The Flyers jumped out of the gate tonight. James van Riemsdyk scored the game’s first goal a mere 29 seconds into the game. Nine minutes later, van Riemsdyk would score again to give the Flyers a two-goal lead.
But more defensive failures led to the Bruins first goal of the game. Michael Ryder was able to skate past Andrej Meszaros, Sean O`Donnell, and Mike Richards to set up right in front of Boucher, getting a couple whacks at the puck before Chris Kelly beat James van Riemsdyk to the slot to put the rebound past Brian Boucher.
Boston tied the game less than 90 seconds later on a goal that Boucher would want to have back. But the Flyers are going to have to play better in front of him again. That might be more difficult as the game goes on as Peter Laviolette is relying heavily on his top-4 defensemen – as expected. The Flyers’ 3rd pairing got less than 3 minutes of ice time in that period, putting the top-4 on pace for between 22 and 27 minutes.
The good news is that Mike Richards matched up against the Bruins’ top line, but the bad news is he spent less than half is time against them. The good news is that Danny Briere has gotten away from the Bruins’ top line, but the bad news is that they are still being smothered by Zdeno Chara.