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Wrap: Flyers Churn Out a Clunker in 4-1 Loss to Bruins |
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A very strong goaltending performance by Samuel Ersson and a nice play by Matvei Michkov on the lone Philadelphia goal were just about the only bright spots in an ugly 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday evening.
If not for Ersson, the game would have been a total blowout. Ersson stopped 30 of 32 shots to give his team a chance to win. Late empty net goals by Charlie Coyle and Mark Kastelic doubled the final Boston output from two to four goals. Tyler Johnson netted the game-winner at 7:50 of the third period with Jett Luchanko in the box for hooking. Justin Brazeau opened the scoring at 9:57 of the first period on a wide-open chance near the crease.
The second period was evenly played but the Flyers were flat out dominated by Boston in the first and third periods on the way to a lopsided 34-14 shot on goal deficit that very much reflected the game play. The Flyers had cement skates most of the night and were outskated and outworked for pucks routinely.
Michkov created the lone Philadelphia goal at 9:44 of the second period, shooting for a rebound on Brandon Bussi that Travis Konecny put home for a 1-1 tie. Morgan Frost received the secondary assist.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella shook up the line combinations after the first period. He broke up the line of Owen Tippett, Frost and Michkov, putting Konecny on that line. Sean Couturier, who started out on the top line with Tyson Foerster and Konecny was dropped to the third line in favor of Luchanko. The changes worked to some extent in the middle stanza, but the effect was tempory. Anthony Richard was one of the few Flyers who had consistent jump in his skates.
An excuse could be made, as it was in the second preseason game in Montreal, that the Flyers unwisely traveled by plane on a game day rather than a day earlier (which only happens in the preseason, never the regular season). That, however, does not excuse the degree to which Philly was outplayed for the vast majority of this game.
Preseason or not, day-of-game flight or not, this was a terrible performance by most of the Flyers game roster. The defensemen were no better than the forwards, either.
The Flyers (3-3-0) will wrap up their exhibition schedule at home on Thursday against the New Jersey Devils. With the Devils' NHL roster traveling to Europe, the Flyers will dress a very AHL-heavy lineup in the finale. Tuesday's game was intended to be the "dress rehearsal" game with mostly regulars across the top nine forwards and top four defensemen.
The results, however, were absolutely not what the Flyers were looking for from this game. Wins and losses are meaningless in the exhibition season, but it's never acceptable to have your regulars outplayed by such a large degree. It wasn't as if the team was dressing players back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday. They also had an off-day on Sunday.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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