Friday night’s game started with more injury problems for the Flyers.
He ended up with more problems in the third period against the Bruins, as the Flyers failed to close Boston in a tight 2-1 defeat at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers (7-3-2) were unable to hold the 1-0 lead in the last frame and lost the chance to reach first place in the Eastern Division.
That first-place honor currently goes to the Bruins (8-1-2), who are on the move and have taken out all four Flyers’ meetings. Alain Vigneault’s club is 0-2-2 against Boston and will face him four more times.
• When the moment of victory came, the Bruins dominated the Flyers through four clashes.
Both teams scored four goals each in the first two periods. So Boston calls him. The Bruins outperformed the Flyers 11-5 in the final stanza. In three of their defeats to Boston, the Flyers lost the lead in the third period.
In the Flyers’ other eight games, they conceded just six goals in the third period.
The Bruins are one of the best hockey teams and have one of the best top lines in hockey. Flyers may at least know they are there with them late, but they need to find a way to end.
The Flyers could probably look back and say that three of the four games were more than winnable for them. They lost a 3-1 lead in an agonizing way on Wednesday night.
• Brian Elliott made 21 saves in 23 shots. He suffered his first defeat in four games, with Boston hitting him with two goals in a 27 second period in the third period.
The second goal was the result of an external kick by fourth-line player Sean Kuraly, with no traffic ahead. Elliott looked frustrated after the goal. He probably knew he could have had this one. The goal ended up being the winner of the game.
• James van Riemsdyk’s torrid start continued with one of his striking redirects in the game of strength to break the ice at the start of the third period.
The Flyers needed it too, as the man’s lead was 0 in 3 and out of sync before van Riemsdyk delivered.
The goal was van Riemsdyk’s fifth in the game of strength this season. He had four goal markers in 66 games last season.
JVR is in a six-game streak in which he has 11 points (three goals, eight assists).
With the opportunity to tie the game in the last four minutes, the Flyers were unable to profit from a power play.
• The first row full of Bruins’ stars, from Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, passed the equalizer just under eight minutes from the end.
Marchand scored on a rebound and Pastrnak scored primary assistance.
The trio set fire to the Flyers on Wednesday with four goals and five assists. Pastrnak had a hat-trick and an assist.
“I hope he has a bad night because the performance he had in the last game was one of the best I’ve seen in a while,” said Vigneault laughing on Friday morning.
The Flyers kept Boston’s power play at 0-2, but once again fought to defend themselves against the Bruins in the last 20 minutes.
• Oskar Lindblom suffered a major blow with four and a half minutes to go before the end of the regulation period and has not played again.
• Ivan Provorov had some difficulties recently dealing with the puck around the point in the game of strength.
During the game, Vigneault changed Erik Gustafsson to the advantage of the taller man. The move paid off for van Riemsdyk’s goal, with Gustafsson scoring primary assistance.
The change could be so much about Vigneault wanting to accentuate Gustafsson’s strengths and involve him more offensively.
• The injury bug hit the Flyers again on Friday, as Carter Hart and Philippe Myers were unavailable (more on that here).
With Myers gone, the Flyers used a different combination of six defenders for the seventh straight game.
• In the first fight of the Flyers’ season, Nicolas Aube-Kubel dropped his gloves during the first period with Boston defender Connor Clifton (see the video).
• As part of the NHL’s revised COVID-19 arena protocols, there are no more glass plates behind team benches.
• The Flyers face the capitals for the first time this season with a pair of games on Sunday (noon ET / NBC) and Tuesday (6 pm ET / NBCSP).
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