The last chance much of these young kids had to make an impression was decent, but the other team’s youngster put on a spectacle of a performance to win the game.
Maybe they should consider covering the Russian kid.
1st Period:
Let’s start with this; there were so many penalties in this game. It started early, and it did not let up until Overtime. But in-between these penalties, Hampus Lindholm was given a free lane to tee up a bomb by Andrew Peeke, and after some deliberation, it did indeed belong to him as he wired a shot home for a 1-0 Bruins lead!
Unfortunately, the Bruins also began to struggle as the Flyers came to life later in the period; and an anemic shift led to the Flyers dragging all personnel to the front of the net, allowing Rasmus Ristolainen to tie the game at 1.
2nd Period:
Yet more penalties began happening, but this time it actually worked out for the Bruins as Trent Frederic grabbed a puck from Joel Farabee and sent it to Matthew Poitras, who popped it home on Ivan Fedotov to put the Bruins back up 2-1!
Unfortunately, then the penalties swung back in the other direction…and this “Matvei Michkov” character was left unattended for multiple minutes at a time behind just about…uh…everybody, and that turned out to be a bad idea.
Mason I’m gonna be real I wrote my player eval explicitly about this kind of thing you can’t keep doing this.
Anyway, period over, back to the locker rooms, and back to more penalties once they had their gatorade and toweled off the sweat.
3rd Period:
Penalties. Penalties happened here.
Do you want scoring? Unfortunately, you must go to the final frame to see that.
Overtime:
Michkov got left alone again and frankly that was a bad idea.
3-2, Flyers Win.
Game Notes
- Your TOI Leader was Andrew Peeke, who logged 23:38 tonight.
- The Bruins showed fight, that’s for sure. This was a physical contest much like many games the B’s have played against Philadelphia, but a worrying trend in the losses the B’s have seen this preseason started to mount as the game went on; the other team just had a little more gas. Particularly one player who early on made an acquaintance of Trent Frederic in one Matvei Michkov, who nearly single-handedly won the game for Philly in the latest parts of the game. Granted, there is a very good reason for this, and we’ll get into that…but the B’s will have to address the fact that they can get contained in their own end and not respond to sustained pressure. Hopefully by having a full NHL roster next time these teams meet.
- Matthew Poitras is once again proving himself to be the great hope of the Center corps in Black and Gold, and while he might be a little scrawny for being a mainline PK duty guy right now, I think he’s showing the kind of promise to be a major force for this team. You my good man, are the 2nd line Center as far as I am concerned.
- Fabian Lysell is exactly the shot in the arm this team needs, even if he’s a little frustrating. He was engaged for much of the night; created good opportunities from passing, and was in general a net-positive for the team. I definitely think he would benefit from more stable linemates, as he seemed to struggle with positioning with the rest of his line, but I think if he’s able to settle down he’ll be a major asset. Frankly, I’d like to see what he’s like after about a week or two in the early season NHL, where nothing really matters.
- Joonas Korpisalo finished his night with a .925 SV% on 40 shots, which is good! Just imagine where he’d be with some shot/goal support! Especially in the third!
- I am trying so very hard to be even-handed about this; I do not like to bring up refereeing when it comes to NHL games because I think we all kind of agree they’re pretty uniformly awful, and repeating that point without coming up with a solution (even if it’s just “get gud”) feels pointless. That said? This game was special in how bad it’s officiating was. It was nearly inspiring were it not completely absurd. These stripes should be very happy this game didn’t count or there would be hell to pay.
- Tonight was also the annual “where the hell is this game on TV” preseason game, which officially was listed as an NHL Network game, but for whatever reason select parts of the market were not in fact able to see it until the 2nd period. Why? How? Impossible to say! Very good work there, guys.
The B’s get the second half of their pre-season home and home together on Tuesday evening as they face the Flyers again. That game starts at 7pm EST.
We’ll see you then!