviable 105.3 special teams index number (84.8 percent penalty kill plus 20.5 percent power play). That's actually better than their road 96.9 combined special teams (77.9 percent PK plus 19.0 percent power play).

Thus, the big home-road record discrepancy for the Capitals is driven almost entirely by the difference in their stellar 5-on-5 execution on road versus their mediocre bottom line at home. Ordinarily, when such a wide home/road discrepancy exists, it does in favor or strong home differentials vs. unimpressive road totals rather than the other way around.
4. Behind Enemy Lines: Washington Capitals
Washington has won three straight games and six of their last 10. All three wins came against clubs higher than them in the Eastern Conference standings. A four-game winning streak would match the team's season-high.
Nonetheless, the Capitals remain in the lower wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. They are five points (four standings points plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the Metro Division and six points (five standings points plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) behind Boston for the upper wildcard spot. If the season ended today, the Capitals would play the Florida Panthers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In recent games, the Capitals have trended in the right direction in terms of their puck management exiting their own zone and navigating the neutral zone. Per longtime Capitals.NHL.com writer Mike Vogel, the Caps also led the NHL over the past week in both credited hits (114) and blocked shots (67); two areas that Laviolette emphasizes along with getting his team to ultimately be the club doing most of the attacking with the puck: it's another aspect of his insistence on "playing with jam."
Ovechkin leads the Capitals with 83 points this season including 15 power play goals. Playmaking center Evgeny Kuznetsov has 47 assists among his 70 points. John Carlson has been hot lately offensively and the veteran offensive defenseman has 14 goals and 49 assists overall on the season. Controversial power forward Tom Wilson has cut his penalty minutes a bit (85 PIM) and avoided incurring any suspensions from the NHL Department of Player Safety this season. Wilson has posted 23 goals, 50 points and 209 credited hits this season,
Ilya Samsonov (38 GP) and Vanecek (37 GP) have split playing time nearly evenly this season with Vanecek (18-11-5, 2.58 GAA, .912 SV%, three shutouts) posting superior stats to Samsonov (21-9-4, 2.95 GAA, .899 SV%, three shutouts). Samsonov's 21 wins in goal rank 21st in the league this season. For his career, Samsonov has gone 6-1-0- with and 2.37 GAA and .920 save percentage in seven appearances against the Flyers.
5. Plyers to Watch: Provorov and Carlson
Over the five games played in April to date, Ivan Provorov has shown signs of getting back on top of his overall game. He's logged a team-high 23;31 of ice time over the past five games, recording 18 shots on goal, posting five points (3g, 2a), blocking opposing 17 shots, and being credited with five hits.
For Washington, Carlson leads the entire team over the past five games in points (eight), goals (three) and assists (five). When Carlson has his game going offensively, everyone else on his team becomes that much more dangerous. The Flyers know this first hand, because the Capitals have won seven of the last 10 meetings dating back to March 7, 2021, and Carlson leads the team with 13 points (2g, 11a) over the last 10 games between the teams.