Meh, it’s only preseason.
1st Period
The Game began with-
…not a whole lot! Boston came out with a couple more shots than Philly, but that was about it.
Moving on!
2nd Period
The Flyers broke the ice first with Noah Cates being the recipient of a slot pass while everyone on the Bruins was desperately trying to cover and also looking directly at Tyson Foerster, giving Cates all the options in the world as he popped home the first goal of the game. 1-0 Flyers.
Thankfully, the Bruins came back about three minutes later off the rush
with David Pastrnak and Tanner Jeannot leading the charge, and a hard pass to the net gave Sean Kuraly the perfect position to redirect the puck straight past Dan Vladar! 1-1 Everybody!
And then, as the period expired…Oh Jeremy.
If we’re gonna be doing that, that’s gotta be happening with dudes in like the top 10 of scoring in the NHL. Your hatedom is a frenzied coalition not seen since the middle of the Rask era. You do not need to give them ammunition. 2-1 Flyers.
Third Period
The Bruins decided that they would lay siege in this period. It was a bit of an awkward siege, not everything was especially covered well, but the Bruins finally got the shot they needed, with Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie able to cut through the Flyers’ Defense to give Geekie the chance to put a shot through Dan Vladar to tie things up. 2-2 Everybody!
Overtime
Jeremy Swayman stood on his head, and the PK came up gigantic.
Other than that, not a whole lot of anything the Bruins were involved in that didn’t involve shotblocking or making stops. Onto the Skillz Comp.
Shootout
The Bruins were spirited…but Bobby Brink was the difference maker.
Bruins fall 2-3 to the Flyers.
Game Notes
- Your TOI leader was Nikita Zadorov, with 25:44 logged.
- In true NaturalStatTrick humor, that game was so low event they apparently turned off the trackers. I have no analytics for you tonight. Only vibes and observations.
- Boy this offense is sure ____. I’ve quite seen an offense ____ quite like the Boston Bruins’ did. Truly, there’s no team in the league that can beat the Boston Bruins when their offense starts ____.
- Seriously the offense tonight on both sides was like a Pangolin trying to walk across a pommel horse. It was like a Trabant with it’s gear shifter fused to first. It was like watching snails mate. It was like listening to Dopesmoker on half speed. Unsteady, and only by the grace of something beyond that it got moving in any direction at all, let alone the right one.
- Morgan Geekie sure had an eventful night; over half of the team’s penalty minutes on easily avoidable plays, and also the game-tying goal. Definitely one worth reviewing the tape over.
- The PK was interesting; it started kinda rough, with multiple failed clears, but they kept at it and survived. They got more and more comfortable, getting more used to an aggressive style against the Flyers’ power play, until it was at it’s zenith against the Flyers in overtime where they didn’t give them an inch. That’s the kind of momentum that hopefully will come with you into the regular season. Big ups especially to Nikita Zadorov who put on a clinic of shot blocking out there.
- The Power Play meanwhile…yeah. I would like that to see marked improvement if at all possible because that looked gross.
- I’m happy for Sean Kuraly getting another goal in Boston, and for all of our sakes I hope he savors it.
- The Jeremy Swayman “thing” was in full display tonight; in that he’ll usually give up two goals. That’s just gonna happen, and they might not even be especially great ones to give up. But you will have to move heaven and earth to get that third one, and mercifully, the Bruins got exactly that from him, and especially got the best work of his early season in overtime, where the Bruins spent almost the entirety of it under siege thanks to an ill-timed penalty. Frankly, I’m just happy he wasn’t drowning on dry land like he often was last season. In a game this low event it’s pretty good to be the losing goaltender and have a higher SV%.
- He’s still gotta clean up his stickhandling if he’s gonna do it.
Bruins hit the road to go meet the Caps down in DC on Thursday night, that game starts at 7pm EST.
See you there!
