PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cam Atkinson had a goal and an assist and Claude Giroux also scored to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.
Carter Hart made 27 saves for the Flyers, who snapped a six-game losing streak and won for just the third time in 22 games.
T.J. Oshie scored for the Capitals, who lost their second straight.
Giroux tied Hall of Famer Eric Lindros for eighth place on the Flyers' all-time scoring list with the 290th goal of his career just 11 seconds into the game to put Philadelphia up early. Atkinson outraced Martin Fehervary to the puck in the Philadelphia zone, then fed Giroux for a wrist shot from the slot that beat Ilya Samsonov on the blocker side for his 17th of the season.
The goal was tied for the third-fastest in a regular-season game in club history, equaling Bobby Clarke’s 11-second tally to open a contest on Jan. 27, 1983. Tim Kerr holds the Flyers record, scoring in eight seconds on March 7, 1989.
Philadelphia increased its advantage to 2-0 with 1:22 left in the period when Atkinson netted his team-leading 18th of the season with a stellar individual effort from the side of the net to corral Scott Laughton’s pass with his skates, find his stick and then shoot off Samsonov and high into the net.
Oshie pulled the Capitals within a goal with 13:07 left in the second on a power play. Oshie drew an interference penalty from Isaac Ratcliffe and then quickly made the Flyers pay on the man-advantage, scoring on a one-timer from the slot for his sixth of the season and first since Jan. 10.
Both goalies made fantastic saves in the period. Samsonov robbed Travis Konecny with 14:05 left with a sensational glove save, and Hart denied Joe Snively’s backhander try from close range with 10:51 to play.
Washington continued to apply pressure in Philadelphia’s zone but couldn’t come up with the equalizer. Hart preserved the victory with a sprawling pad save on Evgeny Kuznetsov's try in the final minute after Washington pulled Samsonov for a 6-on-5 situation.
The first period featured a fight between heavyweights Zack MacEwen and Washington’s Tom Wilson. MacEwen took exception to a hard hit on him by Wilson, and they fought to a draw, with MacEwen picking up a roughing minor in addition to the fighting major. The game remained physical from that point.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Capitals: D Justin Schultz didn’t play. Schultz sat out the Feb. 17 meeting between the teams with an upper-body injury but played in the Capitals’ next game, Thursday’s 4-1 loss at the Rangers. Coach Peter Laviolette said Schultz sat out Friday’s practice for a maintenance day.
Flyers: Hart returned to the lineup after missing the last two with an eye infection. … C Derick Brassard (hip) played for just the fourth time since Nov. 23. In each of the previous three outings, Brassard had a prolonged absence after appearing in one game. … Joel Farabee (upper body) also was back on the ice after sitting for the previous 11 games. He notched a secondary assist on Giroux’s goal.
GIVING BACK
The Flyers donated $400,000 to the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation to build a street hockey rink at Scanlon Recreation Center in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.
UP NEXT
Capitals: Start a three-game homestand against Toronto on Monday.
Flyers: Host Edmonton on Tuesday in the fourth contest of a club-record eight-game homestand.
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"Obviously, it's a hard situation. I have lots of friends in Russia and Ukraine, and it's hard to see the war," Ovechkin told reporters after practice Friday. "I hope soon it's going to be over, and there's going to be peace in the whole world."
He added: "Please, no more war. It doesn't matter who is in the war - Russia, Ukraine, different countries - I think we live in a world, like, we have to live in peace and a great world."
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday morning. Missile strikes have reportedly hit several areas throughout Ukraine, and Russian troops have been deployed on the ground, prompting thousands of Ukrainians to flee the country.
The 36-year-old has been an outspoken supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout his career. His Instagram profile picture features him standing alongside Putin, and he has posted several pictures with him in the past.
When asked if he still supports Putin amid the ongoing crisis, Ovechkin - a Moscow native - said the following:
"Well, he's my president. But how I said, I'm not in politics. I'm an athlete, and you know how I said, I hope everything is going to be done soon. It's a hard situation right now for both sides and everything. Everything I hope is going to end. I'm not (in) control of this situation."
Ovechkin joins tennis players Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev as Russian athletes that have called for peace.
Robertson will be in the lineup Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings, head coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed to reporters, including TSN's Mark Masters.
The 20-year-old winger recorded eight points in nine games with the Marlies this season. He recently returned to the lineup after suffering a broken leg in October.
Robertson was a second-round pick by the Leafs in 2019. He's played in 10 NHL games - four during the 2020 playoffs and six last season - and tallied a goal and an assist.
Numbers don't tell the whole story in hockey. We know this. But we also know numbers can be intriguing, illustrative, enlightening, and sometimes even fun.
Using data from Hockey Reference and Evolving-Hockey - and borrowing ESPN football writer Bill Barnwell's "blind items" format - we're going to break down notable NHL numbers in a unique way.
In the four sections below, you'll be greeted by a table featuring a bunch of statistics assigned to unnamed players. By the end of each section, you'll understand exactly why these particular stats have been grouped together.
All right, let's have some fun here.
Blind item No. 1
A good place to look for offensive dominance is the primary points leaderboard. A secondary assist can be valuable but not nearly as much as a goal or primary assist. To truly get a feel for the cream of the crop, we'll also exclude special-teams action and focus solely on five-on-five production. After all, it's more impressive to dominate at even strength, right?
This filtration process brings us to the mystery players above.
Player A is Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl in 2019-20. At five-on-five that season, Draisaitl recorded 22 goals and 21 primary assists in 71 games. He went on to win the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player.
Player B is Oilers captain Connor McDavid in 2020-21. At five-on-five that season, McDavid put up 18 goals and 28 primary assists in 56 games. McDavid, the best hockey player on the planet, earned the second MVP award of his career.
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
Player C is Johnny Gaudreau in 2021-22. At five-on-five this season, Calgary's crafty winger has racked up 14 goals and 26 primary assists in 50 games. Gaudreau's nightly primary points rate (0.80) is better than the 2019-20 Hart winner, mirrors the 2020-21 Hart winner, and paces all 2021-22 NHLers.
Most impressively, the creative and elusive Flames star has a commanding lead in the five-on-five primary points category. As of Friday morning, Gaudreau's 40 is followed by Kirill Kaprizov (32); Nazem Kadri and Matthew Tkachuk (31); Auston Matthews (30); Dylan Larkin (29); and McDavid, Draisaitl, and Alex Ovechkin (28).
Gaudreau, a pending unrestricted free agent, isn't a shoo-in to win the Hart. But he's certainly a contender, with 64 total points (tied for fourth in the league) and strong defensive metrics. Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and center Elias Lindholm are a frightening trio in all three zones of the ice - a gigantic reason the Flames sit atop the Pacific Division and look primed for a deep playoff run.
Blind item No. 2
The goalie statistics above are admittedly unsophisticated, but that's on purpose. History has told us the voting body for the Vezina Trophy - a.k.a NHL general managers - tends to hold all-situations save percentage and all-situations goals-against average, as well as wins, in particularly high regard.
Another goalie stat GMs love: Games started. And in the case of the two players above, workload is a major differentiator. This year, among NHL goalies, Player A is 17th in starts while Player B is tied for 39th.
Player A is Igor Shesterkin, who has started 32 contests for the New York Rangers - 15 more than backup Alexandar Georgiev. Player B is Ville Husso, who's started 18 games for the St. Louis Blues - seven fewer than Jordan Binnington, the main masked man during the club's Stanley Cup run in 2019.
Even though Husso is way below the usual starts threshold for a Vezina contender, this side-by-side comparison complements both goalies.
Shesterkin, who's maintained elite numbers all season despite playing behind a so-so defensive squad, is worthy not only of Vezina buzz but also Hart consideration. The Rangers' skaters are indebted to the 26-year-old Russian.
Husso, meanwhile, is providing by far the best bang-for-your-buck goaltending in the league at a $750,000 cap hit. If the Blues don't ink him to an extension before July, he'll be a hot commodity on the free-agent market.
Blind item No. 3
A fun way to reveal Player C's identity is to first show the others: Player A is Sidney Crosby and Player B is Patrick Kane. There's no denying those are two of the NHL's most prolific playmakers over the past handful of years - and, evidently, so is Florida Panthers winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who is Player C.
Huberdeau, perhaps surprisingly to some, ranks ninth in primary assists per game since 2017-18, the season in which he broke out offensively. Huberdeau's per-game rate (0.47) is just behind Crosby and Kane (0.48) and just ahead of Brad Marchand and Draisaitl (0.46). (For what it's worth, the rest of the top 10 is McDavid at 0.63; Nathan MacKinnon at 0.52; Mitch Marner at 0.51; and Artemi Panarin, Blake Wheeler, and Nikita Kucherov at 0.50.)
What really jumps off the page is Huberdeau's age. At 28, he isn't finished growing as a player. Crosby and Kane have both found extra gears - or, at least, different gears - in their 30s. Why can't Huberdeau? How far up the charts will he rise? And will he also add elements to other parts of his game?
Flashing a mix of speed, smarts, and finesse on a nightly basis year after year, Huberdeau's no longer in Aleksander Barkov's lofty shadow in South Florida. Finally. Yet he's still underrated among the league's fans. If Huberdeau were playing in his native Canada, he'd be a megastar every day of the week.
Blind item No. 4
The numbers above are career stats from five-on-five action only. Player A is Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils, and Player B is Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks. To start, let's contextualize their careers more broadly ...
Based on raw production, 22-year-old Quinn is currently setting the family standard, accumulating 138 points in 178 games as a defenseman (0.78 per game). Jack, 20, has 85 points in 148 games as a forward (0.57).
Keep in mind, Quinn, the seventh overall selection in the 2018 draft, arrived on the scene with far less hype than Jack, the No. 1 pick in 2019. On the surface, then, Quinn has lived up to expectations better than Jack. That dynamic could definitely change in the years to come, but there's no debate right now - especially since Jack's defensive metrics aren't sparkling either.
Jeff Vinnick / Getty Images
As for the five-on-five stats, it's interesting to see the brothers line up similarly in the first two categories - both of their teams' shot-attempt differentials are around 51% when they're on the ice, and both brothers are being deployed in offensive roles. And then there's Jack beating Quinn in points per 60, which can be a better measurement than points per game because of differing ice times.
Underlying numbers can sometimes hint that something's bubbling beneath the surface. That, perhaps, it's ice time, quality of linemates, or percentages - not talent - holding a player back. Will we be talking about Jack breaking out next season because he's seeing a bump in ice time, surrounded by more talent, and getting the bounces? Does that five-on-five points rate continue to climb alongside improved power-play production?
The curveball is the third Hughes brother, Luke. The University of Michigan defenseman, picked fourth overall by Jack's Devils last year, is on his way.
John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).
White has been sidelined since October due to a dislocated shoulder he suffered during a preseason game. He centered the team's fourth line during practice on Friday.
Sens Friday practice lines:
Tkachuk Stützle Gaudette Sanford Paul CBrown Formenton Tierney Ennis Kelly White Watson Gambrell Norris Sabourin
Klingberg is a pending unrestricted free agent with a cap hit of $4.25 million, per CapFriendly. The right-handed blue-liner is having an off year by his standards with only one goal and 25 assists over 44 games this season. The 29-year-old Swede was spectacular in the 2020 playoff bubble, recording 21 points in 26 contests as Dallas reached the Stanley Cup Final.
The Carolina Hurricanes are reportedly among the teams to previously show interest in Klingberg.
The Leafs already added Ilya Lyubushkin on defense from the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday, but Friedman notes "they aren't finished trying to tinker with their blue line."
Toronto placed defenseman Jake Muzzin on long-term injured reserve Wednesday with a concussion. His absence creates a void on the Leafs' blue line, and some additional cap space until he returns - which is unknown at this point.
Miller is signed through next season with a $5.25-million cap hit before becoming a UFA. The versatile forward - capable of playing both center and wing - has registered 20 goals and 37 assists in 51 games this season. However, Friedman noted the 28-year-old likely isn't Toronto's top priority.
The New York Rangers are reportedly among the other clubs to show interest in Miller thus far.
As for what the Leafs may have to give up in a potential deadline deal, Friedman reported the team has made it clear their desire to hold on to top prospects Matthew Knies and Topi Niemela - especially for rentals or shorter-term options. Nick Robertson, who was recalled from the AHL on Friday, is also unlikely to be traded for a rental, he added.
