Flyers Run Into a Buzz saw in 5-2 loss.
The (8-5-3) Philadelphia Flyers welcomed long time rivals, the Boston Bruins (9-5-0) to the Wella Fargo Center.
Boston and the Flyers are teams that seemingly going in different directions.
The Bruins have won three straight while Philadelphia, for the first time this season, have lost back to back games and three of their last four.
TO THE ACTION
How dominant was Boston? They fired 21 shots at beleaguered Flyers netminder, Martin Jones…in the first period!
Tomas Nosek, on a backhanded, for his second of the season at 18:25 picked up the only goal of the opening stanza and Boston had the 1-0 edge.
NOT TERRIBLE RIGHT?
Philadelphia was much more competitive in the middle period with things getting physical.
Just :30 in, it was quickly a 2-0 disadvantage when Derek Forbort converted a Brad Marchand to David Pastrnak set up for Forbort’s 3rd of the season.
The best Flyers offensive players on this night answered the call when Claude Giroux and Cam Atkinson worked a pretty passing play with Giroux making a gorgeous pass that Derick Brassard buried to cut the lead in half.
8 minutes later it was Brassard again nailing his 4th of the season with help from Ivan Provorov and once again, Giroux.
A positive came out of the goal.The marker came on the man advantage.
The rough stuff picked up and two guys who normally are not known as fighters, Joel Farabee and Charlie McAvoy dropped the gloves with McAvoy getting the upper hand.
“I was just a little heated. In the thick of it, it was something that just happened.” McAvoy explained.
Boston fed off that and picked up momentum with Forbort nailing his 4th to end the second with a 3-2 Bruins lead.
SHOULD BE A FUN FINISH
With just 1:28 played Craig Smith got some insurance with help from Erik Haula.
Things got stranger after that. Claude Giroux and Patrice Bergeron squared for a face off and Bergeron knocked the puck out of the hand of the linesman..
However, it was Giroux who was whistled. The resulting man up resulted in David Pastrnak burying his fifth to get it the 5-2 final.
BEYOND THE GAME
2
Martin Jones faced 44 shots while stopping 39.
Counterpart Linus Ullmark turned aside 29 of 31.
Power play resulted in each team scoring once.
Boston had four tries with the Flyers getting six.
Faceoffs favored the Bruins, 29-28 with Patrice Bergeron leading everyone with 9 wins.
On the Philadelphia side, Sean Couturier had 8 with Scott Laughton and Thompson with seven.
ONE MORE THING
“It seems like there’s always some emotion against Philadelphia,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I think that goes back to the ’70s. Two teams that like to play that way. Obviously the game has changed, but you still have a bit of that element.”
Kevin has followed and promoted the game of lacrosse since May 19, 1974.
The same day the Philadelphia Flyers won the Cup, the Philadelphia Wings were introduced to Neibauer and Philadelphia.
Kevin has covered many sports, including baseball, football, basketball, and.. lacrosse. A former licensed football referee and baseball umpire, Kevin brings a unique insight to his game coverage.
A published writer in JustHockey Magazine, Kevin covered the American Hockey League as well as a monthly story on a pugilist where Kevin used the pen name, The Rink Rat. Neibauer turned his attentions to lacrosse for a few years and does his part, whether podcasting or writing to grow the game. Kevin branched out to his roots and currently provides insight for all Philadelphia teams for Edge of Philly as well as his full-time duties with LaxPhilly.
