Bruins-Flyers recap: Agostino leads the Bruins to another win

The Bruins and Flyers played a perfectly preseason game on Thursday night: passes were sloppy, penalties were plentiful and the game was, at times, painful to watch.

However, it ended in beautiful fashion, with Kenny Agostino deking the pants off of Alex Lyon to give the Bruins a 2-1 OT win and keep them perfect in the preseason.

The winner:

Paul Postma scored the other Bruin goal just over a minute after Travis Sanheim scored to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead early in the third period.

Some observations from preseason game #3:

• Tuukka Rask looked great in net. Making his first preseason appearance, Rask stopped 30 Philly shots. He made several sparkling saves, including a doorstep stop on Wayne Simmonds in the first period and shutting down Valtteri Filppula on an overtime breakaway. Sure, he allowed one goal, but it was on a bit of a wonky, knuckling shot. It happens. For his first appearance, it certainly was encouraging.
• From an officiating standpoint, this game was a complete mess. The two teams combined for 15 penalties. 15!!!!! That means close to half the game was played at something other than 5v5. Come on.
• Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand didn’t miss a beat. The duo was dangerous all night, and Anders Bjork added a little bit of an extra spark. Bratrice should be ready for another big year.
• Ryan Spooner had some interesting comments in the locker room after the game. He was asked about his 200-foot game, and rather than say it was “fine” or something, he said he thought he got caught a couple times and needed to work on it. He added that he put on some muscle this offseason and was trying to become a more hard-nosed player. Spooner seems like a guy who has bought into what the Bruins are asking him to do, at least in words. It remains to be seen if he can translate it into on-ice performance.
• Spooner also had a lot to say about the new faceoff rules. Faceoffs were an area of focus for him in the offseason, and he said the players got no warning about the new rule. In fact, he said he didn’t know about the new rule until just before the first game against Montreal, when one of the referees stopped by to tell the players what to expect. Spooner spent about five minutes talking with two reporters about the nuances of winning faceoffs and why the new rules may hamper his style. It was thoughtful, insightful stuff from Spooner, who’s normally known as one of the more reserved Bruins.
• Jesse Gabrielle continues to morph into Brad Marchand Lite. Gabrielle took a penalty early in the first on a late hit, and then got a misconduct for mouthing off to the refs in the third. However, he also had a couple of quality scoring chances, took the body frequently and, according to Bruce Cassidy, was frustrating a few Flyers with his style of play. It remains to be seen what happens to Gabrielle this season, but he insists he’s ready to play at this level.
• Cassidy was frank when asked about the defensive depth after the game. With Torey Krug’s injury, Cassidy is going to have to dip into the defensive pool. He admitted that the defensive depth isn’t really as inspiring as the depth at forward, but thought guys like Paul Postma, Rob O’Gara, Tommy Cross and Jeremy Lauzon might be ready to fill in.
• Anton Blidh impressed tonight. He earned a few fans in Boston with his hard-nosed, borderline reckless style of play last year, but ultimately didn’t stick. However, he was all over the place tonight: throwing hits, picking off pucks and landing a shot on goal. He has a good chance of landing on the NHL roster at some point this season, and could be a great energy guy.

The Bruins are back in action Saturday night against the Red Wings in a game that will be broadcast on NHL Network and 98.5 The Sports Hub.