Flyers bullied by the Capitals again, 6-3

Carter Hart’s disappointing season hit another bump when he was scratched just before the matinee start with a lower-body injury.

Even worse, his coach said, not finding out until 90 minutes before face-off put a wrench in his goaltending plans for the two games this weekend.

Truth of the matter, however, is that even Bernie Parent in his prime wouldn’t have been able to save the disinterested Flyers from another pounding by Washington. This time, the first-place Caps besieged Alex Lyon with 40 shots on goal and beat the Flyers, 6-3.

“We put Alex in a real tough spot,” Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. “We didn’t play real well in front of him. Obviously they’re a good team and they’re capable of making a lot of plays, but we spent far too much time in our zone.”

The Flyers have lost five games in a row to Washington, allowing 22 goals in the last four meetings.

They are eight points out of the East Division’s final playoff spot, and they’re letting the Bruins AND Rangers get away from them. Point totals through Saturday: Boston 54, New York 50, Flyers 46. The Flyers have 12 games remaining and haven’t won more than two in a row since the end of February.

Lyon made his first NHL start in over 14 months. Throw in his four AHL appearances and one in relief of Brian Elliott and it was Lyon’s sixth professional game of any kind in the last calendar year.

He called getting the late notice “exceptionally difficult.”

“I really like my preparation, and I take pride in my preparation,” he said. “But at the same time, that’s what I get paid to do. That’s my role on this team. It just goes to the territory.”

The Capitals outshot the Flyers, 41-25. Washington had 19 shots in the second period, which was particularly disappointing since Ivan Provorov tied the game with one second left in the first period. Any momentum the Flyers might have had was left back in the locker room after the first intermission.

“Yeah, we should have been energized after that,” Vigneault said. “It usually gives your team a boost, but on the contrary. They had the push. They controlled most of the second period. We were second on everything. Second on pucks. Second on making plays. They were the far better team today.”

And Alex Ovechkin was the best player on the ice. He led the Capitals with two goals (both on the power-play), an assist, and drew two penalties.

The Flyers have allowed the Capitals to score on seven of their 14 power-play chances this season, and five of the eight they had in the two meetings this week.

“We know that’s a big part of the success of their team,” said James van Riemsdyk, who snapped a 17-game drought with a breakaway goal. “They obviously got a really good power play. When you have it built around probably the best goalscorer of this generation, it’s tough to stop.”

Both of Ovechkin’s goals came on one-timers from the left faceoff dot. Or, as the hockey folks refer to it, “his office.”

» READ MORE: Did COVID-19 contribute to Flyers’ downfall? We may never know | Sam Carchidi

The score was much more cosmetic than the performance, though it was better than the 6-1 pasting the Capitals laid on the Flyers on Tuesday.

The Flyers hung around, making it 4-3 when Wade Allison scored his first career goal into a wide-open net on a power play that he was responsible for when he was tripped by Conor Sheary.

Kevin Hayes fed the puck through the crease to Allison, who banged it in.

“Not too many times you score your first goal,” Allison said quizzically. “I have to go out and buy Hayesie a dinner because it doesn’t get much easier.”

It should have given the Flyers life, but instead woke up the Capitals, who responded with at least three scoring chances when Sheary made it 5-3 a little more than two minutes later.

Faceoffs were a problem for the Flyers, despite the stat sheet showing that they won 61%. Two of the Caps goals came directly off offensive draws. T.J. Oshie beat Sean Couturier, which led to Ovechkin’s second score. Lars Eller outdueled Hayes to set up Sheary’s goal.

The hockey world will watch if Ovechkin can make a run at Wayne Gretzky’s career record of 894 goals, a number once thought unreachable. Ovechkin, with 730 goals, is in sixth place on that list, but second on another.

Only Gretzky (402) has scored more goals on the road than Ovechkin (370). He has scored 31 goals at the Wells Fargo Center, and 42 in 63 games overall against the Flyers. Lyon was the 147th goalie he’s scored against.

The Flyers are right back at it on Sunday when the Islanders come in for a visit. Elliott will start. It remains to be seen if Hart can serve as the backup, but the Flyers might not want to risk it.

Shame, too. Hart was coming off his best game in weeks when he beat the Penguins on Thursday. If there’s one thing this year’s Flyers team has shown is an inability to sustain success.

“I think ultimately, just consistency-wise as far as building off of things, we seem out of sync. I feel a lot of times ... ” said van Riemsdyk, searching for a reason. “I don’t really have answer as to why that is, but that’s what it seems like to me.”

Breakaways

» READ MORE: Carter Hart out with a lower-body injury, Alex Lyon starting on Saturday