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Bruins 3, Flyers 1: Another preseason game, another loss

First Period

This game didn’t get off to the hottest of starts for the orange and black, as the Bruins dominated the pace early on and got the game’s opening goal. Danton Heinen (not real human) would get the first tally and give Boston the 1-0 lead. Especially shaky was goaltender Brian Elliott who… well he didn’t look good to put it nicely. His puck playing was horrendous, tracking was possibly worse which seemed impossible, and he just looked incredibly rusty.

To be fair, he wasn’t the only one. The entire team didn’t seem to have their legs under them at the start. Lot of guys just standing around not moving, and it was killing them especially on defense. The Bruins had the jump, the Flyers didn’t, and it reflected on the scoreboard.

After an icing by Boston, the Flyers were able to tie the game up with a blast from one of the newest Flyers Matt Niskanen. He got turnstiled earlier in the period but he sure as hell made up for it with this blast. Perfectly placed to the top corner as he tied the game up.

One Flyer who looked strong was a guy attempting to win one of the last roster spots, Nicolas Aube-Kubel. NAK was a heat seeking missile in the first, hitting everything that moved, winning puck battles, and using his body effectively to win position.  Morgan Frost, another one of those guys fighting for a roster spot, had been denied a few times already in the period, but look at this nonsense from Jaroslav Halak.

Mr. Halak, it’s September, I’m going to have to ask you to kindly calm yourself and let our best boys get some goals. Thank you. The period would end tied at one with both teams looking a bit sloppy at times.

Second Period

The Bruins would strike first in the second period as well with Peter Cehlarik burying a goal essentially into an empty net. It was a great pass from Brendan Gaunce but Philippe Myers simply didn’t follow up on the play. Initially, he made a great play to stop a partial breakaway as he recovered and stopped the scoring chance, but got caught puck watching and allowed his man to get wide open for the goal.

That would be it for the scoring in the period but there were a few players who stood out. Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee continued to look strong, especially Farabee who made an absolutely dirty pass on the power play. He found Phil Myers all the way at the left half wall from the right side behind the goal line. It was clear Myers simply didn’t expect the pass to get through, as he hesitated upon receiving the pass.

Unfortunately, there weren’t too many other positives, with Boston outplaying them yet again in the second period. Several players made their debut tonight, shaking off the rust, etc.; whatever the reason was, the Bruins took it to the Flyers in the first two periods.

Third Period

Boston yet again opened up the period strong, outshooting the Flyers 7-0 at one point. As the period progressed, the tide began to turn just a bit. A power play that saw a lot of good puck movement and shooting lanes did not result in a goal. Halfway through the final frame, the Flyers still trailed Boston 2-1 looking for the game tying tally.

With just under six minutes to play in the period, they’d get a prime opportunity to get that tally with the Bruins picking up a slashing penalty. Alas, they wouldn’t convert and in typical Flyera fashion, Connor Clifton- the man who took the slashing penalty would come out of the box – corralled the clearing attempt and beat Farabee and Lyon to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead.

This was easily the worst the Flyers have looked in the preseason, and I guess the hope is that rusty debuts can be the reason for a lot of it. There were a lot of key players playing their first game of the year, and it looked like it. Boston had the edge right from the jump and never looked back. Off until Saturday, the Flyers will look to pick up their first preseason win then against the New York Rangers in Philadelphia.

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