At some point this season, the Flyers are going to win a hockey game.
But not if they keep playing like they did on Saturday afternoon at Boston’s TD Garden.
The Flyers, winless in their first six games (0-4-2), could generate very little in the way of offense and watched the Bruins skate away with a 5-1 win. The six-game winless streak ties a franchise record originally set twice — in 1999 (0-5-1) and 2008-09 (0-3-3). The Flyers have scored only seven goals in their first six games, which is a Flyers’ record for offensive futility.
As for shots, the Flyers came out on the short end of a 32-15 total, the fifth time that has happened in the season so far.
Philadelphia knew it had its work cut out after finding out it would be without the services of forward Travis Konecny and defenseman Cam York.
Konecny suffered a lower-body injury in Thursday night’s loss at Ottawa and York also was hurt in that game, going down with an upper-body injury.
Defenseman Helge Grans was called up from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to cover for York while Garrett Wilson came off the Flyers’ bench to spell Konecny.
It was Grans’ first action with the Flyers since Nov. 29, 2024.
The seven goals the Flyers have scored in their first six games is a dubious franchise record of its own. No Flyers team since the inception year of 1967 had ever scored fewer than eight.
“We’ve got enough players,” Christian Dvorak said in a televised interview after the game, refusing to make excuses. “We’re turning pucks over. Guys are running around. Play simple hockey, get pucks in and build off of that.”
Dvorak was asked if the Flyers need some personnel changes, as in possible trades to change the team dynamic.
“It comes down to people on the ice, we’ve got to be better,” Dvorak said. “We’ve just got to work through it.”
And the schedule doesn’t get any easier, with the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes visiting Philadelphia for the next game on Sunday night.
What’s been the biggest problem so far?
“I think we’re forcing plays,” Dvorak said. “Those lead to odd-man rushes, leaving ‘Vlady’ (goaltender Dan Vladar) out to dry.”
Coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t going to make any excuses, even with some of his key players sidelined.
“A lot of giveaways,” he said. “Boston is really good at the weak side. We spent all day yesterday talking about it. They got a couple of those early. We’re just trying to get this group connected.”
In truth, the Flyers knew their first six games would not be easy. But few saw this kind of trouble unfolding.
“I think we’ve got to stick together,” Tocchet said. “We’re right at the bottom now. Hopefully get some healthy bodies back. You just have to stick together, there’s no other answer. In life, when you’re in a foxhole, you stick together, that’s it.”
The score could have been worse if not for Vladar, who was under siege throughout the game.
It was a tough start for the visitors, who were outshot, 12-3, in the first period.
The Flyers did give up the only goal of the first period when Pavel Zacha took a pass from David Pastrnak and fired a shot which Vladar got a piece of. But the puck trickled away and across the goal line at 12:21.
In the second period, it was more of the same. The Flyers could only generate five shots against Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman.
The Bruins took a 2-0 lead at 17:12 when defenseman Mason Lohrei was on the front end of a four-on-two rush. Lohrei took a pass from JJ Peterka and beat Vladar from short range.
Boston moved ahead by three goals at 1:55 of the third period on a goal by Marat Khusnutdinov. The Flyers broke the shutout at 6:32 on a power-play goal from Porter Martone. He scored with a shot from the lower left circle. Casey Middelstadt made it 4-1 at 9:21. The Fraser Minten scored with 4:01 to play to close out the scoring.
>Short shots
Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, recovering from a left-hand injury, was put on IR. . .The Flyers return home for a Sunday night game against Carolina. They lost to the Hurricanes in Philadelphia just last weekend. . .The Flyers’ alltime record at Boston fell to 33-61-11-8, by far the worst road mark against any NHL opponent. . .Konecny and Sean Couturier lead the current Flyers in alltime points vs. Boston with 10 goals/21 points. . .Vladar entered the game with an alltime record of 3-1 and a goals-against average of 1.28 vs. Boston. . .Going into the Bruins game, Noah Cates was fifth in NHL faceoff wins this season with a season percent of 60.8.
Be the first to comment