Game 53: Capitals at Flyers

Washington Capitals: 25-24-5, 55 points
Philadelphia Flyers: 30-17-5, 65 points

Olaf Kolzig v. Martin Biron

With their 3-2 win over Atlanta last night, the Flyers regained sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division. This is the second game of their first of two back to backs this week, so the Flyers are going to be busy for the duration of the week.

Martin Biron will be back in net tonight. Niittymaki played well against Atlanta, which is par for the course for him, and hopefully Biron is still hot after having a few days off. Biron has been lit up by Washington this year, but he's received plenty of support. Despite having a GAA of nearly 4 against them in two starts, he's only 1-0-1.

The Capitals are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games, so this one definitely won't be easy. They're only one point behind Carolina and Atlanta, who are tied for the Southeastern Division lead, and they have two games in hand over both. They're also tied with Florida, who has one game in hand on the division leaders. This is pretty similar to the Atlantic, which has four contenders within 5 points of each other, with the Islanders not too far behind.

Obviously when you talk about Washington, you talk about Alexander Ovechkin. Last night, he scored two more goals, including an OT game winner. The man is unstoppable. No matter which player, which line, which system you match up against him, he's going to score goals. This is the case even moreso against the Flyers. In 11 career games, he has 11 goals and 20 points against Philadelphia. They just need to hope they can score goals to match Ovechkin and guys like Backstrom.

Tonight, Ron Hextall will be inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame. I was there for Keith Primeau night last season against Detroit. It was a great moment, and I'm sure it will be the same for a good goalie and memorable player such as Hextall. It's been a while since we've had a goalie we could rely on to take a majority of the starts. Maybe he can suit up again.

Scratches from Bill Meltzer will come later.

I feel like I've done a poor job of reporting news lately. I'm going to try and get back to that soon.