You have to give the Bruins and Flyers this: They have a knack for playing some entertaining third periods. After they combined for seven goals in the final 20 minutes last Saturday in Boston in a game the Bruins held on to win 6-5, they combined for four in the final 10 minutes this Saturday in Philadelphia.
This time, however, the Bruins wound up on the wrong end of the stick, suffering a 3-2 loss. They tied the game twice during those final 10 minutes, but the let the Flyers go back ahead both times – the second time for good.
If the Bruins had brought more energy in the first two periods, perhaps they wouldn't have needed to chase the game in the third period. Less than 48 hours after coach Jim Montgomery said he was "surprised and disappointed" by his team's subpar effort in Thursday's loss to the Rangers, the Bruins didn't start Saturday's game like a team that had gotten any kind of wakeup call.
In fact, they looked like one that hit the snooze button and took a nice afternoon nap. They landed just 13 shots on goal through the first two periods, lost too many battles, and had nothing going on the forecheck.
Here are five takeaways from the game:
Timely saves wanted
Linus Ullmark kept the Bruins in the game most of the day and made a couple 10-bell saves. Unfortunately, when the game got to crunch time, he let in a couple shots he probably should have stopped.
After Justin Brazeau tied the game at 1-1, the Flyers retook the lead when Travis Konecny beat Ullmark under the left pad with a snap shot from outside the left dot. After Danton Heinen tied the game at 2-2, Philly again retook the lead with a shot from pretty the same spot, this time with Tyson Foerster beating Ullmark high glove.
You can point a couple fingers elsewhere. The Bruins got sloppy in the neutral zone on that first one, and Charlie McAvoy may have partially screened Ullmark. Heinen committed a bad turnover in the offensive zone on the second. And you do have to give credit to Foerster, in particular, for a great shot.
But ultimately those are both stoppable shots, and the Bruins really needed a save from Ullmark on at least one of them. Getting beat clean on two shots from outside the dots just can't happen.
Ullmark has been playing well recently and has seemingly nudged ahead of Jeremy Swayman in the "who starts Game 1 of the playoffs" debate.
He appeared to be strengthening his case most of the afternoon Saturday, but that was a rough way for the day to end.
Brazeau cannot be stopped
While too many Bruins have gone quiet recently, Justin Brazeau continues to loudly announce himself as someone who deserves to be an everyday player.
With the B's desperate for offense in the third period, Brazeau stepped up to tie the game at 1-1, taking a pass from Charlie Coyle, driving hard to the net, and finishing with a forehand-backhand move past Samuel Ersson.
Brazeau now has four goals and an assist in the last three games, and is up to five goals and two assists in 15 games since making his NHL debut on Feb. 19. Brazeau's size (6-foot-5, 220 pounds) and the way he uses it to win battles and establish body position certainly stand out, but he's been showing off some real touch and good hands during this recent outburst of goals.
There had been some thought that Brazeau's spot in the lineup might only be secure until deadline acquisition Pat Maroon eventually makes his Bruins debut, but there's no way Brazeau is coming out for anyone if he continues to play like this. Someone else will have to make way for Maroon if and when that time comes.
DeBrusk steps up, but other top players don't
Moving further up the lineup, too many of the Bruins' top guys were no-shows for a second straight game. Brad Marchand seemed to be fighting the puck once again, and may also be fighting some sort of injury – he missed Friday's practice and was not a 100% lock to play Saturday. He has one goal in the last 14 games.
David Pastrnak had one shot on goal Saturday. He's the least of the Bruins' problems in the grand scheme of things, but he has now gone back-to-back games without a point for just the fourth time this season.
Charlie McAvoy has now gone 10 points without a point. He did at least have six shot attempts and two shots on goal Saturday, matching his total from the previous six games combined. The Hampus Lindholm-Brandon Carlo pairing had a second straight tough game, as the Bruins got outshot 9-2 and outscored 1-0 with them on the ice Saturday.
Jake DeBrusk continues to step up, though. On Heinen's goal, he made a great hold-up play in the neutral zone to let guys change on, then made a nice pass to Morgan Geekie for the zone entry. DeBrusk has a five-game point streak and has 12 points in the last 10 games.
A bad non-call and bad response
A potentially pivotal moment came late in the first period when Flyers defenseman Erik Johnson stuck out his leg and landed a dangerous knee-on-knee hit on Brad Marchand.
Not only did the refs somehow miss the obvious penalty, but then they called an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Marchand, who was understandably upset and voiced that displeasure with a tirade from the bench.
Unless Marchand used a magic word that has to be penalized, this was just egregious game management from referees Eric Furlatt and Michael Markovic. Within reason, refs have to kind of take their medicine and let a player vent a bit after such a bad miss. Sending Marchand to the box, seemingly without any warning or leash, just made things look even worse for them.
The Bruins killed the ensuing power play. That part of their response was good. But you would have thought a knee-on-knee hit on their captain would have been the kind of wakeup call they needed to get them more emotionally engaged in the game. That just didn't happen, though.
The Bruins continued to just sleepwalk through most of the game after that, with only some occasional physicality. Trent Frederic did have some words and a couple shoves for Johnson at one point. It's unclear if he was challenging Johnson to a fight or not, but nothing came from it. Johnson seemed to have a pretty comfortable afternoon after that.
Lohrei returns to lineup
Montgomery is working through his option on the Bruins' third defense pairing, and that included a new duo on Saturday: Mason Lohrei and Andrew Peeke. The results were mixed.
Lohrei was back in for the first time in over a week after being scratched the last three games, and he looked rusty most of the day – until one crucial sequence late.
The rookie was a bit slow in coverage at times, and had one especially tough defensive play in the second period when Sean Couturier chipped and chased past him on the forecheck, cleanly won the race to the puck, and then took it right to the net for a scoring chance, all with Lohrei a step behind him. He wasn't able to get involved offensively for much of the game either.
But then Lohrei started the breakout and rush that led to Brazeau's tying goal in the third, offering a reminder that, oh yeah, he can help a lot with that. And on a day when the Bruins desperately needed anyone to do anything to generate more offense, the fact that Lohrei was one of the guys who eventually stepped up is worthy of praise.
How Montgomery divvies up playing time on the blue line will continue to be an area of interest. He's going to want to continue to play deadline acquisition Andrew Peeke to give him the time he needs to show what he can do in this system. Kevin Shattenkirk had one great game and one quieter one this past week while playing on his off side, and that was all it took to get him rotated out again.
Parker Wotherspoon has now gone three games without playing and would seemingly be due for another opportunity, especially since he had mostly been playing well prior to this extended sitdown.
So far, Montgomery has not touched his top four defensemen, but it will be interesting to see if he might at some point.
