Holtby and Caps Top Flyers
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The Philadelphia Flyers played a strong first period, jumping on the Washington Capitals. If it wasn't for Braden Holtby, the Flyers easily could've gone up by a few goals. As it was, Holtby kept the Caps in the game and the Flyers didn't play very well protecting a lead. Again.
Starting with the Claude Giroux line, they didn't create their usual number of chances. Their Corsi was ultimately under 50%, although playing against the Alex Ovechkin line is a tough task. These players also played pretty well on the power play, but Holtby kept them off the board. They end the game -2, but didn't do much wrong on either goal conceded.
On the second line, Nick Cousins picked up his first NHL point when it looked like Sam Gagner tipped one in. This line didn't end up with a great Corsi, but they created some offense while playing against good competition. In my opinion, Brayden Schenn may have been the weakest player on the line today.
The Scott Laughton line really stepped up today. Matched up against the Caps third line, they had good possession numbers and had some great chances.
Lastly, not a great night for the Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line. Despite having sizable minutes against the Caps fourth line, they had poor possession numbers. Ryan White also took two penalties. They were +1 on the goal by Nick Schultz, but not terribly impressive.
Defense
The pair of Shayne Gostisbehere and Michael Del Zotto played a strong game. The two had nearly identical stats so Del Zotto's bubble is not visible above. Del Zotto scored the game's first goal with an assist from Ghost, thus extending Ghost's point streak. All this while playing the Ovechkin line even in goals and shot attempts. They did however make a critical error, leaving the middle of the ice wide open on Matt Niskanen's game-winning goal.
The pair of Nick Schultz and Mark Streit didn't fair nearly as well against the Ovechkin line. They did a bit better against the Evgeni Kuznetsov line, and Schultz blasted in a goal off a faceoff to tie the game in the second period. Streit also had a golden opportunity on the power play, but didn't get good wood on the shot and Holtby made a fantastic save.
Lastly, the pair of Evgeni Medvedev and Radko Gudas had okay numbers, but could've been better. At times they struggled moving the puck out of the zone, and on one nightmare shift in the second period conceded both Caps goals.
Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.
