The Boston Bruins don’t have to wait long for their shot at revenge against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Four days after getting shut out by the Flyers on their home ice, the Bruins hope to return the favor when they visit Philadelphia for a Saturday matinee.
On Tuesday evening, the Flyers rode a 23-save performance from Samuel Ersson to a 2-0 victory over Boston. Tyson Foerster scored in the second period and Joel Farabee added an empty-net goal for Philadelphia.
The Flyers carried that momentum into Thursday’s home game against the St. Louis Blues, as they skated away with a 2-1 victory in that contest with Ersson playing a starring role once again. The Swedish netminder made 20 saves against St. Louis as Philadelphia improved to 2-1-0 since the team’s six-game losing streak (0-5-1).
“We cannot be satisfied,” Ersson said. “We know we’re getting some wins now, but we’ve got to keep playing like this too. We see the effort level, what it’s got to be for us to get results.”
Bobby Brink scored the game-winning goal for the Flyers in the win over the Blues, redirecting a pass from Farabee into the net with just over three minutes remaining.
“I’m happy for Bobby Brink,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said, adding that the forward’s work on the decisive goal was “a really good offensive play.”
While Brink was able to celebrate his second goal of the young season, several of his teammates still are searching for their offensive touch. Owen Tippett has only one goal, while Scott Laughton has two (both of which came in the same game) and Morgan Frost has yet to find the back of the net.
“We’ll get out of it,” Tortorella said. “Some of these better offensive guys will get out of it, and we’ll be a better team for it, if we just stay within our structure.”
Meanwhile, the Bruins have dropped five of their last six games (1-4-1), including a couple of particularly ugly defeats. They were hammered by the Carolina Hurricanes 8-2 on Thursday as they allowed four first-period goals, including three in a span of 52 seconds.
“Their puck pressure gave us a lot of problems,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “The bottom line is, it doesn’t matter what facet of our game it was, it wasn’t good enough. Right now, nobody is happy with what’s going on. It starts by sticking together and working. There’s no substitute for second and third effort.”
Montgomery mixed up the lines to try to find an offensive spark for his team, which has registered a total of nine goals over the last six contests.
“Monty’s just trying to get us going,” star winger David Pastrnak said. “… Personally, I have no problem with it. I can read off anybody. Right now, it’s not about the combinations. We are not good enough as a team and that’s where it starts.”
Pastrnak has scored a team-high six goals this season but hasn’t tallied in the last two games. Nobody else on Boston has more than three goals on the season.
“The compete level needs to be way higher,” Pastrnak said. “Details, that’s what’s going to get us out of there.”
