It wasn't pretty for the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. Playing with house money or not, Dave Hakstol's group almost certainly expected a better outcome than their punchless 2-0 loss to the physical and aggressive Washington Capitals to open their best-of-seven, first-round Eastern Conference NHL playoff series.
But lose they did, in more ways than one.
Flyers forward Sean Couturier, rocked into the boards by a hit from Caps star Alexander Ovechkin, left the ice and the game in a hurry and would not return. While there's been little in the way of solid news on Couturier's status, early reports indicate that he's likely done for the series.
The loss of Couturier's shutdown defensive abilities, especially against a team like Washington that thrives on the power play - they finished the regular season ranked fifth in the league with a 21.9 power play conversion percentage and scored their first goal Thursday night and the first goal of the series against the Flyers on the man advantage - is potentially devastating to the Philly's chances.
After the game, which saw the Capitals use their big bodies and stifling play to limit the Flyers to just 19 shots on goal, Philadelphia players did their best to downplay the loss.
"I think for the most part, we played pretty well," defenseman Mark Streit said. "We have to be a little bit more disciplined. We took too many penalties, and that gave them a lot of momentum. But for the most part, we did a pretty good job. Guys blocked shots and sacrificed their body. Five-on-five, we played well."
It was a strange game from a penalty standpoint. The Flyers saw three power-play attempts in the first period, but failed to capitalize on any of them, swinging the momentum back in Washington's favor. In fact, the Flyers first power play unit was barely able to even set up shop in the Capitals zone early, and when the refs seemed to make a concerted effort to even out the calls in the second and third - Streit in particular was sent to the box on what appeared to be a phantom penalty - the Caps eventually took advantage.
With just one game gone the series is far from over for the Flyers, but if the indispensable Couturier is indeed done, likely to be replaced by Scott Laughton, Philadelphia's task just got a whole lot taller.
