Flyers at Capitals preview

FLYERS (24-17-8) at CAPITALS (29-15-5)
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV

The Flyers hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference and can pull even with the New Jersey Devils and Columbus Blue Jackets for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Each team would have 58 points, with the Devils having a game in hand.
Philadelphia won 2-1 in overtime at Washington on Jan. 21 and 8-2 at Wells Fargo Center on Oct. 14.
The Capitals have lost four of their past six games (2-2-2), including three in a row at home, but are still first in the division, four points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Players to watch

Flyers forward Sean Couturier has 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists) in his past 16 games.
Capitals defenseman John Carlson has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past 11 games.

They said it

"It's two big games. We've got to focus on the first one tonight against Washington. We can't look too far ahead. They're a few points ahead of us. We can make up some ground here." -- Flyers forward Sean Couturier, whose team plays the first-place Capitals and third-place Devils in back-to-back road games
"You look at one through seven [in the Metropolitan Division], I think they're all within [eight] points of first. Every game is a four-point game. That's huge. As I said to the guys, the playoff race is on. It starts tonight." -- Capitals coach Barry Trotz

Flyers projected lineup

Claude Giroux -- Sean Couturier -- Travis Konecny
Jakub Voracek -- Nolan Patrick -- Wayne Simmonds
Jordan Weal -- Valtteri Filppula -- Michael Raffl
Tyrell Goulbourne
-- Scott Laughton -- Jori Lehtera
Ivan Provorov -- Shayne Gostisbehere
Robert Hagg -- Andrew MacDonald
Brandon Manning -- Radko Gudas
Michal Neuvirth
Alex Lyon
Scratched:Dale Weise, Taylor Leier, Mark Alt
Injured:Brian Elliott (lower body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Andre Burakovsky -- Nicklas Backstrom -- T.J. Oshie
Chandler Stephenson
-- Lars Eller -- Brett Connolly
Devante Smith-Pelly -- Jay Beagle -- Alex Chiasson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Christian Djoos -- John Carlson
Brooks Orpik --
Madison Bowey
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched:Jakub Vrana , Taylor Chorney
Injured:None

Status report

Neuvirth will make his second straight start after the Flyers placed Elliott on injured reserve Tuesday and recalled Lyon from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. Neuvirth is 1-1-0 with a 3.14 goals-against average and .891 save percentage against Washington, his first NHL team. … Kuznetsov, who injured his groin in the third period of a 4-2 win against the Florida Panthers last Thursday, practiced and is expected to play. He has five assists in his past five games.

Stat pack

During their 16-6-1 stretch since Dec. 4, the Flyers have generated 28 more power-play opportunities than their opponents and are 20-for-83 (24.1 percent) with the man-advantage. … Oshie has one goal in his past 19 games.