The Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-game winning streak came to a screeching halt today against the Boston Bruins as they were beaten 6-0 by the NHL’s best.
David Pastrnak continued his ways against the Flyers with 2 goals and an assist, Pavel Zacha scored 2 goals and grabbed an assist as well, Matt Grzelcyk and Brad Marchand each scored a goal and added a helper, Charlie McAvoy recorded 2 assists, and David Krejci recorded 3 assists in his 1,000th career game. The “Czech” Line of Zacha, Pastrnak, and Krejci dominated the game, scoring 3 times in the first 24 minutes. Jeremy Swayman wasn’t necessarily tested even though he faced 29 shots but he earned the shutout and came up with a few big stops, including one on Wade Allison with the score only 1-0.
Carter Hart was pulled after allowing 4 goals on 16 shots and Samuel Ersson allowed 2 goals on 13 shots in relief, with no real standouts to speak of. The Bruins earned their 23rd win on home ice and 34th on the season, as the Flyers look ahead to tomorrow’s game against the Anaheim Ducks on home ice to forget about today’s matinee.
The surging Philadelphia Flyers walked into TD Garden with 7 wins out of their last 8 games after having 7 wins in their previous 30 games. It is now becoming a theme that John Tortorella is keeping the same lineup after juggling and tinkering around so much during the early stages of the season. Both teams remained unchanged from their previous games, with the sole exception being in goal for the Bruins who started Jeremy Swayman. The Flyers avoided Vezina Trophy runaway Linus Ullmark, but the Bruins in general entered today’s game with a ridiculous 33-5-4 record. I’m not sure many would have pegged this to be the matchup when they looked into the future of the team’s schedule but with so much changing for the Flyers in a matter of a month, it was set to be a fun game after all as both teams had won 7 of their previous 10. Unfortunately, that’s not how things turned out.
FIRST PERIOD
After a good start to the game where the Flyers held a 3-0 shot advantage in the first 3 and a half minutes, Ivan Provorov made the first mistake of the game as his dump-in attempt from the neutral zone was blocked down by the Bruins, which allowed Pavel Zacha to walk in on Carter Hart for a scoring chance that he was able to swallow up. Not too long afterwards with end to end play from both sides, David Pastrnak scored the game’s opening goal 4:38 in after another Flyers turnover.
Tony DeAngelo’s clearance attempt was knocked down by David Krejci who sent a beautiful saucer pass past a few Flyer jerseys to Pavel Zacha who then sent a cross-seam pass for Pastrnak to finish off the pretty passing for his 34th goal of the season.
The Flyers had a great chance on the next shift after Kevin Hayes set up Wade Allison in the blue paint from below the goal line but his shot was stopped by the pad of Swayman as Allison walked in unmarked and untouched.
After the referees missed a double-minor high-sticking penalty on Ivan Provorov, the Bruins were called for a goaltender interference penalty after A.J. Greer nudged Carter Hart down as he was trying to play the puck behind his net with 10:11 remaining in the period. The number one penalty killing unit in the NHL made very easy work of the Flyers’ power play for the first 90 seconds as the Flyers were not able to set up, enter the zone, or even gather through the neutral zone with ease. Even once they were set up, the Flyers didn’t have room to maneuver around or even fire a shot on goal.
With 4:55 remaining in the period, the Czech Line was at it again, this time with Pavel Zacha absolutely ripping an unbalanced slap-shot past the blocker of Carter Hart. Hampus Lindholm passed the puck to David Krejci who was entering the zone, he made a move at the blue-line before sending a saucer pass to Zacha between Noah Cates and Travis Konecny. It was the second line’s second goal of the period, 2nd assist for Krejci in his 1000th game, and 6th goal of the season for the former Devil, Zacha.
A minute later, another former Devil in Taylor Hall jumped on a loose puck and jettisoned on a breakaway that was fortunately blockered away by Hart, keeping the surging Bruins at bay for the time being.
The Bruins entered the first intermission with a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard and an 11-9 shot advantage. The Flyers fired 3 shots on goal in the final 11 minutes as the Bruins started to slowly take over the game. The penalty kill was a huge momentum swing for the home-team and they came within inches of making it 3-0 a few times had it not been for some timely stops by Carter Hart.
SECOND PERIOD
3:55 into the second period, Brad Marchand added to the Bruins’ lead with his 5th goal in his last 9 games and 14th overall on the year. Patrice Bergeron entered the zone with speed, stopped, spun around, sent a pass to the point for Matt Grzelcyk. His slap-shot was deflected and blocked but it was loose in and around the blue paint for Marchand to finish off. He also outmuscled Ivan Provorov as the last man in front of Hart.
47 seconds later, the Czech Line made it 4-0 after Pavel Zacha’s pass attempt into the middle of the ice deflected off a Flyer and into the net. Entering the offensive zone, David Krejci fed the puck to Zacha who then outmaneuvered and outmuscled Rasmus Ristolainen as he was able to get around him with a pass to the front of the net.
It was Nick Seeler with the double whammy after he first turned the puck over from his own zone after he inadvertently tried making a play along the boards. His pass was picked off by Krejci and then the puck went off the his skates and into the net with Krejci heading into the blue paint and Pastrnak waiting at the other side of the net on the Zacha pass attempt.
Unfortunately that was all she wrote for Carter Hart, who got pulled for Samuel Ersson. With the Flyers playing 5 times this week including 2 sets of back-to-backs, Hart will be between the pipes in short order to avenge this performance after 2 solid games against the Washington Capitals.
With 14:45 remaining, the Flyers earned a much needed power play after Taylor Hall was called for a slashing minor; another fantastic kill for the Bruins who didn’t allow the Flyers to generate much of anything on their second power play attempt and effectively killed any momentum building they could’ve conjured up with the power play.
With 1:27 remaining in the second period, Travis Konecny and Nick Foligno were sent to the box for coincidental minors, Konecny for roughing and Foligno for cross-checking. 20 seconds into the 4-on-4, Morgan Frost turned the puck over right outside of their blue-line to David Pastrnak, who he then had to slash and hook to impede his scoring chance. The Bruins set out on a 4-on-3 for 1:40 with the Flyers surviving the first 57 seconds as the period came to a close.
The Bruins doubled their lead with 2 goals in a span of 47 seconds, truly nailing the coffin for the Flyers early in this one. There were moments and shifts where the Flyers looked dangerous but any chances they created was gobbled up by Swayman.
THIRD PERIOD
36 seconds into the third period, David Pastrnak ripped a slap-shot one-timer glove side on Samuel Ersson for his second goal of the game, 25th power play point of the season, and 35th goal of the year. Brad Marchand threaded the needle with a perfect feed to set up the NHL’s 2nd-leading goal scorer, who now trails Connor McDavid by 2 goals for the league lead.
With 17:31 remaining, Brandon Carlo was called for a cross-checking minor, sending the Flyers to their 3rd power play of the game. Zack MacEwen got a couple chances after the power play had expired and with Swayman covering up and MacEwen in the paint, chaos ensued with Lindholm and MacEwen getting coincidental minors with the latter receiving an extra minor – giving the Bruins another power play.
On the penalty kill, Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny created another scoring chance with Konecny reeling after colliding with the ankle of a Bruin defender and then smashing into the boards face first. Noah Cates then rang one off the post on the very next shift. Probably their best group of chances – unfortunately it was while they were shorthanded and in the third period of a 5-0 game.
Then a few minutes later at the 7:30 mark, Nicolas Deslauriers took exception to a hit from A.J. Greer on Tony DeAngelo along the boards. Deslauriers wanted to drop the gloves with Greer earlier in the game to no avail. This time around he tried again with Greer’s teammates coming to the rescue. Deslauriers and Greer each received 2 for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.
34 seconds into the 4-on-4, Matt Grzelcyk fired a wrist shot top shelf past the blocker of Samuel Ersson. The Bruins were just toying with the Flyers, making pass after pass, nifty play after nifty play with Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak nabbing the assists.
The penalties just kept on rolling with McAvoy being called for a holding minor with 5:36 left in the game. 20 seconds into the man advantage, Patrice Bergeron clipped Morgan Frost in the face with a lot of blood gushing onto the ice. Bergeron was given a double minor and the Flyers had at least 100 seconds of 5-on-3 time.
Having only 1 shot on their first 3 power play attempts, they were only able to muster 2 shots from the point with a 2-man advantage that Swayman had no issues in seeing or stopping. They did a much better job on Bergeron’s remaining double-minor, keeping the puck in the zone several times but due to fatigue their chances weren’t as tough to deal with. Their chances kept coming from the point with no deflections set up.
Jeremy Swayman made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Boston Bruins scored 2 goals in each period to handily beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-0 in the first of 5 games this week for the Orange and Black.
