The Flyers and Capitals played for the second time in 24 hours, with the Capitals managing to hold on for a 6-3 victory at the Capital One Arena.

Tonight's contest between the Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers was an interesting one, to say the least.

Both teams looked like two tired squads coming into the second game in a different city in 24 hours. Fun fact: this is the first time the Capitals and Flyers played two back-to-back games in each team's city since the early 80's. 

However in the end, the Capitals managing to outlast the Flyers in a 6-3 victory at the Capital One Arena on Wednesday night.

Connor McMichael finished the game with two goals, and Pierre-Luc Dubois got three points (including his first goal in a Caps sweater) in the contest as the Capitals extended their winning streak to five games while handing the Flyers their sixth straight loss.

Here are some takeaways from the win:

Mistakes were made

Both teams looked sloppy at times tonight. Which is understandable, since they just played each other 24 hours prior. Lots of sloppy back-and-forth play, low shot totals (3-1 in favor of the Caps at just over 11 minutes into the game), and turnovers seemed to be the theme in the early going. The Capitals managed to look less sloppy throughout the early portion of the game, with the Caps defense shutting down any semblance of a threat that the Flyers offense could muster.

Meanwhile, the Flyers’ mistakes would be Capital gains, with the Caps managing to seize on several Flyer errors and build a 4-0 lead. The Flyers managed to claw back three from the Caps to make it interesting in the third period. But ultimately it was a Flyers mistake that resulted in an empty-netter for Pierre-Luc Dubois, and ending any chance of a Philly comeback.

The Capitals made their own share of mistakes throughout the contest, especially in the third period. The Flyers came out with higher energy in the third, and were able to take advantage of a few miscues by the Capitals to cut the lead down to one.

However. late in the third, it was the Flyers that made an ugly mistake that led to Pierre-Luc Dubois' empty net goal and sealed the Flyers' fate for the night.

Against a flailing team like Philadelphia, these mistakes can go unpunished, especially with D.C. able to compensate with offense. But going into the next few games — like Saturday's tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning — Washington will want to clean up their play, lest it wants to be victimized the same way Flyers were the last two nights.

Special teams still up and down

Tonight's penalty kill didn't look as dominant as it did last night. However, despite allowing two goals on the PK, there were still bright spots here for the Caps.

Throughout the first two periods, the PK shut down the Flyers’ unorganized power play quite well, holding them to a single shot in their first PP chance.

On the Capitals’ power play, the struggles continued as they went 0-for-4 on the man advantage and 0-for-9 overall in the two-game set.

While the Flyers didn't look quite as dangerous on the penalty kill tonight as they did the previous night, the Caps will still need to find their groove on the PP soon.

Depth and defense shine

Connor McMichael managed to score two on the evening, including a beauty on a breakaway during an extended shift by the Flyers. He continues his hot start to the year with a four-game point streak and has emerged as an impact player for D.C.

The fourth line also kept humming, as Nic Dowd and Taylor Raddysh would also add to the goal tally.

Also, with Trevor van Riemsdyk and Rasmus Sandin adding helpers, this was also a good night on the score sheet for the Capitals depth players and defense. 

The Caps’ defense also managed to make the Flyers offense mostly irrelevant throughout the first half of the game, with the Flyers first real chance coming at about seven minutes into the second period.

In fact, the Flyers didn't really pose any real threat to the Capitals until the third period. Even after the Flyers crawled back within one goal, the Capitals defense and Logan Thompson were able to close the door on any potential comeback.

Quick hits

- Logan Thompson managed to make some truly excellent saves against Philly tonight. Including this beaut of a save on a Morgan Frost breakaway:

Overall, both Caps goalies have looked on point to start the new season.

-Pierre-Luc Dubois managed to get his first in a Caps' uniform tonight on an empty netter late in the third period. May not be the prettiest ever, but here's to hoping its the first of many, many more for PLD this season.

-Ovechkin decided to also snag another empty netter tonight, scoring number 855. We're almost there folks...just 40 more to go!

-Quick note for the Flyers: Ross Poehling managed to get clobbered by not one but two heavy blocked shots in the third period. As I write this, I imagine he is in the coldest ice bath wondering if he's made the right choices in life. Jokes aside, good on him for coming back for more after blocking an Ovi-bomb in the third that left him hobbling off the ice.