Due to airplane problems involving their flight from Columbus on Wednesday night, the Flyers didn’t get to bed in Boston until after 4 o’clock Thursday morning.
Then they went out and played like it.
Down three goals after two periods, it was time for the Flyers to head for the airport. The final score of 6-3 at TD Garden on Thursday night could have been a lot worse.
It was another tough night for Flyers goaltender Sam Ersson. He was under siege quite often but at least two of the goals were definitely of the possible save variety.
Ersson appeared to suffer an injury to his midsection near the end of the second period. He left the game and was replaced by Dan Vladar. Officially, the injury was listed as lower body.
This season, the Flyers are 2-5-1 in the second half of back-to-backs and 2-8-1 in their last 11 overall. On the flip side, the Bruins are 12-1-1 in their last 14 games.
Captain Sean Couturier was demoted to fourth line and only played 13 minutes.
“I think we’re disconnected at times,” Couturier said in televised postgame comments. “The management of the game might not be the best right now. We have a lot of skill to make plays so we have to find a way to work together and outcompete the other team consistently.”
Philadelphia has three home games left to get it right before the Olympic break. Right now the task looks daunting.
“You can’t have one or two shifts off,” Couturier said. “Right now we’re just trying to find a way to get back on track. No one is going to feel sorry for us so it’s on us to get going, be better, find ways to get wins at this point in the year. We have to get back to the basics here and focus on ourselves.
Coach Rick Tocchet said effort wasn’t the problem in this game. Just too many mental lapses.
“There was a lot of effort tonight, got to give the guys credit,” Tocchet said. “But too many mistakes that go in our net though.”
The coach had no update on Ersson.
“I didn’t want to put ‘Vlady’ but we had to,” Tocchet said. “No choice.
“It’s just some of the weak-side stuff we’re giving up. And we can’t chase the game.”
The Flyers fell behind by a 3-0 score at 2:27 of the period when Ersson gave up a soft goal to Fraser Minten. But Travis Konecny quickly answered for the Flyers at 3:16, finishing off some strong work from Christian Dvorak and Nikita Grebenkin in the corner with a shot past goaltender Jeremy Swayman to cut the deficit to 3-1.
It was Konecny’s fourth goal in the past two games. At that point, the Flyers appeared to be in position to mount a comeback of sorts.
The score stayed that way until Casey Mittelstadt scored for the Bruins at 16:12. Minten was instrumental in this play as well.
Boston made it 5-1 with 1:20 left in the second period when Tanner Jeannot had a long shot tip off him into the net.
The Flyers got one back moments later.
Grebenkin skated hard to cash in on some loose change after Konecny was stopped on a break-in at 19:03.
It was another slow start for the Flyers, who found themselves behind by a 2-0 score after the first period.
Viktor Arvidsson’s shot from the lower edge of the right circle beat Ersson five-hole at 9:49.
Then just 31 seconds later the Bruins connected again. This time Pavel Zacha finished off a play started by Morgan Geekie.
Matvei Michkov scored a power-play goal with under two minutes to play.
>Goal disallowed
The Flyers thought they had a goal by Dvorak after falling behind by that two-goal margin in the first period. The play occurred at 12:05. Boston challenged after replays showed Grebenkin’s stick interfered with Swayman prior to Dvorak’s shot. Officials ruled no goal.
>Short shots
Rasmus Ristolainen returned to the lineup after leaving early in Wednesday night’s game at Columbus just two shifts into the game. . .Owen Tippett played in his 400th NHL game. . .The Flyers return home for a Saturday afternoon game against the Los Angeles Kings. . .Konecny’s hat trick in the 5-3 loss at Columbus on Wednesday night was his 12th multi-point game of the season. That became 13 on Thursday night. He’s No. 1 on the Flyers. Trevor Zegras is second with 11. . .Cam York needs one point to hit the 100 mark. . .Zegras returned to the center position with Bobby Brink and Michkov on the wings. . .The Flyers’ power play has once again dropped to 32nd and last in the NHL. . .Defenseman Emil Andrae was a scratch for the Flyers. Noah Juulsen took his spot. . .The Flyers have been scored upon first 35 times this season. . .Boston has won nine straight games at TD Garden.
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