The Flyers lost to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday in what could only be considered a disappointing waste of a good effort. Though the Bruins won the game and had a corsi metrics advantage, the numbers don’t tell the real story, which was the Flyers were undone by bad penalties and a red hot Bruins’ power play.
First Period
CF:15 CA:18 CF%: 45.45%
The Bruins scored on the game’s first attempt. After walking by Ghost, Pasternak’s shot/pass went through the crease and deflected off Provorov’s stick and into the net. That awful sequence would not be the worst the Flyers looked in the period as the team was plagued by turnovers while attempting to leave their own zone. The giveaways led to extended periods of Bruins possession and scoring chances.
The CF% was not at all indicative of just how dominant the Bruins were. The CF% was skewed by a 6-1 CF advantage the Flyers collected in the period’s final two minutes, but they were on their heels for virtually every shift prior to that point.
Second Period
CF:19 CA:19 CF%: 50.00%
The start of second period is where the Flyers showed life. The period’s CF% would end even at 50%, though Philadelphia controlled play through the first five minutes. The Flyers were able to hold the puck in the Bruins zone for substantial stretches, but did not generate much in the way of shot attempts.
The Bruins has single dominant sequence, started by a sloppy Flyers’ icing with 13:19 remaining in the period. The perfection line won a face off against the Patrick-Giroux-Voracek line and quickly generated three shot attempts. The Flyers would freeze the puck, allowing for a TV timeout. The TV time out allowed the perfection line to catch its breath and double up and take another shift.
The combination of Hayes-Lindblom-TK line would face perfection after the commercial, giving up two attempts and committing three turnovers. In 70 seconds the Bruins had created a 5-0 corsi advantage, with Pastrnak creating a high danger chance at the goal mouth. Outside that of that stretch and a couple of bad turnovers the Flyers carried play.
Third Period
CF:10 CA:14 CF%: 41.67
The Flyers entered the period tied 1-1 and would soon take the lead after killing of the remnants of second period penalty. The Flyers would absorb the Bruins’ pressure with Hart calmly denying them. Finally, the Bruins’ aggression would allow the Flyers to convert a Laughton to Farabee 2 on 1 giving the Flyers a 3-1 lead.
They would carry 5 v. 5 play, despite the CF%, spending time forechecking in the Bruins’ end. Silly penalties would be the team’s undoing as the Bruins would rally for 3 PP goals and take the win in overtime.
Corsi Winner
BOS Patrice Bergeron CF:20 CA:11 CF%: 64.52%
Bergeron was terrific, as was the entire perfection line. The Bruins rely on the line to provide offense and win most of their shifts, and they did just that through the night. The line would score only one 5 v. 5 goal, right off the opening faceoff. Despite the gaudy corsi numbers the Flyers did a decent job containing Bergeron in 5 v 5 play. The Flyers while short handed was another story.
Corsi Losers:
PHI Bunnaman, Aube-Kubel CF:4 CA:9 CF%:30.77%
Bunnaman, NAK and Raffl had been playing well for the Flyers as of late, posting some reasonably good corsi numbers in their own right. The line struggled in the first period giving up the tough luck strike as the game opened. That would just be the start of a difficult period. Bunnaman and NAK would play solid defense, gaining the puck only to make a costly turnover in their own end that would force them into another extended defensive stint. Their inability to leave the zone cleanly was the primary issue.
As the game continued, things got better. After being dominated by the “Perfection Line” 5-0 in shot attempts, the coaching staff got them away from the Bruins top line, where they held even.
Conclusion
CF:44 CA:51 CF%: 46.32
Again, they lost the corsi battle in a manner that would indicate that they should have lost the game. But there is a lot of context missing in how things played out. The Flyers were terrible in the first period, much worse than the corsi stats indicates, and worse than the 1-0 score line read. Without Hart’s splendid goaltending they could have easily been down 3-0.
The second and third periods the Flyers were winning at 5 v. 5, absorbing Bruins pressure and then were able to counter punch. The teams’ powerplays would ultimately decide the game with the Bruins bagging three powerplay goals to the Flyers none.
Despite the negative corsi numbers, it is hard not to feel like they let the Bruins off the mat and gave them a win for the second time this season.
All stats provided by Naturalstattrick.com