WASHINGTON — Falling flat after an emotional week, the Washington Capitals cost themselves their easiest path to a division title and showed worrying signs with the playoffs approaching.

The Capitals lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 Friday night, missing their chance to reclaim first place in the East Division. They trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by two points with two games left on their regular-season schedule.

A victory in their regular-season finale against last-place Buffalo on Saturday and another Washington loss to Philadelphia hours later would clinch the division for Pittsburgh.

“They’re big points for us that we let get by here, so there can’t be any excuses,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “We needed to be better. I just thought we were just on our heels too much.”

Long since eliminated from playoff contention, the Flyers nevertheless outplayed the Capitals, who were again without captain Alex Ovechkin and defenseman Justin Schultz because of lower-body injuries and top center Evgeny Kuznetsov, who’s on the NHL COVID protocol list. Rookie goaltender Vitek Vanecek allowed three goals on 28 shots in his third consecutive start with Ilya Samsonov also out for protocol reasons.

Capitals winger T.J. Oshie scored his fourth goal in the past two games.