Evgeny Kuznetsov

The Flyers suffered a 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals in the preseason finale on Friday night, finishing with a 2-3-1 record in the preseason.

Alex Ovechkin scored another pair of goals to bring his season total against the Flyers to eight and his career total to 730, as the Capitals handed the Flyers a 6-3 loss on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center.

Both Alain Vigneault and Claude Giroux said the Flyers are trending in the right direction. James van Riemsdyk agreed and said they did a lot of good things. But the results don’t lie. The Flyers are not a playoff team at the moment in the standings for a reason. And they need a quick fix or this will be yet another season of disappointment, yet another season of mediocrity.

On Saturday night, things may just have come to a head. For the third time this week, the Flyers were no match for the Capitals for most of the night, having another furious rally fall short and losing for the fourth time in the last five games, 5-4.

Thursday’s game was just another example of how ugly it’s been lately. Washington didn’t have to look their best to put a stranglehold on this game. And on a night when Washington, Boston, and the Islanders all picked up two more points in the standings with wins, the Flyers fell just a little farther behind in the race. Those points are costly no matter when they are lost.

The 3-1 loss to Washington marked the end of a 1-3-0 week for the Flyers, that produced just two points in the standings and pushed them below the playoff line. At 22 games into the season, there is still time left in the season and the panic button shouldn’t be pushed just yet. But there are ongoing trends that don’t bode well for the Flyers if this continues in the weeks ahead.

The opportunity to claim the top seed in the Eastern Conference is there for the Flyers thanks to a 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals that featured total dominance from the second line that had another level to reach and another suppressing defensive showing. Here are 5 takeaways from the Flyers win over the Capitals.

The Flyers got off to a good start in Round Robin with a 4-1 win over the Bruins. Next, they face the Washington Capitals, looking to keep their bid for the top seed alive. Game time is 4 p.m.

The odds were already stacked against the Flyers when they faced the President's Trophy winners, the Washington Capitals, in the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but it turned out to be a much closer series than the results showed. Our Series in Review series continues with a closer look at this playoff appearance.

The Flyers have closed the gap in the Metropolitan Division to three points and are challenging the Capitals for the division lead. They get a chance to close the gap further with one final matchup in the 2019-20 regular season.