Takeaways from Thursday’s Flyers-Bruins game

After five days off, Flyers The final lineup is more like their usual group than predicted on paper. But when that team kicks in on Thursday, the first period isn’t much better.

Flyers fell behind again. Flyers lack energy and effort in question. It’s been called one of the worst firsts they’ve played Orange Atkinson after the game. That could easily be a stage with four goals for Bruins. Instead, it’s just two.

That should be enough for the Flyers to get through and eventually things will even settle down, before the special teams game kicks off and finally proves the difference in game play once again.

It was the last game in a calendar year that was as disappointing and disappointing as ever. Another loophole in the rules brought the team’s current losing streak to six, and brought a fitting conclusion to a forgettable 365-day period.

Here are five takeaways from Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the Bruins.

1. It’s Tricky

The Bruins played on Wednesday night and got a hattrick from Brad Marchand. On Thursday night, it was David Pastrnakit’s turn.

In just the past nine days, the Flyers have let Anaheim score a hat-trick Troy Terry, San Jose’s Tomas Hertl, and Pastrnak. Three times in the last four matches, the opponent has scored a hat-trick.

Those are the only three the Flyers have allowed this season, but last season they allowed six hat tricks, including two for Pastrnak and another for Patrice Bergeron. The remaining three games are against the New York Rangers, two equal Mika Zibanejad and other by Chris Kreider.

For Pastrnak, it was his third hat-trick against the Flyers, but also the 11th of his career. While there are many names on the list with him with 11 or more hat-tricks in his career, it is a rather rare feat. Only three active players – Sidney Crosby (11), Evgeni Malkin (12), and Alex Ovechkin (28) – there are 11 out of more.

2. It’s… Tuukka Time

While Pastrnak on the other end of the tape seemed to be at will, Tuukka Rask is twirling the thumb while returning to the NHL. The goalkeeper last played in June, but got plenty of support before having to make a save.

The Bruins even had two power plays before the Flyers scored a shot, one of which ended in a goal, but it was getting to the point where the Flyers broke the ball down the ice and was played by the drawn Rask as usual. Tuukka chanted from the TD Garden crowd.

The Bruins took a 2-0 lead and a 7-0 lead on shots before the Flyers got a shot on target with 10:41 remaining in the first half. Across the two stages, Rask was relatively unchallenged, facing only 15 shots. The Flyers finished the game with 27 shots and Rask made 25 saves, he eventually settled and increasingly looked like the typical stable and sounding netminder he was.

If nothing else, the Flyers missed their chance in the first inning, when Rask was desperate for any kind of action, and again in the third when the Bruins were at a two-man disadvantage, but managed to kill it.

3. Dynamic Duo

The Flyers ended the game in the second inning and the offense seemed to come from the usual suspects. Lately, if the Flyers are having a chance to score quality goals, it’s likely that Cam Atkinson or Joel Farabee have something to do with it.

In a power game, Atkinson deflected a Ivan Provorov scored his 15th goal of the season. Farabee scored the equalizer with five minutes left in the second half with his 11th goal of the season.

Since the beginning of the new year, Atkinson is on a 5-match streak from the beginning of 2022, with 3 goals and 5 assists. Farabee is out of the table in just one of five games of 2022 – Saturday night against San Jose – but has two goals and three assists in the remaining four.

It’s not even just about production. Both Farabee and Atkinson were stopped in the second inning as the team tried to get ahead of the board and then the game drew. Farabee stopped trying to hit the backhand and made it through the five-hole four to four. Atkinson managed to get a short break shortly after the Bruins fell back forward, but was blocked after his backhand effort towards the blocker.

If you are looking for bright spots, out of the game of Carter Hart, these two things seem to be it. Except Claude Giroux, who was named to his seventh All-Star Game on Thursday, these are the two most consistent point producers on the team.

Of course, Giroux has a shadow over his impending future, possibly elsewhere, dodging him as the season progresses. As Hart continues to solidify himself as a goalscorer to build around and Farabee prepares to sign a new six-year contract and Atkinson has three more years left, the two strikers seem to be coming together and have a good deal mean to each other. That’s what needs to be built.

4. Don’t look up (or down)

The Flyers turned a bad start into a solid comeback attempt that was short-lived. It did, however, go down as yet another by-laws loss, the fourth in this six-game losing streak.

Until this part of the game is over, the Flyers are basically in free fall mode. They certainly shouldn’t be looking at the teams ahead, namely the team they face on Thursday who still have 11 more points in the table and still have two games left in their hands.

But don’t look now, there are some hot teams coming back from below them on the leaderboard. The Flyers entered the night as the 24th-ranked team in points in the NHL. That hasn’t changed following Thursday’s action across the league, but what has changed is the distance between them and several other teams.

Just see the results:

  • Columbus (22nd) beat Carolina (4th) 6-0, two points ahead of the Flyers.
  • The Islanders (27) beat New Jersey (25), 3-2, to close the gap to 5 points over the Flyers. The Islanders have seven games on their hands and three against the Flyers coming up, including a home game on Monday and Tuesday.
  • Buffalo (28th) beat Nashville (5th) 4-1 to close the gap to the Flyers by 5 points. Both the Sabers and the Flyers have played 36 games, but are yet to face each other this season. They play together for a week from Saturday, January 22.
  • Chicago (26th) and Montreal (32nd) each get one point for overtime. Chicago won the game, 3-2, in injury time for a second point, going into a draw with the Flyers on points. The Flyers have a game in hand in Chicago.
  • Ottawa (30th) beat Calgary (17th), 4-1, to close the gap to 11 points over the Flyers. Ottawa has six games in the Flyers.

As the Flyers prepare to face the 3rd-placed New York Rangers on Saturday to try to regain this six-game losing streak, the odds are that both the Devils and Blackhawks will overtake them. The islanders may not be far behind, with two head-to-head meetings early next week and four spots there. That would drop the Flyers three more places to 27th out of 32 teams, just five places behind them.

5. A year to forget

Thursday marked a year since puck dropped into the 2020-21 season, a 56-game sprint to the finish line in a span of about four months. It’s been a year to forget for the Flyers. Just look at some of these numbers.

In the past 365 days, they have played 92 games and hit a 38-39-15 record. In those matches, they had a goal difference of minus-67 and the opponent scored the first goal 51 times. In 26 of the 39 regulatory losses, the Flyers have conceded by a margin of 3 or more goals.

Over the past year, the Flyers have a 21-5-15 record in single-goal matches. They have a record of 6-8 in two-goal matches. And in games decided by three or more goals, they have a record of 11-26.

That is an amazing difference. Only 14 times in 92 games (15.2 percent) the Flyers have resulted in two goals. Of the 92 games, 44% were single-goal games, but only five of them were losses by regulation. In fact, Thursday’s game in Boston was the Flyers’ first regulatory loss by a goal all season.

That said, 40.7% of the team’s matches over the past year have had a difference of 3 or more goals.

Out of their 38 wins, 21 (55.3%) have scored a goal. The other 11 (28.9 percent) are three goals. It’s victory big or by their teeth. There’s really no in between.

The same goes for losses, especially when you add up the 15 extra-time/penalty shootout losses.

Only five of the 54 holes (9.3%) were holes under the one-goal rule. The 15 OT/SO losses accounted for 27.8% of the 54 losses. And 26 of the 54 losses (48.1%) had a difference of 3 or more goals.

Again, it either waits to get a point, or is eliminated. But the odds of losing by three goals or more is particularly alarming, given that nearly half of the team’s losses in the past calendar year have been outright defeats.

Kevin Durso is a Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN and Flyers editor for SportsTalkPhilly.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.

Philadelphia Flyers uniforms through the years

https://973espn.com/flyers-5-takeaways-from-thursdays-flyers-bruins-game-2/ Takeaways from Thursday’s Flyers-Bruins game

Huynh Nguyen

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