Why is a team that made the playoffs last season off to an 0-3-2 start? Today’s matinee in which the Boston Bruins are hosting the Philadelphia Flyers should provide some clues, regardless of the outcome. Every generation of living Bruins fans knows Saturday matinees tend to bring out the worst in the home team, and the Bruins survived early doldrums before getting to their puck movement and launching an attack on former Bruins prospect Dan Vladar that finally yielded the game’s first goal midway through the first period when Vladar tried to intercept Pavel Zacha’s shot that was heading wide of the left post until it caromed awkwardly off Vladar’s extended right pad, squirmed underneath the Philly starter and trickled across the goal line for a 1-0 Boston lead.
With 15:30 expired, the Bruins held a 10-3 shots-on-goal advantage. Ironically, Zacha’s shot counts as one because it wound up in the Flyers’ net.
Off-topic observations: Will Borgen likes to pass the puck from a standing position a la the great Chris Pronger (only defenseman to win the Hart Trophy since Bobby Orr). Borgen doesn’t have Pronger’s strength, but the right shot defenseman seems to see the ice well and make solid choices with his headman passes. Casey Mittelstadt made a nice move to give himself a lane for a backhand shot on Vladar early in the game. The attempt while formidable was not successful, but Mittelstadt’s willingness to backhand the puck can only help him. The great Sidney Crosby doesn’t need today’s stick technology to flick a backhand with power and accuracy – neither did Torey Krug when he played here – but it is surprising that coaches are asking their players to get the puck to the forehand for the sake of leverage on the shot.
The Bruins had more easy zone entries in the first period of this game vs. Philadelphia than we saw in six playoff games against Buffalo, and the second period already looks like a powerplay (the Bruins had a shift like this late in the second period).
Philly legend Rick Tocchet cannot be this desensitized to the lack of tenacity in his forward group or the mammoth gap being kept by his D’s when the Bruins recover pucks in their own end of the rink.
More of the same in the second period, pressure by the Bruins sustained to the tune of a 19-3 shots advantage seven minutes into the second period.
The Flyers are getting a penalty: old friend Noel Acciari for holding the stick at 6:55 of the second. Bruins to the powerplay (they’ve been on one for 27 minutes).
