Bruins dominate stretches but fall short in Philly

Quick recap

The Bruins lost to the Flyers in Philadelphia last night, 3-2 in a shootout. The game ended in the 9th round of the shootout when D Shayne Gostisbehere beat Tuukka Rask and Steve Mason turned aside David Backes.

Your Bruin goalscorers were David Krejci (3) and Brad Marchand (7). Rask made 19 saves.

The Bruins out shot the Flyers, 47-21, and had 36 (!) more shot attempts than Philly (89-53). While the Bruins were ultimately done in by their own lapses in a two-minute span of the first period, it’s not a stretch to say that Steve Mason “saved Philly’s bacon,” to borrow a Jack Edwards line.

Game notes

• This was a fun game to watch. Whether it’s because both teams are prone to mistakes and play was wide-open as a result, or it’s because there’s a lot of high-end talent on each team’s top lines is open to debate. But there were chances galore, particularly in overtime. Say what you will about the Bruins and Flyers teams, but when they get together, it’s rarely boring.
• David Pastrnak. Man. He didn’t score last night, but looked far and away the most dangerous player on the ice for long stretches of the game. He was about as electric as one can be without scoring in the overtime period, making the Flyers look silly on multiple occasions (sorry, Matt Read). The kid is fun to watch.
• Tuukka Rask deserved a better result, but Steve Mason stood on his head. I don’t know what to make of Mason. He seems to teeter between being an elite goalie and being a guy on his way out of the league. The latter is probably bolstered by the defense in front of him not exactly being super stout. When he’s on his game like he was last night, he’s tough to beat.
• Speaking of the overtime period, good on the referees for letting the teams play. Brad Marchand and Wayne Simmonds worked each other over in the corner at one end, Simmonds mad that Marchand didn’t get called for a trip/hook, Marchand mad that Simmonds held his stick as he lay on the ice. Coming up the other way, Simmonds hit Marchand well after the play on what I originally thought should’ve been a penalty; turns out Marchand had buzzed Mason’s tower and knocked the goal stick out of his hands a few seconds earlier. Carry on!
• While we’re on the refs topic, they certainly didn’t have a perfect knight. Pastrnak’s embellishment call was a reach at best, and Matt Beleskey having his stick snapped in two on a scoring chance slipped by. I’ve never understood the point of calling both the trip and the dive. If it’s a dive, call the dive. If it’s a trip, call the trip, unless there’s a tumbling handstand with a flourish at the end.
• Claude Julien essentially did away with the fourth line midway through last night’s game. Ryan Spooner briefly got bumped up to a line with David Backes and Krejci, but that was toward the tail end of the game. Otherwise, the fourth line skaters saw minimal TOI 5v5: Jimmy Hayes skated a team-low 6:26, Dominic Moore saw 8:56 at even strength and Spooner saw 8:07, including the brief spell with the Davids.
• I’m not sure what the reasoning was, as the 4th line created a couple of great chance in the first period and didn’t allow any goals. In fact, Hayes was the Bruins’ 5th-best possession forward 5v5 (66%), while Spooner (64%) and Moore (64%) weren’t exactly slouches either. Chalk it up to Claude playing a hunch, I guess. Don’t be surprised if that line looks different tomorrow night.
• The whole night was a good one possession-wise for the Bruins, but for the Davids and Tim Schaller in particular: all three were above 80% CF 5v5.
• Radko Gudas somehow managed to not make a dirty play. Progress!

Up next

Bruins vs. Hurricanes, tomorrow night at the Garden (7 PM)