At the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the Flyers could do nothing in Boston other than hockey.
And given the results on the ice, they certainly won’t miss Beantown.
Alain Vigneault’s club was defeated by the Bruins, 6-1, on Saturday night at TD Garden, while Boston won the set of two games with the Flyers.
The Flyers scored five goals in both games. Bruins scored a combined seven only in the third period.
Before that winless trip, the Flyers (3-2-1) had played 30 games in the regular season without losing streak. The last time they lost two consecutive regular season games was December 31 to January. 7 last year, when they fell four in a row.
The Flyers are damaged and do not have the 2019-20 Selke Trophy winner Sean Couturier, but the Bruins (3-1-1) also lost a star in both games and still led to orange and black.
Carter Hart, who rarely shows his frustration, was shown on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast taking several blows and breaking his bat in the net after Saturday’s final horn honked.
• The Flyers resemble an entirely different team that advanced through the 2019-20 regular season stretch.
Should this be worrying? Yes. Are they allowing a scary number of shots? Yes.
But the sky is not falling. They are 3-2-1 and some of Vigneault’s best teams didn’t notice things right away, including last season. A reminder: the Flyers started 2-3-1 last season and were at their best average in the opening month. The Flyers didn’t really work until January.
This season started later and is a shortened 56-game campaign, but Delaware Valley shouldn’t be pushing the panic button yet.
• Overcoming opposition does not mean all, but it’s not good when you pass all games in the top six of the season.
That’s what happened to the Flyers, with four of those shooting differentials coming in double-digit margins.
They entered Saturday night allowing the second highest number of shots per game (37.4) and were defeated by 213-142 in six games.
• The Flyers’ real painful goal came at 4:13 in the third period, when Erik Gustafsson was completely exposed in the defensive zone.
The off-season acquisition was careless and surpassed on a loose record. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand made him call, extending Boston’s lead to 4-1 and that was the game.
After a good performance in the debut, striker Gustaffson has only one assist, five shots and has been fighting defensively. If he is not producing too much offensively, he has to be better off defensively.
• This is the first time in his career that Hart has conceded four or more goals in three consecutive matches. The 22-year-old allowed 14 in his initial three games.
The Flyers played very badly in front of him. It can be significantly better too, but the Flyers have been a mess systematically.
Hart is probably the least of Flyers’ concerns.
Jaroslav Halak had to make only 16 saves to win.
• The Flyers suffered their first regulatory defeat during Kevin Hayes’ tenure, when the 28-year-old central scored a goal.
They are now 24-1-1 in games that Hayes turns on the lamp, including the regular season and the playoffs.
• The Bruins were without David Pastrnak (hip) in this set of two games and it didn’t matter much.
Boston’s other two stars, Bergeron and Marchand, chose the Flyers on Saturday night. They scored two goals and three points each.
• Oskar Lindblom asked the NHL if he could use a cancer duct tape on his helmet until the end of the season and the league approved his request.
The 24-year-old was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in December 2019 and completed his radiation treatments in July 2020.
• Flyers are off on Sunday and training Monday in Voorhees, New Jersey, before traveling to Newark, New Jersey, for games against Devils on Tuesday (19h ET / NBCSP) and Thursday (19h ET / NBCSP).
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