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The Philadelphia Flyers (24-20-9) lost for the 10th time in their last 12 games (2-8-2) with a 6-3 defeat in Boston on Thursday. All-too-familiar problems arose yet again. Boston built an early lead and steadily pulled away.
Head coach Rick Tocchet overhauled all four forward lines in this game. Rasmus Ristolainen returned to the lineup after leaving Wednesday’s game with a lower-body injury early in the first period. According to the player, Ristolainen stepped on the puck and injured himself. He felt well enough to suit up on Wednesday, however.
Starting goaltender Samuel Ersson (15 saves on 20 shots) exited with a lower-body injury after the second period. Dan Vladar stopped all six shots he faced in relief.
A would-be Christian Dvorak goal in the first period was disallowed on a goaltender interference challenge.The Flyers got second period goals from Travis Konecny (21st) and Nikita Grebenkin (4th). Matvei Michkov (PPG,13th) scored a power play goal late in the third period.
The good
- Nikita Grebenkin played arguably his best game of the season. Apart from hustling up a goal, he was around the puck all night. Grebenkin brought a physical element as well. Overall, he too advantage of his chance to move up in the lineup. He earned a longer look.
- Konecny has been the biggest offensive bright spot for the Flyers in a horrid month for the club itself. That continued on Thursday.
- The Flyers’ rejiggered fourth line — Sean Couturier centering Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers — did their part on Thursday. They brought energy and feistiness.
- Philly did OK in terms of generating chances. They even somehow kept David Pastrnak (10 points in his previous five games) off the scoresheet. However, too much of the process was still off-target to take solace in small improvements.
- The Flyers only played shorthanded once, and killed the penalty.
The bad
- In his two periods of action, Ersson made at least three outstanding saves. Unfortunately, he also had two shots go through him. Then he got injured again.
- The disallowed Dvorak goal was borderline as goalie interference goes. It did not look like Grebenkin prevented Jeremy Swayman from having a fair chance to attempt a save on Dvorak’s followup. That said, if one used the strictest of criteria for interference in the blue paint, it was the right call. The bigger issue is the serial inconsistency of goaltender interference reviews.
- There’s no comfort in the credited hits disparity (36-15). It meant two things: 1) The Bruins had the puck a lot more than Philly, and 2) the Flyers’ fourth line did their job. Among the Flyers’ hits, Deslauriers had nine in 12:12 of ice time. Hathaway had seven in 12:50. Couturier had five in 13:57. That’s 21 right there.
- The line with Z
The ugly
- This is not a recording: back-door goals, Flyers caught puck watching, structural lapses. Defenders over-commiting. Why do the Flyers repeatedly yield four-plus goals in games this month? Yes, the goaltending has been Jekyll-and-Hyde. But there have been way too many plays where the five-man units and penalty killers haven’t given the goalies much chance. What happens when back-post goals happen too often? Goalies become hyper-aware of the far side. They start to cheat laterally. Goals start going through the five-hole or in the short side.
- Each and every Flyers skater was at least minus-one for the night.
- The line with Zegras centering Michkov and Brink had numerous rough shifts. They may require patience to find some chemistry. On Thursday, the undersized trio had trouble generating or sustaining pressure. Having Zegras at center means almost guaranteed faceoff losses (1-for-12). It also creates defensive problems because Tocchet expects centers to bear the heaviest burden of covering turf on both sides and through the middle. However, the Flyers are so thin at center, there may be no other choice right now.
Flyers starting lineup
Nikita Grebenkin — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov — Trevor Zegras — Bobby Brink
Denver Barkey — Noah Cates — Owen Tippett
Nicolas Deslauriers — Sean Couturier — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drydale
Nick Seeler — Noah Juulsen
Samuel Ersson
[Dan Vladar]
The lack of response to the Michkov cheap shot was inexusable.
Pretty sure that disallowed goal would not have been overturned if Boston scored it.
Bill, have you noticed a drop in play in general for those recently added to Olympic rosters? Think you could say that about Risto and Sanheim.
It’s hard to separate what’s individual from what’s nearly team-wide. I don’t think Sanheim has been individually awful this month but he (like many)has room to play better. With Ristolainen, he missed a week due to injury and then had to leave the Columbus game early in the first period. But he’s been caught out of position a few times that stand out. When he’s playing well, he simplifies things. He’s a great athlete but hockey sense is not his strength.