The Philadelphia Flyers were one of the best teams in the NHL in the back half of the season, going 26-13-7 from January 1 on. Their reward was a first-round matchup against the best team in the league in the regular season.
That’s a bad starting point. Then on Thursday they lost the first game of their best-of-seven series against Washington, falling 2-0 to the Capitals on the road. Perhaps most critical of all, however, was another loss: two-way centre Sean Couturier, who left the game on a hit from Alex Ovechkin.
For Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, that hit was as important as any offensive contribution that the Capitals could have expected from Ovechkin in Game 1.
“To me, [it has] bigger impact than any goal he could ever score in the opening of a series,” Kypreos explained in Sportsnet’s postgame panel discussion.
It’s easy to see why. Couturier has been key to Philadelphia's winning this year, with Wayne Fish of the Morning Call noting that the Flyers have gone 35-18-10 with him in the lineup this year but just 6-9-4 without him.
Goaltender ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
NHL Playoffs Roundup: Flyers in Deeper Hole vs. Caps After Sean Couturier Injury
April 14th, 2016 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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