Slumping Phil Myers out of the Flyers’ lineup Thursday vs. the Capitals

Phil Myers is being sent a message by his coach Thursday night: Play better or you will be a healthy scratch.

The 6-foot-5, 210-pound defenseman played on the first pairing Tuesday, but he will be out of the lineup when the Flyers host Washington.

“I believe Phil has a tremendous amount of potential,” Vigneault said on Thursday morning,. “One of the challenges, especially with young players, is consistency. There are things we’ve talked about with him too often — being first on the puck, taking a hit to make a play. When he comes back in the lineup, he’ll have to improve.”

On Thursday, Shayne Gostisbehere is expected to move to the first-pairing spot Myers had at the start of Tuesday’s game, alongside Ivan Provorov.

Myers, 24, played just 11:52 and was minus-1 in Tuesday’s 5-4 shootout win over Buffalo, a game in which he hit iron with a long blast. It was his lowest time-on-ice total of the season except for a Jan. 19 game when he left early after suffering a fractured rib.

He returned to the lineup Jan. 30, but missed Saturday’s 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh with an undisclosed injury. Vigneault said he is healthy now.

For the season, Myers has no goals, five assists and a minus-1 rating. Before the season, he signed a three-year extension that carries an annual $2.55 million cap hit.

» READ MORE: Is Flyers coach Alain Vigneault indirectly asking his GM to bolster the defense?

Brian Elliott will start in the nets Thursday, and Andy Andreoff will be the fourth-line left winger as the Flyers will use 12 forwards and six defensemen. They used 11 forwards and seven defensemen in Tuesday’s comeback win over Buffalo.

Michael Raffl, the usual fourth-line left winger, will miss his third straight game because of an injured hand.

After playing other teams on Tuesday, the Flyers and Capitals meet again Thursday and Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center after facing each other last Sunday.

Washington won the first of these three games, 3-1, as the Flyers played their sixth game in nine days. The Caps controlled the last two periods, overcame a 1-0 deficit, and rode the goaltending of Ilya Samsonov (36 saves) to the victory. Samsonov is expected to get the call again Thursday.

“They’re huge,” left winger Scott Laughton said of the two coming games against the second-place Caps, who have a five-point lead over the fifth-place Flyers in the East Division, with Philadelphia having two games in hand. “We’re chasing them right now. It doesn’t sit well with us, the last game. The schedule is no excuse. I thought we competed pretty hard in the first and then fell off. Excited to get back at it tonight for a full 60-minute game to try to make it a little harder on them for the last 40 minutes.”

The Caps, who are on a 9-2-1 run, are in the midst of playing eight of nine games on the road. The Flyers are playing the final two games of a four-game homestand.

The teams are 1-1 against each other this season, with the Flyers scoring a 7-4 win in Washington on Feb. 7. Laughton had his first career hat trick in that game.

Alex Ovechkin has scored 37 of his 714 career goals against the Flyers. ... The Caps have won the first two games of Tom Wilson’s seven-game suspension. ... The Phantoms’ game Wednesday in Newark against Binghamton was suspended after a 1-1 first period because of the league’s COVID-19 protocol. Reportedly, a Devils player had to go into the COVID protocol, causing the game to be suspended.

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