Hathaway: Capitals ‘Weren’t Happy’ With First 40 In Win Over Flyers

Washington Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway knows that the team has been struggling of late, but said that the 5-3 victory over the Philadephia Flyers can be a win the team can build off of. Still, it wasn’t the prettiest W.

Hathaway said postgame that Washington wasn’t thrilled with its first 40 minutes of play against the Flyers. The Capitals were leading 1-0 heading into the second. Things took a bit of a turn as the ice tilted in the middle frame, with Philly evening the score 2-2 after 40 and outshooting Washington 12-2 in the second.

“Up until the third, I think we weren’t happy with it,” Hathaway admitted. “We had a long talk in the locker room about what we had to do in the third to be able to be happy with it because we were on the verge of letting it slip away.”

Philadelphia ended up taking a 3-2 lead with less than four minutes left in regulation after bad coverage in front. However, Hathaway and his fourth line stepped up, picking up two goals in a span of 1:45 minutes to power Washington in front of the Flyers afterward. John Carlson then secured the victory with an empty netter. Hathaway ultimately finished the night with two goals and an assist, while Carl Hagelin and Nic Dowd put up multi-assist performances.

READ MORE ON WHN: Takeaways From Capitals’ 5-3 Victory Over Philly

The Flyers ended up outshooting the Capitals 33-25. The team ended up with a 5-3 win to close out a two-game road trip, and now have a week off before their next game, which comes on the road against the New York Rangers.

With some time to regroup and the weekend off, back-to-back wins are still a major positive for the team. Washington has been inconsistent and trading wins and losses for the last month and a half. The Capitals have been unable to secure at least three straight wins since late December.

Still, Hathaway said they wanted to pick up where they left off and put up a strong performance before some time off.

“We got about a week between games right now, and we wanted to come out and have a good game that we could look back on during the break and say, ‘That’s great. Let’s continue to build off that,'” Hathaway said.