John Carlson

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.

The Flyers face the top team in the Metro, the Washington Capitals, on Saturday night. The Flyers have played two very competitive games against the Capitals this season, but also face a critical situation where they need to continue gaining points to keep pace in the division and playoff race.

Against the Washington Capitals, the NHL’s top team in the standings, the Flyers looked every bit the part of the contender they were believed to be before the holiday break, securing a 3-2 win to improve to 14-2-4 on home ice and snap a four-game losing streak.

The Flyers next four games are against top teams in the league. It starts with the team right at the top of the NHL standings, the Washington Capitals, who dominated their way to a 6-1 win over Ottawa on Tuesday night.

Travis Konecny will be the Flyers representative at the NHL All-Star Game on Saturday, Jan. 25. It will be his first career All-Star Game appearance.

The result may have been a 2-1 shootout loss for the Flyers, snapping a four-game winning streak, but it was once again a small moral victory early in the season, a game where they at least showed they can hang with a top contender in the league.

Facing the league's best team proved to be too much for the Flyers in the end, with the Flyers dropping a 2-1 decision in a shootout to the Washington Capitals, but not before a highly competitive and entertaining game at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night.

The Flyers will be back on home ice, where they enter play on Wednesday with a 6-1-1 record, but get the task of facing the NHL's best team, the Washington Capitals.

The deal -- a six-year, $40.5 million deal with an average annual value of $6.75 million -- is more than just the completion of a deal in time for Ivan Provorov to report for training camp on Friday morning. It is a win for both sides -- for Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers and for Provorov as well.