Clement: A Review of Flyers-Capitals

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

By Bill Clement
CSNPhilly.com Contributor

When the Flyers took the ice for their morning skate in Washington, one player was conspicuously absent and that was Kimmo Timonen. Perhaps the most underrated shutdown artist in the NHL was in doubt for Tuesday’s tilt against Alex Oveckin and by mid-afternoon the Flyers reported that the flu had taken Timonen down.

Getting it done by committee is an easy plan to draw up on paper but doesn’t come close to throwing your ace over the boards in key situations. Flyers coach John Stevens retooled his defense pairings and decided to match Ryan Parent and Randy Jones against Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Michael Nylander. Since Ovechkin takes such long shifts, Stevens would also use Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle in that match-up.

The first period wasn’t as much about Ovechkin as it was the Capitals’ overall special teams play. They scored four seconds into their first power play and their aggressive penalty kill kept three Flyers power plays at bay. The Flyers knew the Caps’ PK units would come at them with big pressure and on one kill the Caps generated three quality scoring chances.

Both Antero Niittymaki and Jose Theodore made numerous extra-large saves in the first, and were the main reason there was only one goal scored in the frame. The Flyers out-chanced Washington nine to four.

Claude Giroux’s stock has risen so fast with the Flyers that he is now playing center for the first time in his hockey life. Stevens wants the puck to end up on his stick coming out of the Flyer’s zone when he has some skating speed and not when he is stopped along the boards at the wing position. He sees the ice so well and is such a good passer that Joffrey Lupul was moved to Giroux’s right side to be the shooter on that line.

In the second period after Ovechkin gave the Caps a 2-0 lead, it was Giroux who cut the deficit to one with a sharp-angle power play goal. Mike Richards' perfect one-touch pass that set the play up was as pretty as you will see.

By the time the third period rolled around this had become a special teams game with Philadelphia one-for-six on the power play and Washington one-for-five. There was no reason to think that the whistles would be put away.

After each team failed on early third period power plays, the Flyers took the game over. Stevens reunited the Jeff Carter, Scott Hartnell, Joffrey Lupul line and got the precise result he was looking for. On consecutive shifts Hartnell and Carter scored with Lupul picking up the primary assist on both.

Aaron Asham iced the win with a goal Mario Lemieux would have been proud of. It was his fifth as a Flyer and if not his biggest, it was most certainly his prettiest. Three goals in 3:19 and Philadelphia became the first Eastern Conference team to beat the Caps in Washington in fourteen tries.