NHL Playoffs Roundup: Flyers in Deeper Hole vs. Caps After Sean Couturier Injury

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 Steve Mason told Fish that Couturier had been difficult to replace when injured and highlighted his importance to the team in a matchup role against top offensive players.

“[Couturier]’s got a tall order [in terms of matchup] but he's done a good job of it in the past,” Mason told Fish. “I think he relishes having a big role like that. We're going to need a big series from him.”

It’s up in the air now whether he’ll have that opportunity. Couturier did not return to the game, and the Flyers announced he would be evaluated Friday for an “upper-body injury.” If he’s gone, Philadelphia will be without both an underrated offensive contributor and a key matchup player.

It will also be without a key penalty-killer, something that could matter a lot if the rest of the series is officiated the way Game 1 was.

The game-winning goal came on a second-period power play for Washington. The Capitals went to Ovechkin often on the man advantage, but defenceman John Carlson, whose point shot was deflected twice en route to the back of the Philadelphia net, scored the 1-0 goal.

Carlson had a great game aside from the winner, matching up mostly against the Flyers' second line. The Caps had an 8-4 edge in shots with Carlson on the ice at even strength.

Philly’s best chance to win the game came early, when it was awarded three consecutive power plays and four of the first five in the game. The Flyers' failure to convert on any of those chances allowed the Capitals to survive an undisciplined opening frame. Washington took over from that point, outshooting Philadelphia 23-8 in the second and third periods as the Flyers went to the box again and again to close out the evening.

Of the 29 minutes in penalties the Flyers took in the third period, arguably none hurt worse than the seven Wayne Simmonds took. Down 1-0, Philadelphia should have been heading to the power play with a chance to tie the game, thanks to a nasty Tom Wilson hit on defenceman Andrew MacDonald. Instead, it lost a key offensive player for the remainder of the third period, as Simmonds was assessed a roughing minor in addition to his fighting major.

Charlie O’Connor of Broad Street Hockey noted the trade-off:

Washington collected the 2-0 insurance marker roughly three minutes later.

While it’s worth focusing on the difficult task ahead of the Flyers, it’s also important to give the Capitals full credit for the win over a tough opponent. Washington—and goaltender Braden Holtby in particular—stood up nicely to a strong first period from Philadelphia before taking over the remainder of the game.

Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday in Washington.

John Tavares leads the way for the Islanders

Joel Auerbach/Getty Images

While the Washington-Philadelphia game was tied at 0-0 for what felt like ages, the Florida Panthers and New York Islanders were playing a very different sort of Game 1 down south in Florida. The two teams combined for four goals in the first period alone, and New York eventually carried the day with a 5-4 victory.

John Tavares has had two multi-point playoff games over the course of his young career, but on Thursday he reached three points for the first time in a postseason contest, scoring a goal and recording two assists. His best play on the evening was probably the assist on the Isles’ 4-3 goal:

Brian Campbell has played more than 1,000 regular-season games and scored nearly 500 points; he’s not just a veteran defenceman, but he’s also comfortable and has a high degree of competence with the puck.

Tavares took it away from him as easily as he might have stolen it from an 18-year-old rookie and then found Kyle Okposo for the goal. The Islanders, who overcame three different deficits over the course of the game, never gave the lead back.

“John Tavares was a superstar in this one,” ex-Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Doug MacLean summarized for Sportsnet. “His line dominated.”

But while the Isles’ offensive leader in Game 1 was a young player drafted as a franchise cornerstone, the opposite was true for the Panthers. With the exception of a single assist for Nick Bjugstad, Florida’s young core was held off the scoresheet, with Alex Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad all going pointless on the night.

Instead, veterans acquired from other teams mostly carried the offensive load. Jussi Jokinen, signed as a free agent back in 2014, scored a goal and recorded two assists. Reilly Smith, brought in from Boston over the summer, had two goals and three points. Florida’s first goal was scored by one trade-deadline pickup (Teddy Purcell) and assisted by another (Jiri Hudler).

It’s also worth noting that despite the final score, New York’s goaltending actually held up pretty well. Islanders starter Jaroslav Halak was unable to play due to injury, but in his first career playoff start backup Thomas Greiss made 42 saves on 46 shots. None of those stops was more important than a game-saving last-minute save on Jaromir Jagr to preserve the victory.

Wild Come Up Empty Against Seguin-less Stars

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

While NHL parity has made predicting even first-round series extremely difficult, the one matchup out West that seemed relatively clear-cut was the contest between the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild. Dallas outperformed Minnesota by 22 points and 27 goals over the course of the regular season. Further, the Stars finished the year strong while the Wild limped into the playoffs thanks to a Colorado collapse.

Even Stars coach Lindy Ruff seemed to recognize the talent gap, going so far as to keep star centre Tyler Seguin out of the lineup after admitting to Mark Stepneski of the Stars’ official website that he could have played if he’d needed to do so:

"

He’s had really, in my eyes, one good practice [since suffering an injury to his Achilles tendon]. He had a practice earlier in the week that I thought was OK. The next day he was better and the fact that playoff intensity is even ramped up more than the regular season, I don't want him to step in and not play OK. I want him to step in and really be ready. If this was a Game 7, he’d probably play. You’d take that chance. You’d say OK, let’s take a kick at it, but right now we’re not there. These guys have done a terrific job.

"

For the Wild, struggling through a series of injuries that have cost them leading scorer Zach Parise and others, the Stars’ decision to keep Seguin out offered a glimmer of hope in Game 1. As it turned out, that hope was false.

The Stars dominated early, jumping out to a 14-2 lead in shots in a lopsided first period, an opening frame that Minnesota only managed to hang tough in thanks to the play of goaltender Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk faltered in the second, though, as his former Edmonton teammate Ales Hemsky found rookie Radek Faksa with a pass in the slot:

"

Faksa goal pic.twitter.com/r0wjWcb5eB

— Stephanie (@myregularface) April 15, 2016"

Jason Spezza, filling in as the Stars’ first-line centre, added a goal and an assist in the 4-0 home win. On Hockey Night in Canada, analyst Elliotte Friedman noted that Spezza was eager to prove himself

“Spezza, you forget, it’s his first playoff game in three years,” Friedman said. “He hadn’t been in the playoffs for quite a while. His last playoffs he was limited to three games; he had only one goal. He’s tied that. You can see that this is a guy who’s waited a long time for this, and with Seguin out, he’s stepping up.”

Kari Lehtonen, who stopped all 22 shots he saw for the shutout, also played well for Dallas. The Stars acquired goalie Antti Niemi in the summer to challenge Lehtonen, and neither goalie laid firm claim to the starting job this year; Lehtonen’s 0.906 save percentage was not good but was just a sliver better than Niemi’s 0.905.

Dallas will need at least one of those players to solidify the position, and Lehtonen got off to a good start Thursday.

Sharks overcome adversity, Kings in Game 1

Harry How/Getty Images

The San Jose Sharks knew their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings was going to be a formidable test. They also knew the history between the two franchises—two series losses since 2011, including a blown 3-0 series lead in 2014—was going to loom large.

They were prepared to such a degree that Hockey Night in Canada ran a montage of three Sharks players and the coach echoing the sentiment that 10 new players and a new coaching staff had come in since that crushing loss.

So perhaps it was a good thing that Game 1 offered San Jose no shortage of adversity—adversity the club overcame in a 4-3 road victory.

The Kings got all kinds of goals that could have been backbreaking, including two bounces off members of the Sharks:

Those sorts of goals can be challenging to a team’s morale, but San Jose wasn’t finished being tested. With the game tied at 2-2, Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks. The goal was disallowed thanks to a quick whistle from the officials, a call that even the referee acknowledged was a mistake.

"Kevin Pollock the referee comes over and says, 'We missed it. What can we do; we missed it,’” reported Sportsnet’s Mike Johnson, who was based between the benches for the game.

The Sharks were unfazed. With the score tied 3-3 in the third period, team captain Joe Pavelski won a tough head-to-head battle against perennial Selke Trophy candidate Anze Kopitar, beating the Kings centre cleanly before putting the puck past goaltender Jonathan Quick.

Sheng Peng, who covers the Kings for the SBNation blog Jewels from the Crown, noted right after the goal that the Sharks were by far getting the best chances to score:

It was a compelling victory for the Sharks, but then San Jose has generally been competitive against the Kings. The last two series between the teams went seven games, and last time around the Sharks won the first three games before Los Angeles took over.

Yet it wasn't just the game that the Kings lost.

Defenceman Alec Martinez played less than 12 minutes, and none of those were in the third period, forcing L.A. to lean heavily on the trio of Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin and sophomore Brayden McNabb. The club’s blue-line depth this year isn’t what it has been in previous campaigns, so injuries on the back end could have a big impact on the team’s playoff hopes.

With or without Martinez, Los Angeles will attempt to tie the series on Saturday, and it isn't likely to get the same fortunate bounces it did Thursday.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.