Five things to know about the Flyers today
1. During Sunday's 3-2 win in Vancouver defenseman Ivan Provorov played a game-high 24 minutes and 17 seconds. This was the 12th game this season with 24 or more minutes. For the season he is averaging 21:38 minutes and in his last 29 games, has averaged 22:48. Provorov leads the Flyers in minutes per game.
2. The Flyers host the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. Washington entered Tuesday with an NHL best 85 points, but has dropped two in a row, a 3-2 shootout loss at Detroit and a 2-1 defeat at the New York Rangers. Facing Washington means trying to stop Alex Ovechkin. In 43 regular season games agains the Flyers he has 31 goals and 18 assists. This year Ovechkin has 27 goals and 25 assists in 58 games. In his last 19 games he has nine goals, 13 assists and a plus-4 rating.
3. With a career best three assists in Sunday's win over Vancouver, Shayne Gostisbehere matched his point total for his previous 14 games. It was his third multi-point game of the season but first since he had a goal and an assist in a 5-4 loss at Montreal on Nov. 5.
4. In the staggering stat department, Washington has a goal differential of plus 69. The Flyers have a goal differential of minus-25. In further illustrating the Flyers struggles, four players have a minus-20 or worse rating. They are Gostisbehere (-22), Claude Grioux (-20), Brayden Schenn (-20) and Wayne Simmonds (-20).
5. Giroux continued his slump by recording just one point (an assist) in the three game Western Canada trip and in his last 10 games he has one goal, one assist and a minus-8 rating. The best chance the Flyers have to make a playoff run is for Giroux to break out of his current slump.