The Flyers get sloppy after a fast start, and other takeaways from key loss to the Capitals

WASHINGTON — A wasted opportunity.

The new Flyers captain summarized how Friday night went perfectly with those three words after a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals. They had a chance to create breathing room between the Orange and Black and the myriad of teams chasing them, including the Capitals, who are now four points back with two games in hand.

A wasted opportunity, indeed.

“It’s a little frustrating, not to lie,” Couturier said. “These last couple of games, especially last weekend, there’s another opportunity to kind of gap ourselves from the pack. We haven’t.”

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The Flyers have just two wins in their past seven games. Last weekend, they were swept by the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, with their Keystone State rivals looking up at them in the standings.

The Flyers’ schedule only gets harder with games in March against the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins, and Toronto Maple Leafs. But as coach John Tortorella and his captain said, they go right back to it Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators (7 p.m. on NBCSP).

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

The Flyers allowed the Capitals the time and space to score, especially on their first four goals, and as Owen Tippett said, “If you give them that time and space they’re going to capitalize on their chances.”

Yep.

Alex Ovechkin got Washington on the board with his 839th NHL goal (he’s 55 back of Wayne Gretzky) after a touch pass from Tom Wilson off a faceoff deep in the Flyers zone. Tortorella noted the Capitals got some momentum from the goal. Travis Sanheim, who lined up with the Russian winger, didn’t get out to him in time but it was the captain shouldering the blame.

“I think, I don’t win that faceoff clean there and then they score,” Couturier said. “If I do my job and win the draw clean it’s probably still a 2-0 game going later and deeper into the period. Next thing you know they get another bounce.”

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On the second goal, a broken play with a bouncing puck, Sean Walker got turned around and wasn’t strong on Sonny Milano’s stick, allowing the forward to knock the puck in.

But it was the third goal that was the most demoralizing. Rasmus Sandin fired off a shot that Sam Ersson stopped, but John Carlson picked up the puck and scored on a wraparound. Tortorella benched Bobby Brink and Olle Lycksell from that point on.

Did it look like they were puck-watching a little bit at the end? Maybe. But the two youngsters were also out there for more than a minute each. Lycksell had a chance to win a puck race on the boards with Carlson but instead allowed the defenseman to drop the puck back to Ovechkin to start the scoring play. Brink may have had a chance to press Ovechkin, as the Capitals captain has his back turned.

Either way, Tortorella wasn’t happy and said, “With their stupidity, they weren’t seeing the ice.”

The Capitals made it a two-goal lead on a power play by getting two men on the puck as Cam York went back to play it along the boards. Tom Wilson blocked the ring-around by York and Dylan Strome fed Anthony Mantha as he was left alone when Garnet Hathaway dropped below the goal line.

Things started well with Brink cashing in for the second straight game and Tippett scoring on the man advantage to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead.

The Flyers put 11 shots on goal in the first period amid 26 shot attempts. Not too shabby.

Over the final two periods, they had a combined 37 shot attempts — 12 of those being shots on goal and another 12 being shots that missed the net.

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“We just did not develop enough offense. Give them credit, they checked better when they got some momentum,” Tortorella said. “At times in the neutral zone, I almost think we tried too hard. Where in the first period I thought we developed some [offense] off our forechecking, not enough from our offensive guys. I know we give up five goals, but it’s not enough from our offensive guys. We’ve gotta get some guys on track.”

The Flyers’ power play looked pretty good, going a solid 1-for-3.

Tippett scored the marker from the left circle off a pass from Egor Zamula at the right point. It was a smart play by the defenseman to find the open forward after he deftly kept the puck in at the blue line. Zamula continues to show immeasurable growth in his calm, smart play on the man advantage.

The two new five-man units looked collectively better as they kept the play in the offensive zone for the majority of the time on the first two power plays of the night. The first unit for the game was Zamula, Tippett, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee and Tyson Foerster. The second unit was York, Brink, Lycksell, Couturier and Scott Laughton.

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“I think we’re getting more familiar with each other and, you know, kind of find out what works for each group,” Tippett said. “I think both groups have done a great job of kind of sticking with it and moving the puck around. I think it comes with kind of just knowing and reading off each other.

“You know, it’s bound to change when you play with each other for a while and there’s less thinking and you kind of know where guys are going to be at all points. So I think that makes a big difference.”

Across the three power plays, the Flyers had 11 attempts with six being shots on goal. But the power play in the second period, when Max Pacioretty was called for boarding Nic Deslauriers and the game was tied 2-2, only had one shot on goal by Tippett and one shot attempt by Laughton that was blocked.