The Philadelphia Flyers played host to the Boston Bruins on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center in the second meeting between the two clubs this season.
The Bruins last visited South Philadelphia back on October 20th, and were promptly thrashed by the Flyers 6-3 in front of a raucous orange-clad crowd in the first meeting of the season as well.
This time around, things didn’t go according to plan for the Flyers as the Bruins took this one 5-2 in a heated, deflating, poorly officiated game.
FIRST PERIOD
The first period began with a lot of uneventful play but a little grit. 4:36 was when the game’s first penalty was called as Taylor Hall was sent off for tripping against Claude Giroux, and the Flyers would head to the power play.
The extra man, as has been the trend, did themselves no favors and did not capitalize against the Bruins penalty kill.
Boston would get their own power play at 10:19 after Giroux was whistled for a trip of his own against Brandon Carlo. The Flyers’ penalty kill, which has been surprisingly good this year, would head to work for the first time tonight.
The Bruins had some good chances but Martin Jones and the Flyers held off the Bruins’ dangerous power play despite their best efforts. Boston would also have some abbreviated 5-on-3 time after Justin Braun was sent to the penalty box for, once again, a tripping minor, but the Flyers did their job and killed off the infractions.
Even though they were stymied with the man-advantage, Boston kept firing away and eventually they broke through with 1:35 to play in the opening frame. Anton Blidh dished the puck from the end boards to the Philadelphia crease, where Tomas Nosek was camped out and beat Jones on the backhand to make it 1-0 Bruins.
The late goal would stand as the period’s only tally and the Bruins led 1-0 after twenty minutes. They also led the shots on goal battle by a whopping 21-8 ratio.
SECOND PERIOD
The Flyers were looking to come out of the first intermission with some more juice and try to tie the game up quickly. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened, as the Bruins rammed home a goal just 30 seconds into the second period.
Derek Forbort slapped home a one-time shot from the right point that bounced off of Braun’s stick and past Jones’ blocker for a lucky goal that made it 2-0 Bruins in a flash.
The Flyers, needing a response, got what they wished for just 52 seconds later thanks to Derick Brassard. Giroux sent the puck behind the net to Cam Atkinson, who was able to shovel the puck into the goal mouth under pressure from a Boston defender. Brassard was in the right place at the right time and he took Atkinson’s pass and stuffed it through Linus Ullmark to get Philadelphia on the board and make it a 2-1 contest.
At 3:42 of the period, Forbort would be sent to the box and the call once again was, you guessed it, tripping. He hauled down Joel Farabee and the Flyers went to their second power play of the contest.
Philadelphia did not score again and up to that point, they were 1-for-25 on their last 25 attempts on the power play. No matter what they do or don’t change, nothing has clicked with an extra man on the ice.
We would all be subjected to another Flyers power play at 8:30 of the period after noted pest Brad Marchand was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after a post-whistle scrum behind the Philadelphia cage. And somehow, someway, the Flyers actually did something with it.
After a nice little keep at the blueline, Ivan Provorov spotted Giroux in the left circle. Giroux was able to find Brassard through a sea of bodies in the slot and Brassard rifled home his second goal of the night into a yawning cage to tie the game at 2-2 at 9:25.
The bad blood had not subsided yet, as Farabee and Charlie McAvoy had a short but spirited scrap behind the play in the Boston zone at 10:32, with the larger McAvoy getting the takedown.
The Bruins would not only record a fight win, but they’d rack up a goal too before the horn sounded on period number two. It was the defenseman Forbort once again who beat Jones, this time on a snipe from the slot past Jones’ glove to make it 3-2 Boston at 16:27.
The Bruins would take the 3-2 advantage into the second intermission shortly afterwards. Boston was still leading in shots as well, with 34-19 being the mark after forty minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
The Flyers needed to make sure they held the fort down in the third period when they returned to the ice, but they hadn’t learned their lesson from the previous period before.
Craig Smith ended up hustling up the ice and beat Jones just 1:28 into the third period despite pressure from behind from Travis Sanheim. Just like that, Boston restored their two-goal lead with a 4-2 score early in the final frame.
The parade to the penalty box in this game continued as Oskar Lindblom was sent off for hooking against Jake DeBrusk to give the Bruins their third power play of the evening.
Fortunately for the Flyers, it was short-lived as Bergeron was given a hooking minor of his own against Sean Couturier just 18 seconds into the power play, and it became a lengthy 4-on-4 session before a brief Philadelphia power play commenced with no result.
After a span that included an extended Bruins shift in the Philadelphia zone, Brassard was hauled down by Brandon Carlo for what seemed like an upcoming Flyers power play. However, the men in stripes made the game about themselves and handed out an egregiously terrible call.
The referee called a delay of game for a faceoff violation for the puck being knocked out of his hand by Giroux, even though Bergeron clearly was a the one that committed the infraction upon review. An irate Giroux barked at the officials but it was all for naught as the referee made sure a Flyer went into the box, and Zack MacEwen would serve the penalty.
Sure enough, the Bruins would score on the bogus 4-on-4 as David Pastrnak sent home a snap shot into the net by Jones to give Boston an undeserved 5-2 lead.
The Flyers would actually get a power play shortly after at 14:20 as Forbort was called for hooking against MacEwen, though it seemed like the wind was taken out of the Flyers’ sails by the poor officiating already.
Philadelphia had one or two decent looks, but nothing came of it as the Bruins fended off the Flyers’ efforts with relative ease.
That would be the case for the rest of the game as the Bruins walked away from Wells Fargo Center with a 5-2 victory over the Flyers, who have now lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
TAKEAWAYS
– The officiating crew should be embarrassed for how they screwed the Flyers out of a late power play in a crucial moment of the game. It was a 4-2 contest with 8:06 remaining, and yes the Flyers’ power play has been awful, but they scored earlier in the game and it’s a huge opportunity to claw within a goal. And they call a violation that, if anything, should’ve been called against Patrice Bergeron as he was the one who actually knocked the puck from the referee’s hand. Of course, Boston scored later in the same shift to pretty much seal the game. That was an embarrassing call that they knew wasn’t a legitimate penalty, and they just went along with it even after discussing it. Absolutely disgraceful.
– Martin Jones played pretty well, all things considered. He stopped 39 Bruins shots, and none of the goals he let up were necessarily bad either. Maybe you’d like him to stop the second Derek Forbort shot that whizzed by his glove and his head, or maybe you’d like him to not overplay the David Pastrnak goal so much. But overall, he gave the Flyers a chance to stay in the game, and that’s all you can really ask from your backup goaltender.
– Derick Brassard racked up his first multi-goal appearance with the Orange and Black. He is now only one of three Flyers to accomplish that feat this season, joining Cam Atkinson (twice) and Claude Giroux. He has played well of late and already has four goals now this season, which is half of his output from all of last season when he was with the Coyotes.
– Claude Giroux picked up two assists to get back to a point-per-game pace, as he now has 16 points in 16 games. He currently leads the Flyers outright in assists and points, and he’s also tied for the team lead in goals with Cam Atkinson. The captain is putting the team on his back so far as we near the quarter-way mark of the regular season.
