Martone makes NHL debut, Flyers miss out on chance to move into playoff position originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
On a busy Tuesday night in the playoff race, the Flyers fell to the Capitals, 6-4, at Capital One Arena.
It turned out to be a missed opportunity (more on that below).
Travis Sanheim, Carl Grundstrom, Christian Dvorak and Denver Barkey provided the Flyers’ goals.
Porter Martone had a team-high five shots in his NHL debut.
The Flyers tied the game in the second period and cut Washington’s lead to one twice during the third period, but they never led.
For a fifth time this season, the Flyers (37-25-12) failed to win four games in a row. They haven’t won more than three straight in over two years. The last time they did it was Feb. 6-12 of the 2023-24 season.
The Flyers split their four-game regular-season series with the Capitals (38-28-9).
• With a win, Rick Tocchet’s club would have taken over the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Twenty-two minutes after the Flyers lost, the Blue Jackets fell to the Hurricanes, 5-2. If the Flyers had won, they would have pulled even with Columbus and had the tiebreaker of fewer games played.
But the Flyers also didn’t lose any ground. The Islanders, Senators and Red Wings all lost in regulation, as well.
With eight games left, the Flyers are two points out of the second wild-card spot and three back of third place in the Metropolitan Division.
• Martone played his first NHL game a little over nine months after going sixth overall in the 2025 draft.
The 19-year-old signed his entry-level deal Sunday afternoon, skated Monday morning with a small group and then suited up Tuesday night against the game’s all-time greatest goal scorer.
The big winger did a lot of good things in 16:54 minutes. He had an early penalty when he put the puck over the boards, but he then settled in and was active the rest of the way.
With 25 seconds left in the second period, Martone had a nice look battling around the net. He also took a stick to his mouth in that sequence but was fine for the third period. Four of his shots came in the final stanza.
Martone was not scared to shoot, he used his size well and he looked positionally sound.
He entered the lineup for Alex Bump, who was a healthy scratch for the first time since being called up over three weeks ago. It wasn’t a bad time to give Bump a breather.
Because of the youth, the Flyers will have some good lineup decisions to make with their forwards.
• Dan Vladar surrendered five or more goals for just the fourth time this season.
The 28-year-old made 12 saves on 17 shots. Washington’s final goal was an empty-netter.
Vladar didn’t seem to track shots as well as he has for much of the season. But the Flyers didn’t play a perfect game, either.
Jamie Drysdale and Cam York had some trouble in the defensive zone. Travis Konecny and Trevor Zegras had costly tripping penalties.
After goals from Sanheim and Grundstrom tied the game at 2-2 in the opening 4:36 minutes of the second period, Washington regained its two-goal lead with back-to-back power play markers.
The Flyers trailed by two goals at each intermission. They fell down 2-0 in the first period. Prior to Tuesday night, they hadn’t given up a first-period goal over their last five games.
Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson finished with two goals apiece.
Capitals netminder Logan Thompson stopped 20 of the Flyers’ 24 shots.
• Zegras had an assist, giving him 60 points on the season. He’s six points away from passing his career high of 65 set with the Ducks in 2022-23.
Sanheim (one goal, one assist), Dvorak (one goal, one assist) and Konecny (two assists) had multi-point efforts.
• The Flyers are back in action Thursday when they host the Red Wings (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).