The Philadelphia Flyers dropped their third straight game on Thursday night, falling 6-3 to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. It was another tough outing for a Flyers squad that’s been stuck in a frustrating pattern: slow starts, missed opportunities, and not enough pushback to claw their way back in.
Boston came out firing, putting up three goals before the Flyers could find any sort of rhythm. Viktor Arvidsson opened the scoring midway through the first period, finding the back of the net through heavy traffic.
Less than a minute later, Pavel Zacha doubled the lead after Morgan Geekie found him wide open in the slot. That quick one-two punch put Philadelphia in an early hole-again-and it’s been a recurring theme that’s starting to cost them in the standings.
The Flyers thought they had a response late in the first when Christian Dvorak buried a rebound, but the goal was wiped off the board due to a questionable goaltender interference call on Nikita Grebenkin. That call stung, and while the Flyers managed to stop the bleeding for the rest of the period, the damage had already been done.
The second period didn’t offer much relief.
Boston came out hot again, with Fraser Minten picking up his second point of the night just over two minutes in to make it 3-0. Travis Konecny gave the Flyers a spark with a heads-up interception and finish to cut it to 3-1, but that momentum was short-lived. Philadelphia had a power play shortly after and a real chance to shift the game’s energy-but they couldn’t convert.
Then came the backbreaker.
After nearly 13 minutes of scoreless hockey, the Bruins struck twice in just over two minutes. Casey Mittelstadt cleaned up a rebound to extend Boston’s lead to 4-1, and then Tanner Jeannot tipped in an Andrew Peeke blast from the point to make it 5-1. That sequence effectively sealed it.
Still, Nikita Grebenkin gave the Flyers a little life before the second intermission, capitalizing on a second-chance effort off a Konecny opportunity to make it 5-2. It was a solid finish to the period, but the gap was simply too wide.
Sam Ersson, who started the game in net, didn’t return for the third period due to injury. Dan Vladar stepped in and held the line, but the Flyers couldn’t generate enough offense to mount a serious comeback. Murat Khusnitdinov iced it with an empty-netter late in the third, putting the Bruins up 6-2.
There was one final flicker of hope for Philadelphia-and it came on the power play, no less. Owen Tippett fired a shot from the point, Denver Barkey battled Charlie McAvoy at the front of the net and won, then fed a slick pass to Matvei Michkov, who buried it for the Flyers’ third goal of the night. It was a well-executed sequence, and a reminder of what this young group is capable of when things click.
Barkey, in particular, continues to show flashes of being a difference-maker. Even in a game where not much went right, his effort and playmaking stood out.
The Flyers now return home for a three-game stretch leading into the Olympic break, starting with a Saturday matinee against the LA Kings. With the recent skid and injuries piling up, they’ll need to regroup quickly if they want to stay in the playoff mix.