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Flyers clobbered by Caps; Mason gets chased

WASHINGTON - Second-year Flyers coach Dave Hakstol made more lineup changes Sunday afternoon at the Verizon Center, but it didn't stop The Great Skid that has followed their 10-game winning streak.

WASHINGTON - Second-year Flyers coach Dave Hakstol made more lineup changes Sunday afternoon at the Verizon Center, but it didn't stop The Great Skid that has followed their 10-game winning streak.

The Flyers lost 5-0 to a Washington team that played its backup goalie, Philipp Grubauer, and for the first two periods appeared to be looking ahead to its showdown with Pittsburgh on Monday.

The Capitals woke up. They pulled away from a 1-0 lead by scoring four goals - two by ex-Flyer Justin Williams, two by defenseman Matt Niskanen - in a five-minute span early in the third period. That chased Steve Mason (five goals on 17 shots) and gave the Caps a 5-0 lead.

"I don't know if we're overthinking or what, but obviously tonight wasn't the way we wanted to play," said slumping captain Claude Giroux (minus-15 in his last 15 games), who addressed his teammates after the loss.

"Right now, the negative energy seems to be like a landslide," general manager Ron Hextall said, adding that "mental mistakes are killing us."

Washington won its ninth straight, while the Flyers lost their ninth in a row on the road (0-7-2).

Asked if he would be tempted to shake up the team by promoting players from the AHL's Phantoms, Hextall said he wouldn't overreact.

"Right now, we're going to stick with what we've got here and move forward," he said, "but on a day-to-day basis, I always look to see where we can make our club better. If there's something we can do that makes it better, we'll do it."

The Flyers continue to lament about not playing a full 60 minutes, but they haven't corrected the problem.

"There's no excuse for it," coach Dave Hakstol said.

Grubauer made 24 saves as the Capitals recorded their fourth shutout in the last six games and moved to No. 1 overall in the NHL with 63 points.

The Flyers outplayed the Capitals but faced a 1-0 deficit after 40 minutes.

"It was a very winnable game for us," defenseman Michael Del Zotto said. "We get into the third and give up that second goal and the floodgates opened and we just kind of collapsed after that."

In hindsight, Hakstol said he should have taken a timeout after the Caps had taken a 3-0 lead, hoping it stopped their momentum.

It probably wouldn't have mattered because the Flyers - who went 0 for 5 on the power play - are struggling to put the puck in the net.

Their only "goal" Sunday was scored on Radko Gudas' shot from just inside center ice, but it didn't count because a referee's whistle had blown for offside. Grubauer said he relaxed because he knew the shot didn't count.

Overall, the Flyers have just three wins in 14 games since their 10-game winning streak ended.

Hakstol put Wayne Simmonds back on the top line and dropped Travis Konecny down to the third unit. He also reinserted defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, benched Brandon Manning, and put Mason back in goal after a one-game break.

No matter. The Flyers played two good periods before an embarrassing third period in which they yielded continual odd-man rushes, and Mason allowed Niskanen's long shot to bounce off his glove and into the net.

Stop the season, the Flyers want to get off.

Washington had only 10 shots over the first two periods and didn't seem all that interested. Then came the Flyers' third-period meltdown.

"Sometimes when things aren't going well . . . one mistake turns itself into two and three, and that's where we have to do a better job of stopping that," Hakstol said.

The Caps took the lead when Del Zotto whiffed on a clearing attempt and had it taken away by Andre Burakovsky, whose power play goal gave Washington a 1-0 lead midway through the second.

"An unfortunate bounce, and it just seems that's the way things are going right now," Del Zotto said.

The Flyers, who have allowed four or more goals in eight of the last 11 games, now go on their bye week and don't play until Saturday, when they host New Jersey.

"This is pretty bad," Simmonds said of the losing skid. "I don't know how much worse we can get. It's been a combination of things. I don't think it's effort or anything like that. It's the execution."

scarchidi@phillynews.com

@BroadStBull