The Boston Bruins’ homestand concluded with a date against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. The Bruins wanted to win this game to continue the momentum from their win against the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night. The Flyers came into Boston with something to prove and took the 2-0 victory.
The Bruins had their chances, but they failed to capitalize on them. The offense has been a mixed bag until this point, but given how the Flyers’ defense has looked, this was a prime opportunity for the Bruins to have success.
Bruins Generate, But Can’t Capitalize
Talk about a game of chances for the Bruins. It all started in the first period, when the Flyers got into penalty trouble. A cross-checking penalty by Scott Laughton was followed by a hooking penalty by Travis Sanheim denying David Pastrnak on a breakaway. This was the prime opportunity to pull away in the game and draw first blood. Instead, the Bruins’ power play was stagnant and did not do nearly enough to get by Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson. He slammed the door shut on the Bruins, pitching a shutout and finishing the game with 3.23 goals saved above expected.
It was not just the power play, which let them down in the game multiple times. When it came to a full head of steam effort, this game was the best that the Bruins showed across the board. They played with good energy and pace, while also generating good scoring chances. They took to the attack and feasted on a Flyers team that had not been the strongest defensively.
Through the course of the game, the Bruins not only controlled possession of the puck, but also dominated in scoring chances. From a five-on-five standpoint, they dominated the expected goals share. However, they could not break through the Flyers defense or Ersson.
The Flyers’ defense did a great job of getting into shooting lanes and blocking shots. In fact, they held the Bruins to just three shots on goal the entire third period. That’s unacceptable for the Bruins and not playing desperate enough in the final frame. For the Bruins, they had the effort and the looks, but not the results. It’s been a common theme this season and head coach Jim Montgomery did not hold back on the team’s capitalization efforts.
After the conclusion of the game, Montgomery touched on the performance of the team from an offensive standpoint.
“It’s not good enough. We’re not doing enough to generate high-danger scoring chances. We’re all culpable for not coming out with a victory.”
In all situations, the Bruins generated 12 high-danger attempts, with only five reaching the net. That’s simply not going to get it done. This is a team that under Montgomery has taken the quality over quantity approach, but has simply not achieved that either.
Joonas Korpisalo Shines in Net
It was the right call by Montgomery to start Joonas Korpisalo in this game. The Bruins travel to Raleigh, North Carolina to take on the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, so having Jeremy Swayman start that game makes sense. Also, this was the first time in two weeks that Korpisalo had seen the crease. You didn’t know what to expect with that kind of time off, but Korpisalo was sharp right from the start.
The Flyers came out flying to start the game, generating the game’s first four shots on goal. Korpisalo made the save of the game, getting the pad over and stopping what was a sure goal. He was like that all game long, as he was tracking the puck well and made key saves on breakaways. Korpisalo looked comfortable and was the best Bruin on the ice.
Related: Flyers’ Samuel Ersson Stands Tall in 2-0 Win vs. Bruins
Korpisalo did his part and finished with a .944 save percentage and a 1.17 goals saved above expected. He faced few quality shots, as the Bruins did a good job keeping the Flyers away from the high-danger areas of the ice.
This was a good enough performance by Korpisalo to win this game, but with the offense not coming through they take a painful loss instead.
Turn the Page and Be Better
This was not an ideal performance by the Bruins. This is a Flyers defense that played a John Tortorella brand of hockey to the tee and the Bruins failed to make any adjustments to it. The Bruins were good enough to win, but failure to execute and generate more quality chances did them no good. Great for Korpisalo and his confidence, as he looked sharp in this game, which is encouraging.
The Bruins are going to need a much better effort heading into the next game. The team they are playing is a dominant hockey team, that’ll feast on a team like the Bruins if they are not sharp.
