Caps Whallop Flyers 8-2 Spoiling Laviolette's Debut

Even in the absence of Washington Capitals' sniper Alexander Ovechkin, the Caps are fully capable of demolishing teams with their offensive weapons. The Philadelphia Flyers are usually one of the NHL's tougher opponents, especially at home, but Washington handled the Flyers with ease last night, rolling up a 7-1 lead at one point. Philadelphia's poor showing after firing head coach John Stevens and hiring Peter Laviolette, shows the the problems with the Flyers run deeper than a simple change in their coaching staff can remedy.

Washington center Tomas Fleischmann opened the scoring less than a minute into the game, beating Philly netminder Ray Emery on close rebound after Brendan Morrison shot from the face off circle. Mika Pyorala beat Jose Theodore to tie it up 1-1 with his 2nd of the season, with assists going to Oskars Bartulis and left winger Daniel Carcillo. Carcillo was involved in a little incident moments later that got him tossed and cost the Flyers the game because of the nine minute power play the Capitals enjoyed well into the 2nd period. Below is the video.



Carcillo was assessed two minors, a fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. Don't be surprised if Carcillo brought up before Colin Campbell for a possible suspension. The Capitals responded with 3 power play goals and the route was on. Fleischmann scored his 2nd of the game with about two and a half left in the 1st, and defenseman Mike Green put Washington up 3-1 twenty seconds later.

In the 2nd, Brooks Laich got his 10th and the Caps were in firm control. Flyers' goalie Emery was yanked in favor of Brian Boucher after Emery allowed his 4th goal on 17 shots. Chris Clark and Nicklas Backstrom both scored late in the period and Mike Green got his 2nd of the night and ended with a 4 point night.

In the 3rd, Scott Hartnell got one back for the Flyers 6 minutes into the period, but way too little, much too late to matter much. David Steckel's 1st goal of the season was Washington's 4th power play marker of the game and the final nail on Laviolette's coaching debut behind the Flyers' bench. This game was lost becasue of a lack of discipline from one player, Carcillo, and that's exactly why Laviolette is 0-1-0. He needs to work on getting his players back on the right track and get themselves out of the basement.

With this loss, Philadelphia is in last place in the Atlantic Division, 14 points back of division-leading Pittsburgh. The Flyers were expected to contend for the Atlantic Division title and their play over the last several weeks triggered the Philadelphia's change in their coaching staff. More of this type of play and you can expect player moves soon.

Meanwhile, the Capitals are at the other end of the spectrum, 1st place in the Southeast and one point up on the Penguins for the whole Eastern Conference crown. And that's with Ovechkin out. Add in Ovie and Washington gets that much scarier an opponent.

Washington heads to Tampa Bay for Monday's game against the Lightning, while the Flyers get a few days off to lick their collective wounds, re-assess, and then continue their home stand Tuesday night versus the Islanders.