The Bruins' Winning Streak Shattered in Philadelphia: A Frustrating Third-Period Collapse
It was a Saturday afternoon where the Boston Bruins dominated the shot count, outshooting the Philadelphia Flyers by a significant 27-17 margin, yet the scoreboard told a different story. The Bruins suffered a 3-1 defeat, marking their first regulation loss since January 20th and bringing an end to an impressive 5-0-3 run. This loss, however, doesn't derail their playoff aspirations; they still comfortably hold the #2 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference with 23 games remaining in the regular season as the trade deadline looms on Friday at 3 p.m.
But here's where it gets controversial... While the Bruins played well enough to potentially extend their lead in the standings, a confluence of factors led to their downfall. Chief among them was the sensational goaltending of former Bruin, Dan Vladar, who turned away an incredible 26 shots. Then there was a "bad bounce", an unpredictable element inherent to hockey, and a borderline goalie interference call on Mike Eyssimont. This call, in particular, denied the Bruins a potential 1-0 lead early in the third period, a lead that could have paved the way for their 34th win of the season.
Charlie McAvoy, who scored the Bruins' lone goal, acknowledged Vladar's stellar performance, calling him "Vladdy" and praising his former AHL roommate. "Every game is so crucial at this time of year," McAvoy stated, "but I’d be remiss not to say something nice about Vladdy."
Vladar, once considered a potential successor to Tuukka Rask as Boston's number one goalie, had a particularly strong showing against the Bruins' top scorer, Morgan Geekie. Geekie, who has 33 goals this season, was foiled on all five of his shots against Vladar and narrowly missed on a couple of other prime opportunities. "Just one of those nights, their goalie played well," Geekie commented, admitting he couldn't quite place the puck where he wanted on a few occasions. "Just one of those nights, try to flush it pretty quick and get right back on the horse."
And this is the part most people miss... After the disallowed Lindholm goal due to the goalie interference call, the Bruins quickly found themselves trailing. Goals from Travis Konecny and Jamie Drysdale put the Flyers up 2-0 by the 11:55 mark. McAvoy managed to pull one back for the Bruins at 13:03, just 68 seconds after Drysdale's goal, which was attributed to defensive lapses. The play started with Pavel Zacha winning a crucial faceoff, and McAvoy, sensing the urgency of the situation, made an uncharacteristic dash to the net, finishing off a feed from Hampus Lindholm for his fifth goal of the season.
McAvoy described the play, saying he wasn't sure where the pass was coming from but was instructed to "just go to the net." He added, "So I kind of just did, put my head down and went to the net. Great play by Hammer [Lindholm] just to put it in my vicinity."
The Flyers sealed their victory with an empty-net goal from Sean Couturier at center ice, with just 52.8 seconds remaining.
Konecny's goal, his 23rd of the season, was a result of a fortunate bounce off the back wall. Christian Dvorak retrieved the puck and delivered a precise centering pass to Konecny, who beat goalie Jeremy Swayman (who made 14 saves) with a sharp shot. As the saying goes, teams can plan their strategies, but they can't always plan for unpredictable bounces.
Swayman himself mused about the puck's trajectory, "Hit a stanchion, and then when I went to swipe it, it hopped over my stick. Just one of those things, it happens in hockey all the time. Not the right game to happen. … So you look forward and take the positives."
Earlier in the third, the Bruins thought they had broken the scoreless tie just 1:05 into the period when Lindholm fired a long shot. However, the goal was immediately waved off due to the interference call against Eyssimont, who was attempting to get to the front of the net.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm expressed a mix of satisfaction with his team's effort and frustration with their inability to convert chances. He noted that many of their scoring opportunities originated from outside high-danger areas and didn't lead to sustained pressure. Sturm also pointed out the irony that Eyssimont, who was trying to get to a prime scoring spot, ended up being the player penalized.
"We had chances," Sturm lamented. "Unfortunately, we didn’t score. And if you don’t score… Tough bounces at the end… And one little mistake [failing to cover Drysdale on the Flyers’ second goal] and all of a sudden it’s a 2-0 game. We did a lot of good things. Sway was outstanding. But at the end of the day, we couldn’t find a way to score and we didn’t have that mentality to go to the tough areas.
"We played on the outside way too much and it cost us."
What do you think? Was the goalie interference call the turning point, or were the Bruins simply outplayed by a hot goalie and some bad luck? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
