NHL Playoffs: Philadelphia Flyers Mauled By Boston Bruins, Down 3-0 in Series

A sad reality is slowly creeping into the minds of Flyers fans from coast-to-coast—their Stanley Cup dreams are over, at least for this season.

Devastated by injuries to Ray Emery, Michael Leighton, Ian Laperriere, Jeff Carter, and Simon Gagne, the Flyers have simply run out of bodies with which to compete with the surging Boston Bruins. Truth be told, the Flyers are over their heads against the Bruins, as witnessed by the Bruins 3-0 lead in the series.

Game three started off perfectly for the Flyers when Arron Asham scored the first goal just 02:32 into the first period. The goal ignited the fans and gave hope to the Flyers that they could pull off a game three victory.

Sadly, for the Flyers and their fans, victory was not to be. The Bruins responded to Asham’s goal just under two minutes later when Blake Wheeler tipped-in a shot past Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher.

Just under 1:45 later, Bruins forward Miroslav Satan backhanded a shot past Boucher, deflating the Flyers crowd. The goal would stand up as the game winner, although the Flyers were far from done.

Philadelphia would pepper Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask with a total of 35 shots throughout the game—including 15 shots in the second period, but Rask stood on his head, turning away the Flyers at every opportunity.

The second period would end with neither team scoring, the third period would be a different story.

Once again, the Flyers would out-shoot the Bruins, this time by a 8-3 margin, but the Bruins would make the most of their opportunities scoring twice on three shots, including the Bruins third goal of the game at 02:30 of the third period from the ageless Mark Recchi—who is having a heck of a playoff.

In an effort to pull even with the Bruins Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette pulled out all the stops in this game, even going so far as to pull his goaltender from the nets with over two minutes to play in the third period.

The move would not pay off as Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn was picked off by Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron trying to get out of the Flyers zone. Bergeron quickly deposited the puck into the empty net and just like that the Flyers were down by three goals in the game and three games in the series.

Philly played a very disciplined game as they only took two penalties on the night. They out-shot the Bruins, dictated the play for most of the game and did not take a shift off—still, it simply wasn’t enough.

As I mentioned in my last article, the Flyers are simply out of gas. The Bruins may have lost some battles but (with the exception of the first two and a half minutes of the game) you never got the feeling that the Flyers had the momentum in the game.

Tuukka Rask was full-value for the win. He has been next to unbeatable throughout the playoffs and, in many peoples mind, has established himself as the leading candidate for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL’s top playoff performer.

For the Flyers to beat Rask and the Bruins four straight would be a monumental task, one that, with all their injuries, will be next to impossible for the Flyers to achieve.

Sorry Flyers fans, the fat lady is warming up and she’s about to belt out a song any game now—your playoff run is over...

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Until next time,

Peace!