GOLD STAR: Philippe Myers was something special for the Flyers in his first postseason experience. Myers clinched the game for Philly when he scored a goal eight seconds after the Bruins had halved the Flyers lead to 2-1 in the second period. Myers rifled one past Jaroslav Halak from long range and that truly deflated the B’s when it looked like they were just working to get back into the contest. Myers was dominant beyond the screaming slap shot, however, and finished with a game-high five shots on net and nine shot attempts overall in his 17:51 of ice time to go along with a couple of hits, a blocked shot and a plus-3 rating. Several of Philly’s role players and young guys played well for them in this game, and Myers was definitely one of them.
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BLACK EYE: Where were Boston’s best players? The B’s Perfection Line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak combined for just one shot on goal apiece until late into the game and were on the ice for a couple of goals against in a truly atrocious showing. Bergeron was active for the Bruins and was more of a factor at both ends of the ice throughout, but Pastrnak and Marchand both played passive, uninvolved games where it looked like they didn’t want to shoot the puck. As we’ve learned in the playoffs for the B’s over the last couple of seasons, Boston doesn’t have much chance at success when their top guys play that way against a good team. Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak finished a combined minus-8. Yikes.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins got a blue collar fourth line goal from Chris Wagner after he banged home a shot off a skate in front of the Philly net and it looked like they were beginning to dig themselves out after falling behind by a 2-0 score. But then the B’s had a breakdown off the next face-off when Zdeno Chara turned a puck over and then fell down to the ice, and that opened up the ice for the Flyers counter-attack. Phillippe Myers skated to the open space and blew a slapshot top corner right on past Jaroslav Halak for a backbreaking goal that put the B’s back behind by a pair of scores. From that point on, the B’s did very little offensively and couldn’t get on the scoreboard.
HONORABLE MENTION: Probably the best player on the ice for the Bruins was Charlie Coyle, and he centered their best line with Anders Bjork and Karson Kuhlman. Coyle was fast, strong and physical with his play and had five shot attempts along with three hits in 21:34 of ice time. It’s along the same lines as Coyle’s efforts last postseason for Boston where he was consistently one of their best players with his speed/strength game really playing into the postseason. Bjork and Coyle had some of the best scoring chances for the Bruins and Bjork drew a couple of penalties while the third line was really humming, so it wasn’t Coyle all by himself. That being said, the Bruins are going to be in tough shape if their third line is their best line in most of these playoff games.
BY THE NUMBERS: 76 – the number of consecutive playoff starts with the Bruins for Tuukka Rask that was snapped when he didn’t feel well and couldn’t play Sunday afternoon against the Flyers.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “I’m thinking we need to make a better friggen’ play with the puck and that’s what I’m thinking. We need to make better plays with the puck.” –Bruce Cassidy, on what he was thinking of some of the plays that transpired in the loss to Philadelphia.