BSJ Game Report: Bruins 4, Flyers 1 - Ullmark, strong 3rd period lifts B’s to 10th straight win at TD Garden

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-1 win over the Flyers, with BSJ insight and analysis:

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

Ullmark bails out sluggish showing from B’s: Two points might be two points at the end of the night — but it sure feels like the Bruins will want to burn a good portion of the game tape following their 4-1 victory over the Flyers at TD Garden. 

The B’s have already hit rough stretches throughout the 2022-23 campaign when it comes to their details, but Thursday’s matchup against Philly was a particularly ugly slog for most of the evening, with poor puck play — especially from Boston's D corps — leading to a slew of turnovers and miscues that had the B’s treading water in their own zone. 

Of course, had the Flyers boasted a much more imposing forward corps, perhaps more of those turnovers and Grade-A chances could have found themselves in the back of Boston’s net.

But, in what has been a familiar trend all season long, Linus Ullmark stood as the great equalizer for the B’s in their own zone — with the netminder turning aside all seven high-danger scoring chances that came his way en route to Boston’s 10th straight victory on home ice this season. 

Even though Boston eventually put this contest away in the third period thanks to tallies from Jake DeBrusk and David Krejci (twice), things were pretty tight for most of the evening — with a second-period tally from Tomas Nosek standing as the lone bright spot in what was otherwise a pretty unsurprising first 40 minutes of play. 

Again, the Bruins are getting the goaltending from Ullmark and the depth scoring to stay afloat and grind out wins even when they’re putting forth their B-game. 

But sooner or later, one of these sleepwalking showings is going to catch up to this team. Perhaps that’s just the inevitable regression that comes with Boston’s scorching start, but a lot of Boston’s misfortunes in the early going of Thursday’s game were self-inflicted — and easily correctable. 

David Krejci gets rolling: Aside from Ullmark’s brilliance between the pipes once again, the B’s were also buoyed by the fact that their second-line center in Krejci broke through with a dominant showing in the top-six unit. 

Along with his two goals — one on the power play off a slick feed from Nick Foligno and a 5v5 tally off of a fantastic individual effort from Pavel Zacha — Krejci was solid in Boston’s own zone, with Boston holding a 22-10 edge in shot attempts during Krejci’s 15:25 of 5v5 ice time. 

FOUR UP

Linus Ullmark: This game could have gone off the rails in the early going had it not been for Ullmark — who stopped 22 of the 23 shots that came his way in the win. During the two-plus weeks in which the Bruins were without Jeremy Swayman, Ullmark went out and posted a 5-1-0 record. Casual.

Tomas Nosek: After going 65 games between goals, Nosek is now starting to heat up, with the B’s fourth-line pivot scoring in two-straight games and now in the midst of a four-game point streak.

David Krejci: After a bit of a sluggish stretch following his return from an upper-body injury, Krejci dominated back in the top-six unit on Thursday, displaying that two-way skillset that can (and should) continue to lift this entire forward corps. 

Pavel Zacha: A bit of an underrated cog in Boston’s middle-six grouping, Zacha has continued to impress Jim Montgomery with his playmaking talents and ability to battle through contact. Krejci’s first goal of the evening was a direct result of Zacha out-muscling Ivan Provarov and serving him a puck on a silver platter.

ONE DOWN 

Matt Grzelcyk: In what was a particularly sloppy start for Boston, Grzelcyk was a repeat offender with some costly miscues with the puck. He might owe Ullmark a brew or two after a game like tonight.

PLAY OF THE GAME

 LOOSE PUCKS

The goalie hug is back.

 LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will wrap up their current homestand on Saturday night when they battle the Blackhawks. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.