Three Players Who Excelled In Philadelphia Flyers OT Loss To Bruins

The Philadelphia Flyers may have lost, but these three players were still able to shine throughout the contest.

Looking for their second win of the 2019-20 preseason, the Philadelphia Flyers traveled to Boston to take on the Bruins at the TD Garden. Brian Elliott started the game and opposed Tuukka Rask in the crease. The first period didn’t start off the way the Flyers wanted, as they found themselves down 1-0 following a goal from Jakub Lauko. Philadelphia quickly got the goal back thanks to Travis Konecny, and things remained tied after 20 minutes of action.

That tie didn’t stay for long in the second. Boston was able to capitalize on a 2-on-1 transition, scoring their second goal of the game thanks to Brad Marchand. There was nothing that Elliott, could do as it was a beautiful passing display from David Pastrnak and Marchand. The Flyers were able to gain some pressure in the Bruins zone but ultimately couldn’t find a way by Rask as the score stayed 2-1.

Rask exited the game for Dan Vladar to begin the third and Philadelphia took advantage of the young net-minder. Carsen Twarynski potted his second goal in as many games off of a rebound attempt to knot everything up at two. Connor Bunnaman followed it up with a power-play tally to gift the Flyers with a 3-2 lead, but Boston came back to send it to overtime on a late-period goal from Chris Wagner. As the overtime period went on, Jake DeBrusk was able to get a puck to squeak through Elliott on a power-play that ended up being the game-winner for the Bruins. While the Flyers failed to walk away as the victor, they still had plenty of players who stood out in the matchup.

Konecny was one of them. He was able to snipe-home a goal off of a tremendous feed from James van Riemsdyk, shifting momentum for Philadelphia at that point in the first. The six-year, 33 million dollar man led all Flyers forwards in expected Goals For with 0.58 at 5-on-5 on the night while also tying for a team-high ten Scoring Chances For. Konecny, as always, boasted his energy and tenacity whenever he took a shift and got physical from time to time, too.

I liked what I saw from Shayne Gostisbehere, as well. The apparent injury that Ghost played with during the 2018-19 season must’ve really hampered the way he skates because he’s almost looked like a completely different player during the exhibition, including in this game. Gostisbehere has been so much more explosive in his strides and making the moves we’ve come accustomed to seeing out of him through the years. If the 26-year-old blue-liner can stay healthy this season, we could be looking at a major bounce-back year for Ghost Bear.

As far as prospects, or The Youths, go, I thought Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Bunnaman, and Twarynski had very strong showings. Does that make this more than three players? Yes, but cheating happens, ok? Bunnaman had two scoring chances in the middle frame and five for the contest, including a partial break, which tied for sixth on the squad. Aube-Kubel did a lot of little things right, being in the correct spots, making plays on both ends, and creating zone entries. Twarynski did a solid job of winning puck battles and also scored the matchup’s equalizer in the third that eventually led to Bunnaman’s first goal of the preseason.

The Flyers will hope to find their second win of the preseason on Thursday as they face-off against the New York Rangers.