Gameday Preview: Flyers vs. Capitals

In the second game of a three-game round robin for playoff seeding, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (1-0-0 in the round-robin) will take on Todd Reirden's Washington Capitals (0-0-1) at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday. Game time is 4 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

With the Boston Bruins having lost each of their first two games in regulation, including Sunday's 4-1 loss to Philadelphia, the Flyers need only one point over the final two round-robin games to ensure they move up at least one seed when the Eastern Conference playoffs start. A win over the Capitals would ensure Philadelphia cannot enter the playoffs any lower than as a No. 2 seed.

The Flyers are the designated home team for this game. As such Philadelphia will have the last line change. The Flyers, after getting swept by the Caps in last year's regular season series, went 3-0-1 against Washington in the regular season in 2019-20.

Here are five storylines to watch for Thursday's game....

1. Farabee's first, Elliott's 46th

In the absence of injured left winger Michael Raffl, 20-year-old Flyers rookie left winger Joel Farabee will make his NHL postseason debut on Thursday. He will skate on a line with Derek Grant and Nicolas Aube-Kubel.

"I think I'm pretty confident. I've been with the team for a little bit now, so it kind of just feels like another game. We got the exhibition game in, and that helped out my game a bit. I'm excited to play," Farabee said.

In the meantime, after Carter Hart was stellar in making 34 saves in Sunday's 4-1 win over the Bruins, Vigneault has tabbed 35-year-old veteran netminder Brian Elliott to start in goal against Washington. For Elliott, who earned two wins against Washington this season, it will be his 46th career postseason appearance and 44th career postseason start.

After Wednesday's practice, Elliott was asked if he has any advice for Farabee about making the most of a postseason debut.

"The blood starts going a little earlier and the nerves can creep in a little bit. Without the crowd noise and that intensity thrown in the mix, it's a little bit different. It's just trying to calm yourself, get ready to play your game and don't try to do anything special out there. It's just play your role and make the plays that you should. Try to limit those mistakes. That's what playoff hockey is about. It's about finding your chances. Don't give up too much. When you find your chances, you've got to capitalize," Elliott said.

2. A Challenge for JVR

The day after the Flyers defeated Boston, Vigneault gave a lukewarm assessment of what he's seen from veteran left winger James van Riemsdyk since the team arrived in the Bubble. He reiterated that view on Wednesday morning, several hours before practice. During practice, JVR was taken off Grant's line and shared fourth-line left wing reps with rookie Connor Bunnaman. It is possible that JVR could be a healthy scratch for the Washington game with Bunnaman skating alongside Nate Thompson and Tyler Pitlick.

Overall, Vigneault felt that the Grant line played a simple, but sound game against the Bruins. Grant, he said, had a better game against the Bruins than he did in the exhibition game. Vigneault also felt that Aube-Kubel was an effective forechecking presence in Sunday's game.

3. Flyers PK duos

Vigneault noted on Wednesday that, when the Flyers penalty kill is going well, he is able to use multiple forward pairs within the course of the same kill. When that is doable, it means the team isn't spending extended periods hemmed in their own zone, and is able to frequently get fresh troops on the ice.
The Flyers regular duos include Kevin Hayes with Scott Laughton, Sean Couturier with Thompson, Grant with Pitlick, Thompson with the now-injured Raffl and Couturier with team captain Claude Giroux.

Farabee saw a little bit of penalty killing time this season with the Flyers and projects to be a regular part of the PK rotation as he gains experience.

"Coming up in juniors, I always felt I could play a lot of different roles. I think it helps me out. There's small spots that open up here and there throughout a season. I'm just happy with whatever role I've been given," Farabee said.

4. The Hayes Line

Vigneault has opted to keep the versatile Laughton -- who can play left wing or center and has moved around as needed within the second (LW), third (LW or C) and fourth (C or LW) lines -- together with Hayes and Travis Konecny. While Vigneault said that there's another level to Hayes and especially Konecny's games, he likes the chemistry of the three players together and has been very pleased with Laughton's play in particular.

After practice, Konecny discussed the elements that Laughton brings to the line, and why they seem to read so well off one another.

"Scotty's definitely one of the players that complements us pretty well. He just brings something really unique to the line. He kind of can play everything within the line. He can play center. He can be a stay-at-home guy. He can be a goal scorer. He can be a forecheck. He's good at everything he does. When he's on his game, it's unbelievable to play with him. He makes the game a lot easier for the guys around him. I definitely know me and Haysey love playing with him. He just works hard and he's rewarded for it. We try to complement him the best we can and he does the same for us," Konecny said.

5. Behind Enemy Lines

The Capitals earned one point from a 3-2 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Bubble on Monday. Washington trailed 2-0 in the second period and then struck back for late-period goals by Richard Panik and Evgeny Kuznetsov (power play). T.J. Oshie tallied in the shootout in a losing cause.

Braden Holtby stopped 26 of 28 shots in regulation and overtime for the Caps before yielding to Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov in the shootout.

The Capitals did not face any shorthanded situations in Monday's game. They went 1-for-4 on the power play.

Top pairing defenseman John Carlson (undisclosed injury) practiced on Wednesday. He is still officially day-to-day and his status for Thursday's game is uncertain as of this writing. Additionally, third-line center Lars Eller is not with the team, as his family is awaiting the birth of a baby.

FLYERS LINE PLAY

28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
49 Joel Farabee - 38 Derek Grant - 62 Nic Aube-Kubel
25 James van Riemsdyk or 81 Connor Bunnaman - 44 Nate Thompson - 18 Tyler Pitlick

9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 61 Justin Braun

37 Brian Elliott
[79 Carter Hart]

CAPITALS LINE PLAY

8 Alex Ovechkin - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 43 Tom Wilson
13 Jakub Vrana - 19 Nicklas Bäckström - 77 T.J. Oshie
62 Carl Hagelin - 72 Travis Boyd - 17 Ilya Kovalchuk
14 Richard Panik - 26 Nic Dowd - 21 Garnet Hathaway

4 Brenden Dillon - 9 Dmitry Orlov
6 Michal Kempny - 33 Radko Gudas
34 Jonas Siegenthaler - 3 Nick Jensen

70 Braden Holtby
[41 Vitek Vanecek]

TEAM STATS (League ranking, via NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick)

GPG: PHI 3.29 (7th), WSH 3.42 (2nd)
GAA: PHI 2.77(T-7th), WSH 3.07 (18th)
5-on-5: PHI +18 (153-135), WSH +15 (157-142)
Power Play: PHI 20.8% (14th), WSH 19.4% (17th)
Penalty Kill: PHI 81.8% (11th), WSH 82.6% (6th)
Special Teams Index: PHI 102.6, WSH 103.0
SHG: PHI 8 (T-6th), WSH 6 (T-10th)
SHGA: PHI 6 (T-14th), WSH 9 (T-26th)
Average Shots: PHI 31.4 (16th), WSH 32.0 (11th)
Shots Against: PHI 28.7 (1st), WSH 30.2 (9th)
Corsi: PHI 51.02% (9th), WSH 51.6% (T-7th)
Scoring chances: PHI 50.91% (13th), WSH 50.67% (13th)
High-danger chances: PHI 50.83% (12th), WSH 50.66% (15th)
Expected goal differential: PHI 50.64 (14th), WSH 51.20% (13th)
Faceoffs: PHI 54.6% (1st), WSH 48.3% (28th)