The Flyers blogs on Hockey Hot Stove are powered by Phans of Philly, Liberty Valuation Group, New Balance of Mount Laurel, The Mens and Boys Store, Carl’s Cards and Collectibles, Team Toyota, Brian Propp’s Guffaw Cigars, Summit Public Adjusters, Marat Ioshpa’s State Farm Insurance agency, and our newest sponsor, Joe Rivera of Coldwell Banker Realty.
The Philadelphia Flyers are winless in their opening six games, following a crushing 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
Despite the best efforts of goalie Dan Vladar in net, the team in front of him can’t put the puck in the net. Philadelphia has been outscored 24-7 during this opening stretch of the season. Four of their six losses have been blowouts.
After a spirited effort on Thursday in Ottawa, there was the possibility that they could carry over. However, any good emotions from that evaporated quickly on Saturday.
For two periods on Saturday afternoon, they looked like a team that had no idea how to play a competitive NHL game. Boston cruised to a 3-0 lead before the Flyers showed a modicum of fight. Without Vladar’s performance (27 saves), the game could have been mistaken for their opening night 7-0 loss to Pittsburgh.
However, from a game performance standpoint, this afternoon basically was a carbon copy of that game.
Bruins center Fraser Minten led the way with a three point (1G, 2A) for the Bruins. They also got goals from center Pavel Zacha, Marat Khusnutdinov, and Casey Mittlestadt, along with defenseman Mason Lohrei. Goalie Jeremy Swayman had an easy afternoon with 14 saves on 15 shots.
Philadelphia’s lone goal came from rookie winger Porter Martone at 6:31.
A full recap of the game can be found here.
The Good
- The game ended, mercifully. That’s as much sugar as you want to pour on a game like that.
- Hey the power-play scored again! Martone’s goal puts the Flyers at 25th in the NHL (two for 18, good for 11.1 percent).
- Sean Couturier led the game with five hits.
The Bad
- Pretty much besieged all afternoon, Dan Vladar did what he could in net. However, the opening goal he gave up to Zacha was very stoppable and put the the Flyers on their heels early.
- With the exception of some occasional moment, Trevor Zegras has been a non-entity for the Flyers. This afternoon wasn’t any different. Whether it’s confidence or just bad luck, his lack of production has been an anchor. He needs to get going.
- The Flyers struggled at the face-off dot yet again. Their main three centers each lost their battles (Sean Couturier 7 for 16, Christian Dvorak 5 for 13, and Noah Cates was two for six. Only Noel Acciari and Denver Barkey finished above 50 percent. Unless you’re counting Matvei Michkov’s three draws (he won two of them).
The Ugly
- The first period was nightmare fuel for the Flyers. From puck drop, it was pretty evident that the Flyers were in for a rough ride. They were outshot 12-3. Boston doubled them up on shot attempts alone (20-10).
- Additionally, the Flyers were incredibly passive and mistake-prone in the opening period. They were outhit 11-5 to go with 10 give-aways. The fact that they only trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes was a minor miracle.
- The second period wasn’t much better, as they were limited to five shots half-way through the game. They were down 22-8 after forty minutes.
- Keeping with the shots deficiency theme: through the opening six games, they’ve been outshot 216-121.
- The Simon Benoit-Helge Grans pairing was an absolute disaster. On the Bruins fourth goal, they were pushed around. Benoit in particular had a very rough game with had four giveaways and a minus-three rating.
- Despite assisting on Martone’s power-play goal, David Jiricek made some mystifying decisions handling the puck in the offensive zone. Defensively, he wasn’t much better, either.
- Nick Seeler had a particularly painful looking blocked shot in the third period. On the replay, it looked like the puck hit his back. Despite that, he was back out for his next shift.
Flyers’ MASH Unit
Prior to the game, the Flyers announced that they would be without forward Travis Konecny, along with defenseman Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen.
Konecny and York are day-to-day with their respective injuries. But they’re expected to miss Sunday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes as well, per general manger Daniel Briere. Ristolainen was placed on injured reserve with his upper body injury.
They also announced forward Nikita Grebenkin had back surgery and would be out at least four months.
Weekend Off The Post Radio
The weekend edition of Off The Post Radio on Hockey Hot Stove is live Sunday at 9:30am ET.
Michael Augello, Russ Cohen, and I will be breaking down all the latest news in the NHL. What will be the impact of Igor Shesterkin’s season ending injury on the Rangers? Why do the Flyers keep digging themselves a hole? Along with everything happening with the Leafs, Sabres, and much more!
Join us on our Youtube Channel:
Home › Forums › Flyers Deep-Sixed By Bruins: Good, Bad, Ugly
Tagged: nhl, philadelphia-flyers