Post Game Notes: Flyers vs Bruins

After the Boston Bruins snapped the Flyers 9 game winning streak to end the regular season back in March, the Flyers seemed to come into today’s game with revenge on their minds.

The Bruins came out strong in the first period, seemingly winning around race to the puck and winning most physical altercations. The Bruins would go on to out shoot the Flyers 12-6 in the period but Carter Hart was locked in, turning aside all 12 shots with relative ease.

Power-play opportunities were 2-1 in favor of the Flyers with one carrying over into the second period. The Flyers didn’t look bad, it seemed to me they were trying to weather Boston’s storm as they had seemed to find their legs a little quicker than the Flyers.

The second period was a typical Alain Vigneault coached 2nd period as the Flyers really took control 5-10 minutes into the period with fourth liners Michal Raffl and Nate Thompson tallying goals in that span. Even though Boston managed to score a lucky one, which I might add would be the only way they were going to score on Hart today, the Flyers were quick to answer when rookie phenom Phil Myers sniped a wrist shot over the shoulder of Jaroslav Halak to put the Flyers back up by 2 just 8 seconds later.

It was in this period where you really noticed the Flyers depth has the 4th line seemed to be in the Boston’s zone each time they were out on the ice and they were rewarded with 2 not so 4th line looking goals. Robert Hagg also made many key defensive plays to frustrate Boston’s offense and keep the Flyers in front.

In the 3rd period the Flyers completely took this game over. For me this was a typical trade mark 2019-20 Flyers game from start to finish as they weathered the storm in period 1, took the game from Boston in the 2nd, and finishing the opposition off in the 3rd.

Scotty Laughton made it 4-1 early in the 3rd and Boston never really had much fight in them after that. It should be mentioned that Boston’s top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak were shut out by the Flyers top line of Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, and Jake Voracek and finished with a combined -7, woof.

For the game, 21 year old Carter Hart made 34 saves on 35 shots and the goal against came with a deflection off Robert Hagg’s skate. The kid was 100% locked in today and if this is the Hart we’re going to have from here on out, then my friends, we are in for a long playoff run.

Before I get to the 3 players who really stood out to me let me just mentioned players like Nicolas Aube-Kubel. This kid is a bowling ball and I really enjoying watching the kid play as he somewhat reminds me a bit of Scott Laughton, a perfect 3rd line player on this squad and I look forward to watching his role expand. The entire second line played well and they needed to if the top lines were going to cancel each other out as they seemed to do, Laughton, Hayes, and Konecny play very well together and I’d like to see those guys out there more often.

The Myers and Sanheim pairing really shined and seeminly have the tools to be an elite defensive pairing, keep in mind they’re also the Flyers 2nd defensive pairing at the moment.

The Flyers 4th line was absolutely rolling against Boston as it would seem Head Coach Alain Vigneault made the right call dressing Nate Thompson over Joel Farabee against a big physical Bruins squad, go figure.

Now for the 3 standout players. First and foremost Carter Hart Holy cow is this kid good. As good as the Flyers played in front of in they don’t win that game without him. He’s an absolute unquestionable stud number 1 goalie and he’s ours.

Nate Thompson played extremely well I thought and was rewarded with a goal in his 13 minutes of ice time and was also able to pick up 2 hits and 3 blocks while winning 63% of his face-offs. If Nate can show up and play like this nightly it’ll be a huge addition for this young and potentially unexperienced roster.

My third choice is Phil Myers. This kid is an absolute beast. He’s strong as a bull as shown by repeatedly punishing opposition players in his own zone and he skates like the wind flying into the oppositions defensive zone as shown with his wicked hard snipe job late in the 2nd.

In all, it’s impossible not to be excited for this Flyers future after completely dominating the NHL’s best regular season team and last years Eastern Conference Champion. Next up is Washington on Thursday whom the Flyers played very well during the regular season and another victory would put the Flyers in the driver seat to win that number 1 overall spot for the playoffs.

Follow Jim Iacovone on Twitter @JimIkeHW

Header Photo Credit: NHL.com