Flyers Lose Fifth In a Row As Boston Drops Philly 4-1
By Scott Cole
For the first 31 minutes, the Flyers were keeping pace with the mighty Boston Bruins, the top team in the NHL and the leaders in just about every team statistical category there is. But once the Bruins started rolling, the Flyers had no answer. David Krejci powered the Bruins with a two goal effort as the team bested Philly 4-1.
Philly had some chances early on. Noah Cates, Owen Tippett, and Morgan Frost all had great chances in front of the net with a lot of traffic. Unfortunately for them, the Bruins have Linus Ullmark in net. He would stop 22 of the 23 shots he’d face. He is also the league leader in GAA and save percentage. And with a Boston team that has lost only two games all season, you better have a whole army of snipers ready to fire away; something the Flyers do not have at present.
The Bruins almost scored at the end of the first period as David Pastrňák, on a power play for two many men on the ice (the worst penalty in hockey!), got a shot off that was wedged in between the skate of Carter Hart and the post on the left side of the net. Patrice Bergeron tried to jam it home, but Hart was able to keep the game scoreless at the end of the first frame. Hart would end up stopping 28 of the 32 shots he faced.
But with 9:35 left in the second, fourth liner Tomas Nosek found the back of the net on a pass from Nick Foligno. Folgino had circled behind the net, Hart chased and followed, not seeing that Nosek was coming up. By the time Foligno had passed it over to Nosek, Hart had to make a sprawling attempt to get the shot, and failed. The game would stay at 1-0 before Jake DeBrusk scored on a power play to put Boston up 2-0 7:32 into the third period.
It has seemed of late that Philly waits for a team to get a 2-0 lead before they get going. It hasn’t worked as of yet, but that’s what’s been happening. But two minutes after Boston scored on their power play goal, the Flyers found themselves with a man advantage. After winning the faceoff, Tony DeAngelo fed the puck to Kevin Hayes. Hayes fed it back across the ice to Tippett who one-timed it over Ullmark’s shoulder. The Flyers had gotten past the brick wall and put the game within one.
At that point, Boston put it out of reach. It was just seconds later that Krecji scored his first goal of the game. Six minutes later, on a power play, Krecji struck again.
The Flyers travel to Montreal to face off against them on Saturday night, hoping to end this losing streak. But days after their head coach said “They suck“, they are sure playing like it. This team can’t continue to make bad penalties, and allow the other team to score a couple of goals before they get going. This is going to be a long season if this continues.
Also, in more of the “we don’t need this right now” news, Travis Konecny left the game in the middle of the second period with some sort of possible hand injury. He did not return and his status is uncertain.