BSJ Game Report: Flyers 6, Bruins 3 - Swayman, defense falter in Philly

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 6-3 loss to the Flyers, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

SHORT SHIFT

After another extended layoff, the Bruins looked like a team that had only played one game over the past week on Wednesday — with multiple leaks in net and on the blue line dooming the B’s in a 6-3 loss to the Flyers. 

Jeremy Swayman relinquished five goals on just 24 shots, while the B’s were regularly burned with poor backchecking efforts, missed reads and just general sloppiness all over the ice. Trailing 3-1 in the second period, the Bruins managed to knot things up at three goals apiece following tallies from Taylor Hall and Brad Marchand — but Philly punched right back in the third, taking the lead for good 58 seconds into the frame off of Cam Atkinson’s second goal of the evening. 

With the loss, the Bruins fall to 1-1-0 on the season. 

HEADLINES

Swayman knocked on ropes

A number of Bruins D-men will likely want to burn the tape after a game like this, but Boston also wasn’t helped at all by Swayman, who — for the first time in a long time — looked mortal between the pipes. Be it poor rebound control, late reaction or shoddy positioning, there were far too many sequences that fell Philly’s way that should have been negated by a sharper performance in net from Boston’s rookie.

As we noted this afternoon, it’s far too early to draw any sweeping conclusions about Boston’s goalies until we get deeper into the season. But Wednesday stood as a reminder that even the most promising youngsters in the NHL are going to hit some bumps in the road. 

Not a banner night all around

Aside from Swayman, the B’s defense was the biggest culprit in this debacle. Beyond that top pairing of Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk, Boston’s blueliners were all knocked for multiple miscues, with Mike Reilly having a night to forget thanks to a slew of turnovers and a pairing of Derek Forbort-Connor Clifton not inspiring a whole lot of confidence. 

But a number of Boston forwards also looked awfully rusty — with Charlie Coyle coughing up the puck on multiple occasions and Jake DeBrusk tabbed on a poor backchecking effort that led to a Scott Laughton tally in the second. 

You can try and spin a positive in that the product on the ice sure looked like a team that hasn’t played a lot of regular-season reps to open the year. But that excuse is going to wear thin if these same mistakes carry over into Friday’s matchup against the Sabres. 

B’s lose Foligno

Already without Curtis Lazar, the B’s bottom-six corps took another big hit on Wednesday — with Nick Foligno exiting the game in the closing minutes of the second period with an upper-body injury. He did not return. "Upper-body. He just pulled something. ... Hopefully nothing serious, but wasn't able to return,” Bruce Cassidy said. “So that's never a good sign. So we'll see how he is tomorrow."

THREE UP

Taylor Hall: Along with his breakaway tally, Hall was active all night with the puck on his stick — routinely generating easy zone entries with his wheels through the neutral zone. He nearly saved a goal in the third period with his back-checking efforts on Atkinson’s second tally of the night. 

Fourth Line: Encouraging stuff from Boston’s revamped checking unit, with Karson Kuhlman opening the scoring for the B’s by snapping a puck past Martin Jones at 16:48 in the first. Add in some solid PK work from Tomas Nosek, and there were some positives to build off of for this bottom-six grouping. 

Charlie McAvoy: On a night in which a number of B’s blueliners struggled in Philly, Boston’s top defender stood tall. Along with logging 23:19 of ice time, McAvoy added two helpers in the second period, setting up Hall’s breakaway before bringing the puck down low and generating the sequence that led to Marchand’s equalizer at the time. 

THREE DOWN

Jeremy Swayman: Yes, some of the D-men in front of him didn’t do him any favors, but there were still far too many sequences throughout Wednesday’s game in which the rookie could have (and should have) kept the Flyers off the scoresheet. No need to hit the panic button, of course, but Swayman was very shaky all evening. 

Mike Reilly: When he’s on, Reilly is an effective puck-mover and great playdriver at 5v5 action. When he’s off … you get nights like tonight. A very ugly third period from the defenseman, who committed two neutral-zone miscues that directly led to tallies for Atkinson and Travis Konecny.

Derek Forbort: It’ll be interesting to see just how often the B’s keep Forbort separated from McAvoy, because the results next to Clifton on the third pair … weren’t all that great. Along with a poor pinch that directly led to Atkinson’s first goal of the night, Forbort regularly coughed up with the puck when it was on his stick.

PLAY OF THE GAME

LOOSE PUCKS

QUOTE OF NOTE

“It's losing hockey is what it is. It's how you lose games. You do dumb things & teams come back at you, and they finish. That's what happened.” - Bruce Cassidy

LOOKING AHEAD

 The Bruins will close out this short road trip on Friday night with a matchup against the Sabres at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.