WASHINGTON — The biggest positive the Flyers felt like they could take out of a Game 1 loss to the Washington Capitals was how they played defensively.

For them to do it for half the game without their most important defensive forward, Sean Couturier, was key because he won’t be back for at least two weeks. He was hit midway through the game by Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and didn’t return.

Even though the Flyers weren’t blown away by the league’s best offense, is there a correlation to their two goals coming after Couturier left the game?

“I’m not that smart to answer that one,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “It probably didn’t hurt because I know Sean is a quality hockey player and relied on by the Flyers to be sort of their stopper guy. I don’t know if there is or not. I know we had some zone time. … I can’t correlate that just to one person. But I think we get stronger as the game goes on.”

The Flyers announced that he would miss the rest of the series after Friday’s optional skate in which Scott Laughton was one of the few players to skate. It seems likely he will make his NHL playoff debut in Game 2.

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