Flyers at Capitals
7 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet
Forget the regular season. The 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs are upon us.
The 8-seed Flyers and 1-seed Washington Capitals drop the puck at the Verizon Center in Game 1 of a best-of-seven series in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals tonight.
Here are five things to get you ready for the contest:
1. Here we are now
Throw away the regular season — the Flyers are ready for this series to go the distance.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re checking them well because they have a lot of talented players,” Jake Voracek said Sunday night in Brooklyn (see story). “It’s going to be a long series.”
The two teams' paths to the postseason are vastly different. Washington won the Presidents' Trophy, while the Flyers needed game No. 81 to punch their tickets.
NHL
Washington enters as favorites, and the Flyers are a good story. Not many people are picking the Flyers to win the series, but no one is expecting it to be a quick series.
If the final meeting in the regular season was a preview of things to come, this seven-game set will leave the winning team hurting. The Flyers edged the Caps, 2-1, in a shootout March 30 in a physical game with a playoff atmosphere at the Wells Fargo Center.
"It'd be a hell of a series," Flyers goalie Steve Mason said then (see story).
Buckle up. It all begins tonight.
2. Staying out of the box
For the Flyers to silence a raucous Verizon Center with a win in Game 1 — and the series — they'll have to play an aggressive, in-your-face type of game, but within the rules.
Washington features the Eastern Conference's top regular-season power play, which also ranked in fifth in the NHL, and it's loaded with weapons led by Alex Ovechkin.
It's not something the Flyers will want to test. They've done a solid job of bringing a physical brand to the ice lately without taking too many penalties. But overall, the Flyers finished with the fourth-most penalties minutes in the league with 966.
Discipline will be a key in the series, but it's not worrying the Flyers.
"That's not really an issue," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said Wednesday (see story). "I've been asked a number of questions on that over the last couple of days. We've been a pretty disciplined team yet we've played pretty damn hard down the stretch here. So I think we know what that balance is. That's the way I answer that question. It’s just truthful, honest and blunt."
In their regular-season series against the Capitals, the Flyers' penalty kill was 7 of 10.
3. Clutch time
All eyes are going to be on Shayne Gostisbehere and what the rookie defenseman will do in the playoffs. Gostisbehere provided a spark to the Flyers when he came up from Lehigh Valley on Nov. 14, and played a huge role in the orange and black's trek to the playoffs.
Now it's the postseason and everyone's curious to see what "Ghost" is going to do next.
Gostisbehere set the Flyers' rookie record for goals by a defenseman with 17, and his 15-game point streak was an NHL record for a rookie defenseman. He had four overtime game-winners, also an NHL record, and seemed to have a penchant for clutch moments.
If his magic continues against the Caps, Gostisbehere's legend could hit national levels. Still, the blueliner is taking his first playoff appearance with a grain of salt.
“It’s pretty cool,” Gostisbehere said (see story). “It’s lucky. Some guys haven’t been here in their whole career, here it’s my rookie season and I’m already in the playoffs. It is different, of course, but you’ve got to take everything in stride and gain that experience.”
4. Keep an eye on …
Flyers: Let's go with Claude Giroux, who has 61 points in 57 career playoff games. Giroux finished the season as the Flyers' leading scorer with 67 points, and as he goes the team goes. They'll need him to continue to be a catalyst if they want to beat the Caps.
Capitals: Ovechkin finished the regular season with 50 goals, his seventh 50-goal season of his career, so this is an easy call. The Russian superstar is a threat to score anywhere on the ice and owns one of the best shots of his generation. This is his eighth trip to the postseason, and in 72 career playoff games, he has 70 points. Against the Flyers in his career, he has 31 goals in 41 career regular-season games. How about the playoffs? He has four goals and nine points in seven career playoff games against the Flyers.
5. This and that
• It's been 712 calendar days since the last time the Flyers played a playoff game.
• Mason has appeared in nine career playoff games — four with Columbus and five with the Flyers. In those five with the Flyers, he has a 1.97 goals-against average and a .939 save percentage. Overall, he has a 3.11 goals-against average and .907 save percentage.
• Braden Holtby has a 1.92 goals-against average and .936 save percentage in 34 career playoff games.