Flyers give up 6 more goals, drop to 0-2-0 in challenging 7-game stretch

Flyers give up 6 more goals, drop to 0-2-0 in challenging 7-game stretch originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers continued to leak defensively in a 6-5 loss Saturday night to the Bruins at TD Garden.

A 2-2 game was turned on its head when Boston ripped off three goals in the first 4:04 minutes of the third period.

John Tortorella’s club twice cut the deficit to one but couldn’t complete the comeback. Tortorella was back behind the bench after serving his two-game suspension.

With two goals, Joel Farabee led the way for the Flyers (34-26-8). Ryan Poehling, Nicolas Deslauriers and Morgan Frost also found the back of the net, while Owen Tippett finished with three assists.

The Flyers, depleted on the back end, are surrendering goals at a concerning rate. Without their former second defensive pair of Sean Walker (traded) and Nick Seeler (injured), the Flyers have gone 2-3-0 and allowed 22 goals (4.40 per game).

They’re also missing defensemen Jamie Drysdale (upper body) and Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body).

The Flyers have dropped both of their meetings with the Bruins (40-14-15), allowing six goals in each defeat. Since the 2021-22 season, the Flyers are 1-7-0 against Boston and have been outscored 38-21.

• Tortorella’s team is 0-2-0 two games into this grueling stretch of seven straight against bona-fide contenders. The Flyers have yielded 12 goals over the two losses.

They’re having to rely heavily on Cam York and Travis Sanheim.

Marc Staal was a minus-1 in 9:09 minutes against the Bruins. Erik Johnson was a minus-4 in the Flyers’ 6-2 loss Thursday to the Maple Leafs. The two veterans have been flanked by youngsters in Ronnie Attard and Egor Zamula.

Seeler has been considered week to week. His return would provide the Flyers much-needed stability and allow them to allocate minutes more properly.

Here are the Flyers’ next five games:

vs. TOR
at CAR
vs. BOS
vs. FLA
at NYR

After winning four straight out of the extended break, the Flyers have gone 5-7-2. They still hold a playoff spot in third place of the Metropolitan Division. They’re three points up on the Islanders and Capitals. Both teams have played two fewer games than the Flyers.

• Making his second start of the season and the 25th of his career, Felix Sandstrom stopped 24 of Boston’s 30 shots.

He made some huge saves in the second period to keep it a 2-2 game going into the final stanza.

The goal he’d probably want back was Danton Heinen‘s, which cushioned the Bruins’ lead to 6-4 not even two minutes after Frost pulled the Flyers within one. Sandstrom saw Heinen’s shot and the Flyers needed a save.

Boston netminder Jeremy Swayman stopped 24 of the Flyers’ 29 shots.

• Deslauriers and Cam Atkinson drew into the lineup for Bobby Brink and Denis Gurianov.

Deslauriers scored his first goal of the season to draw the Flyers within 5-3. He played 8:32 minutes.

Atkinson was a minus-1 with three shots in 11:31 minutes.

• James van Riemsdyk was honored in a pregame ceremony for reaching 1,000 career NHL games. He hit the milestone earlier this month and saw 527 of those games come over two stints with the Flyers.

The veteran winger signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the Bruins in the offseason.

“He was a really good example for our young guys as far as the dedication, taking care of himself off the ice, putting in the time on the ice,” Flyers general manager Danny Briere said last July, “working on the stuff that made him special.”

• The Flyers are scheduled to practice Monday at 11 a.m. ET in Voorhees, New Jersey before hosting the Maple Leafs again on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

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