The Capitals made a coaching change last month because general manager George McPhee saw far too many games like this one.
Rested after three days off and playing at home against the top team in the Eastern Conference, Washington instead turned in a performance reminiscent of its final days under former coach Bruce Boudreau. The Philadelphia Flyers outhustled and outmuscled the Caps all night in a 5-1 victory at Verizon Center on Tuesday night.
Boudreau was fired in part thanks to embarrassing performances against the Toronto Maple Leafs (7-1 loss), New York Rangers (6-3) and Buffalo Sabres (5-1) in late November. That’s not an option with Dale Hunter just two weeks into his tenure. The players themselves will have to figure out why these ugly losses keep cropping up.
“I wouldn’t have wanted to pay money to see that hockey game tonight if I was a Caps fan,” forward Troy Brouwer said. “It just wasn’t good enough”
Five different Flyers scored — four on Washington’s Tomas Vokoun, who stopped just 17 of 21 shots before being pulled for Michal Neuvirth to start the third period. Philadelphia cycled the puck at will in the second period, turning a 1-0 advantage into a 4-0 rout.
Jakub Voracek added the insurance tally in the third period. Ilya Bryzgalov, meanwhile, finished with 31 saves on 32 shots, but the Caps just didn’t do enough when it mattered to produce pressure in the offensive end of the ice. Only Jeff Halpern’s goal with 6:01 remaining ended Bryzgalov’s hopes for a shutout.
After Washington (15-13-1, 31 points) registered just two shots combined on a pair of first-period power plays, the Flyers made them pay 105 seconds after the second man-advantage ended when Scott Hartnell beat Vokoun from the left wing. It was a soft shot without much starch, but slid between the goalie’s legs and took some air out of the building as Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead at 16:16.
Things fell apart in the second period. Marc-Andre Bourdon’s shot appeared to be tipped by Washington center Mathieu Perreault. That made it 2-0 at 7:23 of the second. Later, defenseman Andrej Meszaros’ shot was again deflected past Vokoun. This time Wayne Simmonds caught a piece of the puck for a 3-0 lead.
Just 3:14 after that tally, Vokoun let his teammates down again. Alex Ovechkin was stood up at the blueline by Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn and the ensuing turnover led to a Max Talbot shot that clipped Vokoun’s arm and went in. That made it 4-0 and effectively sealed the game.
“It was terrible performance,” Vokoun said. “Certainly not pleasant and it’s unfortunate in a game like that. … Obviously, you don’t like to give up goals like that. It was just all around bad stuff happening and I didn’t help it what I was doing out there.”
