To commence an eight-game homestand, the Flyers dropped to the Capitals, 5-3, Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
They led 3-2 with 3:51 minutes left in the game. The lead did not last long.
Washington ripped off three goals, the final tally being an empty-netter to seal the hapless Flyers' fate.
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In his return from a scary eye injury, Gerry Mayhew scored two goals. Travis Sanheim also had a two-point game (one goal, one assist) for the Flyers (15-25-9), who have lost four straight.
The Flyers relinquished a 4-2 third-period lead Tuesday night in a 5-4 OT loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh.
The club is 7-15-5 under interim head coach Mike Yeo. It was 8-10-4 under Alain Vigneault when he was fired in early December. Both coaches are better than those records indicate.
"Honestly, I don’t even know what to say right now," Yeo said. "You play 57 minutes the way that we did and you leave the game feeling that way, that's pretty tough.
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"In some ways, you’re thinking about the good things that you did and how we can be confident going up against any team and knowing that even when we’re short with players, when we play our team game the way that we do, that we can have success. But we walk away with nothing here tonight, so that’s tough."
Thursday night was the Flyers' second of four meetings with the Capitals (28-15-9) this season. The Flyers took the first meeting, 2-1, back on Nov. 6, when they improved to 6-2-2. They've gone 9-23-7 since then.
• Mayhew put the Flyers ahead 3-2 in the third period and the Flyers appeared in position to grab a win.
Then the Capitals turned it on in desperation time.
Two different teams right now.
The Flyers played a hard and honest game, even outplaying Washington for considerable portions. But they haven't had the confidence to hold leads or win tight games. Some of that is on inexperience and depth issues with critical pieces missing because of injuries.
"Play good for 56, 57 minutes and then that happens," Scott Laughton said. "It stings but you wake up in the morning, it's a new day, you work as hard as you can to try to get better and close out those games. But it's a s--- feeling."
• A hit on Claude Giroux fired up the Flyers in the second period and ignited Mayhew's first goal.
Giroux was crosschecked into the back boards. There was no whistle on the play and Giroux appeared to be in some pain when he got to the bench. As Flyers director of medical services Jim McCrossin checked on the captain, Giroux conveyed he was fine.
Shortly after, Laughton retaliated with a big hit on Michal Kempny. Trevor van Riemsdyk, the brother of Flyers winger James van Riemsdyk, stepped up for his teammate and fought Laughton.
Because of instigating and misconduct penalties on van Riemsdyk, the Flyers went on the power play and Mayhew drew them even at 1-1.
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• Isaac Ratcliffe (interference) and Cam Atkinson (delay of game) committed costly penalties in succession after the Flyers knotted the score.
Washington capitalized on the power play. Sanheim erased it with just under a minute left in the middle stanza off a nice feed from Travis Konecny. The 24-year-old winger is on a season-best five-game point streak.
• Despite a tough game Thursday night, Justin Braun is having arguably his best season in a Flyers jersey.
The 35-year-old defenseman is going to draw interest from various contending teams and the retooling Flyers will very likely move him by the March 21 trade deadline.
They need to capitalize on the veteran's value. He's on an expiring contract with only a $1.8 million cap hit and there's a lot to like if you're a club needing a consistent second- or third-pair defenseman for a playoff run.
Right now, Braun is playing in a top-pair role at 20 minutes a game, he prevents goals and owns 100 games of postseason experience.
He finished with an assist, a minus-2 rating, two shots and two blocked shots in 23:12 minutes against the Capitals.
"Probably the best word is reliability," Yeo said about Braun after morning skate Thursday. "That's something that's a real compliment, you get a lot of respect from your teammates and from your coaches when you're a guy who's reliable.
"He'll show up night after night, he'll take hits to make plays, he'll be first on pucks, in the d-zone, he'll block shots, he has attention to detail. He does all of the things that are asked of him."
"That's a level of professionalism that's ... you get a lot of respect and a lot of credibility from the people that you're working with when you do that."
• Martin Jones played his first game in 23 days.
The backup goalie converted 20 saves.
The Capitals cracked him with 1:25 minutes left in the first period. Kempny beat Jones with a point shot.
Washington regained its lead at 2-1 with a second-period power play goal by Joe Snively.
Garnet Hathaway scored the game-tying and game-winning goals for the Capitals.
"We're working hard, we're doing all the video, we're doing everything that we're supposed to be doing and what other teams are doing," Konecny said. "It's just those one, two bounces that don't go in our favor. It is the way the NHL is — it's a game of inches and seconds. You look back on that game, you see a loss, but we played a good game, we worked hard, everyone was buying in and there's something to take from it."
Washington netminder Ilya Samsonov entered 5-0-0 with a 2.31 goals-against average and .924 save percentage in his career against the Flyers. The soon-to-be 25-year-old made 30 saves Thursday night.
• Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body), Patrick Brown (MCL sprain), Kevin Hayes (abdominal) and Derick Brassard (hip) all partook in morning skate.
Yeo said the Flyers were hopeful Ristolainen and Brown would be cleared to return after tonight's game.
Hayes is making good progress. Six days ago, general manager Chuck Fletcher said the 29-year-old center had a 50/50 chance to play again this season. The Flyers have circled March 1 as a date for when they have to decide if Hayes will be shut down.
"I don't want to say that we've moved off that timeline, but he seems to be certainly doing a lot better than what we thought," Yeo said Wednesday. "We'll see how that goes for us."
The Flyers are going to be pretty prudent with Brassard, who has missed 29 of the last 32 games. The 34-year-old center has returned three times from his nagging injury to only come back out of the lineup the very next game.
• The Flyers have three days before they play again. In a back-to-back set at the Wells Fargo Center, the club welcomes the Hurricanes on Monday (3 p.m. ET/NBCSP) and Blues on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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