Flyers have favorable matchup, fate on their side as they face Capitals

The Capitals were the best team in hockey during the regular season.

But 25 percent of their eight overtime losses came at the hands their Stanley Cup Playoff first round opponents theFlyers.

The 50-18-8 Caps only blew out Philly once, in a 5-2 meeting earlier in the season. After that, Philly won on a Jake Voracekovertime game-winner, in a rare shootout victory and dropped a game in regulation 3-2.

“We all know it’s the best team in the league,” Voracek told CSNPhilly this week. “But I think when we played them the four times, I think we played them well all four games.”

The Flyers were outscored by two on the season series and held the high-powered Washington offense in check by forcing secondary scorers (not Alexander Ovechkin) do the damage.

Philly has another thing on their sideand this one has nothing to do with statistics — Ed Snider.

Though their loving owner, the founder of the Flyers Snider passed away early this week, the team is immensely proud of being able to complete their improbable run for a playoff spot while he was still alive.

And they are dedicating their entire postseason run, whether it be short of long to the memory of the man everyone calls “Mr. Snider.”

“He loved the Flyers and this is what he wanted,” Wayne Simmondstold the media Monday.”He stuck with us through everything this year and I’m extremely happy that we got into the playoffs for him. Although we will be playing with heavy hearts, we’re gonna do everything we possibly can to be successful in the playoffs because that’s what Mr. Snider would want. I know there’s nothing else that he wanted to see more than the Flyers winning another Stanley Cup. And that’s definitely our goal, and we’re gonna go out there and strive to bring the Cup back to Philly.”

The puck drops in Game 1 Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in Washington, with TV coverage on NBCSN.