Flyers game means little to Richards

Former Flyers captain Mike Richards downplayed facing his ex-team Wednesday at the Verizon Center.

It will be the first time Richards has played against the Flyers since he signed a free-agent contract with Washington earlier this month.

Richards spent six seasons with the Flyers before being dealt to Los Angeles in 2011.

"It was a long time ago," Richards, Washington's fourth-line center, told reporters after the Capitals' practice Tuesday in Arlington, Va. "Four, five years ago now. There might be one player left on the team that I played with, so it really doesn't make much of a difference to me anymore."

He said it was "no different than playing against any other team, other than I wore that jersey before."

In three games with the Caps, Richards has no points.

Richards was teammates with two players who are current Flyers: Claude Giroux and R.J. Umberger.

"Anytime you face one of your ex-teammates, at first it's a little weird, but it's pretty fun," said Giroux, the Flyers' captain.

Giroux said he talked to Richards a lot after he was traded to the Kings.

Giroux said early in his captaincy, Richards "reached out to me. I was kind of having a tough time, and he reached out to me, and since then we text once in a while, and it's good for him to be back in the league. I've learned so much from him."

Richards has a court hearing Thursday for allegedly carrying a controlled substance across the United States/Canadian border in June.

After being recalled from the Phantoms and playing one game, Sam Gagner was not happy about being benched Monday against Boston.

"I was frustrated," he said. "I thought I had played well enough in Pittsburgh to at least give myself another look."

Nine players participated in the Flyers' optional skate Tuesday. . . . The Caps have a plus-55 goal differential, while the Flyers' is minus-19. . . . Michal Neuvirth rated the Flyers' first half of the season a C-minus. "We can't be happy; we would like to be in a playoff spot," he said. . . . Injured Caps defenseman John Carlson, sidelined the last 12 games, could return to the lineup Wednesday.